Kirby Filtration

[sptyks]

I'm quite sure the Tandem Riccars are the only clean air vacuums that have equal cleaning performance as the Kirby and Royal and also has HEPA filtration so they should also deserve a Gold rating.


 


My only problem with the Riccars is longevity since they are still mostly plastic despite some metal parts like soleplate and brushroll. I'm not sure that a Riccar will still be running 30 to 50 years from now.

 

[tolivac]

Side by side I have a Kirby Avalir and a new Royal Pro Elite-In terms of use at my home-not much diffrence.Of course the Kirby has many things over the Royal-Easier for attachments-and the Floor-carpet cleaner attachment that the Royal doesn't have.They sell a seperate machine for that.Royal now has Filtrete type bags similar to the Kirby now.One came in the Royal that I just obtained.The airflow in the Royal is now much improved over the old paper bags they used to use.They no longer use the Royal "A" bag-or the F&G bag.Royal now uses "B" bags only at this stage.And their HEPA Filtrete bags are under two brands Hoover "B" and Royal "B"They are packaged in the B HEPA two pack.Since these bags are large like the Kirby-they will take a long time to fill.-And you can fill them more than the paper bags.The Royal Pro Eleite I have has the 9A motor-its a little quieter than the 10A ones-There is NO diffrence in performance.Were only talking about 1A or 120W here.Its like the 65W amp vs the 70W one.The Royal machines are built in China.Still its to be determined how long these will last.Despite being built in China-someone has at least supervised the Chinese factory workers-its a nicely built machine.Kirbys of course are still built in the US.Their bags are built in--China.

 

[marcusprit]

The Tandem motor Riccars yes but they also give the Clean Air motor Riccars a Gold award.

 

[sptyks]

Rex, Thanks for filling us in on the latest Royal metal upright specs.


As far as cleaning goes, Royal and Kirby are about equal.


 

 

[fantomfan]

My Anniversary Edition Royal Outcleans any Kirby I've se

At least in my view, the Royal has more airflow and has MUCH stiffer bristles. I compared it to my Ultimate G, which had a new belt and a newer brushroll. With a new belt, the Royal pulls itself across my low piled carpet like it's self-propelled. It is also much lighter. For the Royals that have the F&G style bags, Koblenz makes HEPA cloth bags which will make them filter just fine.

 

[marcusprit]

I have a feeling Stan will have something to say about that. Haha

 

[sptyks]

Marcus, you're right, I do have something to say.


I have a Kirby sentria with the new extra stiff brushroll in it and it is a BEAST. I also have a Royal 2025 which is fully restored and it has a new brushroll with stiffeners so I know how each machine performs. The Sentria still out performs it. How do I know this?


 


About 6 months ago I did a test on my own medium height plush carpet with a cup of dry coffee grounds that I rubbed into the carpet with my hands for this test of the Sentria and Royal. I ran one pass forward and one pass back for each machine. To the naked eye it appears that both machines picked up just about all of the coffee. Then I got out my Kirby G3 and installed my Dirtmeter on it. I used white pads in the dirtmeter. I ran the G3 10 passes back and forth with the dirtmeter on it after the Royal. I then changed pads in the dirtmeter and ran another 10 passes after the Sentria test. The Royal had about 100 grains of coffee on it's pad. The Sentria had about 20 grains of coffee. This proves that both machines are about equal in performance with the Sentria maintaining a slight edge. If the Sentria had the standard soft brushroll installed, then the Royal would have probably won on this test. I didn't re-run the test with the soft brushroll in the Sentria.


 


It's nice to know that Kirby gives you a choice of brushrolls to use in your G5 thru Sentria II depending your type of carpet.


 


 

 

[tolivac]

If you have an older Royal that uses the FG bags you can get a B outer bag.Keep the original for display and the B one for use The performance will improve.