I Agree, Morgan!
Really powerful to begin with, and yes, the tools are much better made. The hose for instance, is practically indestructable--you can stretch it, twist it, step on it, bend it, tie it in knots, run over it with the car, and it just keeps bouncing back into shape. Then you have the wands, gracefully curved steel wands with vinyl ends that make it so much easier to get to the high and low spots than straight wands, and the attachments themselves having vinyl heads and steel shanks.
When I was selling Electro-Hygiene, the attachments were a big part of the demo. I banged the wands together and bounced the attachments off the floor to show how durable they were in addition to showing how much easier they made cleaning tasks.
Now don't get me wrong, I do love Kirbys too, but when a prospective customer would bring them up back in the day, I would always ask them as I was banging the wands, bouncing the tools, and stomping on the hose, what would happen if they did the same thing with Kirby tools. And I was always quick to point out that the Electro-Hygiene was as powerful and durable as the Kirby with the same warranty, better attachments, disposable bags, and more maneuverable, at about 1/3 the price.
Jeff