Kirby Split Second 1 & 2 pics and Questions

[honestjoe68]

Hi everybody!

I have only posted on the “Contemporary” thread as my entire vacuum collection (250 vacuums) are all models made within the last few years. But I found this by chance while googling something totally unrelated to vacuums. (Price of things in 1986)

Now I’ve only owned two Kirby’s in my life (a Kirby Generation 3 that I no longer own and a gorgeous Kirby Sentra 2 that I bought this year) so forgive me if everyone else has seen this or knows about it.. but I found the Kirby Heritage II with an attached, on board Split Second Hand Vac.. well, fascinating! Until I saw it I only knew of the Hoover Concept 2 having a separate hand vac attached or “Built Into” an upright vacuum.

Anyhow, I don’t know very much about it other than it’s battery powered and had a bracket to attach it to a Kirby Heritage 2 vacuum. Does anyone here know more? We’re these popular and demonstrated on the Kirby Heritage 2.. or did the reps simply mention it as an optional item?

How did it get it’s power to re-charge? Did it plug directly into the Kirby Heritage 2, like some adapter where the cord plugs into the body of the Heritage 2? Just curios and wondering if anyone here can share pictures of their own, attached Split Second (1 or 2) as it’s attached to their Heritage 2.

Anyone still have one attached to their Kirby H2? Any and all sharing and information would be fun and appreciated, as this is something different and unusual to me. Please include pictures if you own this!

Lastly... can anyone name ANY similar handheld attached to an upright vacuum example beyond the one I mentioned with a Hoover Concept 2 with Helpmate??

Thanks guys! Also, I hope it’s ok to post this under “Vintage” as I’m assuming this was sold around 1984 when the Kirby Heritage 2 was released. My apologies for the poor quality pictures, they were all I could find online.

Patrick

 

[texaskirbyguy]

As shown in the 3rd picture, the SS comes with a standard AC adapter.
Therefore you could use it as any other cordless vac, or mount the special bracket on the big Kirby to keep it handy when cleaning. You could even mount that bracket to the wall if desired.
In the early 90's, a version of the SS was made with a 12V cigar plug for car use. We got one as a gift for having an in-home demo of a Sentria. I still have it, still in the bag, never used.

 

[huskyvacs]

Very cool find! I'm wondering if those brackets are easy to find or if the brackets were sold with all Split Seconds regardless?

But I guess you would charge up the hand vac by itself, then when you were ready to vacuum, you would clip it onto the Kirby in case you found any debris to suck up that the Kirby could not reach in a situation where you didn't have the need to pull out the entire Kirby's toolkit. It is a really weird and awkward idea which is probabaly why it fell off the face of the earth.

I assume you could use both at once if you used a 2-way power tap and plugged the Kirby and the Split Second into it and then ran the Kirby on an extension cord, but yeah that would still be really awkward.

Thanks for showing this ad, HonestJoe! I will have to keep an eye out for this, since I do have a Heritage II myself and like hand vacs.

 

[hmc1981]

That’s a very nice H2! Congrats! I’ve yet to come across one that included the Split Second, and I’d love to see one with such a setup. Makes me think of the H1s that had the Turbo Groomer tool. I’ve looked everywhere and can not find one. I actually found out about that tool when I was Googling videos on certain attachments... There’s a guy demonstrating the use of the Turbo Groomer — in the background you can hear people shouting at him something along the lines of “why are you vacuuming the bathroom?!”

Anyhoo, if anyone reading this has (and is willing to sell) or know where to obtain a Turbo Groomer, I’m all ears!

 

[texaskirbyguy]

Husky,
You are correct about the awkwardness of a hand vac with a Kirby (if one bought the basic tool kit); I see why it never caught on. If people would use the tools first, then do the carpet last, there would be no flip-flopping attachments or the need for a hand vac. It would be like stopping the lawn mower to grab the string trimmer every time you cannot mow something...

HMC,
Isn't the 'turbo groomer' the same thing as the 'zipp brush'? The latter can be found all over ebay. The chrome ones would have been the early ones (pretty sure).

 

[hmc1981]

Turbo Groomer - for facial hair...

Not for grooming fabrics, the Turbo Groomer that came with the H1 to use as a beard trimmer. They are super difficult to find. It’d be neat to come across one in good working order. I think Whal made the blades for it.

 

[texaskirbyguy]

Thanks for the mind-joggle - I now remember it. The unpopularity of that device was why I had forgotten about it. Perhaps that was the idea seed for the 'flowbee'? There were a few other 'turbo' tools as well then, including the zipp brush and the turbo-sander. I have to say that I admire the creativity that went into all of the Kirby attachments!

 

[hmc1981]

Flowbee!

Oh gosh, I remember the flowbee! I also remember the commercial for it... if you sent in a money order, it was addressed to my home town, Albuquerque, NM. I used to think it was so cool that I was living in the city people got their flowbee from, lol!

Anyhoo, yeah it was a super short lived attachment, but honestly when you look at electric beard trimmers, a lot of them have a suction feature... I think Kirby was onto something but the inconvenience of having to attach your trimmer to the vacuum is something I totally understand. I would like to have one though. It’d be neat to give it a spin... here’s a link to a video I found of some random guy using it...





http://https//m.youtube.com/watch?v=TyBZlY5LlLY