Kirby Tradition Bag Conversion

[dandagreer]

Hello everyone; new to posting but I've been lurking for some time.

I'll start out by saying, I've been a Kirby lover my whole life. My Mom acquired my Great Grandparent's Kirby Sanitronic VII when I was about 8 years old and it was love at first sight! I've been a Kirby fan ever since. Come to find out years later, it was a FrankenKirby bojack, replaced with red trim and a red F&G bag conversion. But I ended up taking it to college and it served my family for 20 years. Anyway....

Last year I rescued a Tradition from the curb; it was sadly tarnished, rusted and a general mess. It had been left in the sun for long periods of time. The bag and handle were both badly UV faded. I ended up cleaning it up, polishing it, washing the outside bag, and replacing the brush roll and it has worked well since then. I ended up taking it to work and it has been the primary vacuum for six months now.

My only gripe was the old Style 1 bags. I used "genuine" Kirby bags; but it seemed no matter how hard I tried, the bag ended up leaking. Every time I would go to change the bag, the cloth outer bag would be filthy on the inside and full of dust and yuck. Bleh!

Having had enough, I decided it was time to order a new outer bag since the original was so faded. After having read here about a conversion to the new fill tube allowing the ability to use Hepa bags, I thought I'd make an attempt.

I ordered a Fill Tube assembly for a Heritage 1HD, #189881 ($20); a second-hand G4 top bag adapter ($9); and a new outer bag, #190079 ($40).

The old Tradition paper bag adapter came out easily enough. I inserted the plastic adapter from the Heritage in, marked the holes, and drilled the emptor to receive the screws to hold the emptor adapter in place (you can see the bottom screw in one of the pictures). Once tightened, it sealed quite nicely against the lip of the emptor (I was very pleased with that). Now, getting the outer bag back on over the emptor...that was a PAIN! My fingers are still sore trying to stretch that thing out over the lip. Finally managed to wrangle it back on.

Once I got everything back together, I took her for a test run. I simply could not believe the difference in the suction. It's like a brand new vacuum. I'm so pleased!

For anyone considering this mod for your Tradition, it's worth it. So happy to be able to use the Hepa bags now. No more mess!

My next project? Picking up a Classic III that I found on Craigslist. So much fun!

 

[dandagreer]

New Hepa Bag

All pretty and clean

 

[dandagreer]

Fill tube...

...and G4 Adapter

 

[dandagreer]

Adapter...

Here's where the HD1 adapter goes into the emptor. You can see the bottom screw I drilled a hole in the emptor for. The fit was perfect.

 

[briankirbyclass]

Welcome and very nice job on your Tradition! Yes, it can sure get addicting rescuing these old machines.
I bet you could find a new blue handle for your Tradition easily,,thats one of the great things about a Kirby. Parts are generally very easy to get, even for the older machines. Specialty parts may be harder, but for general, run of the vac parts,,they are easily avalible.

There are many awsome members of this group that can help you obtain parts here too.

 

[modigmiller]

Kirby Neophyte

After reading this post I thought perhaps I could get an answer to a question of mine. After purchasing a Kirby Model R for $1 I have become a kirby addict. I was given a Kirby Classic Omega from a friend with all the attachments but the bag has a hole in the bottom that is quite substantial. I would actually like to use this vacuum at home - can anyone suggest to me how to replace the bag and perhaps what I need to do a similar conversion as above where is uses vacuum filter bags inside the outer bag?

Also - I was given a two more rug renovator kits and an extra accessory kit, though they are pretty dirty and will happily give these to anyone if they are willing to pay shipping.

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

Is this Tradition an early production model (serial no. F499999 or lower)? Reason I am asking is because I think I see a locking headlight cap button... which would also explain the presence of the original speed switch (inside headlight) and a 10-blade metal fan.

~Ben

 

[dandagreer]

>Kirby Neophyte

You can get a replacement bag for the Classic; but you'd need to have a zipper installed. Any seamstress with a heavy duty sewing machine could do it. Then you could use the method I used with the same parts. You would just need to acquire a Tradition emptor then detach the brown bottom piece from yours and use on the Tradition emptor.

 

[dandagreer]

>Ben

This is a later model Tradition; the speed switch is below the intake and there is no suction relief on the rug nozzle.

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

David,

That is true... but even on the earlier machines, the Classic Omega/III speed switch is also used on those batch of machines when converted, since the original speed switch that was mounted on the inside of the headlight cap was somewhat troublesome since several Kirby users often jammed the headlight cap which eventually led to wear and tear on those internals, causing the switch to go into high (hose) mode all the time.

~Ben