My birthday present - Kirby Tradition

[chestermikeuk]

Tradition...& Happy Birthday!!!

Hi Patrick, thats one very nice birthday present, looks straight from the showroom all buffed up, for its size it sure is a quiet vac and very sturdy, the original bag that was with mine was frayed, and I replaced it with the more durable later style bag, ( I do have an original for authenticity), but love using this as a daily driver... Do you have other Kirby vacs as well??

The Tradition was my first vac when I started collecting....I had always been interested in electricals being in the trade since school, but was only in 2000, when I went to a house sale looking for a log burner that I got hooked, the fire had gone, but on the way out was this shiny big vac, loads of boxes & instructions, £35, so I ran home and went searching on the web for spares, came across vacwebforum as was, and Classic Appliances, now AW.org, the rest is history, my partner curses at the vac every time he sees it, knowing "It Was The Start" of the collecting bug...LOl

 

[sukething]

Patrick that is awsome..

Congrats on your vacuum and your birthday of course. I do love this particular Kirby. My parents bought one brand new (the first edition) with the funky safty switch in the top of the light hood. My parents were so happy (especially my father) due it having a paper bag. I am very fond of blue and of course love these machines. I have a nice machine in my collection now but not the same machine as my parents had it is later like yours I believe.

Last Sunday afternoon Reggie and I went thrift store shopping and he found a blue tradition in the box shampooer for the model he has, which is the one like my parents had with the safty switch in the light hood.

Reggie also got me a beautiful Hoover Dustette (Brown) in amazing shape and runs so very quiet, also with orginial cord and the Hoover plug. He got it at another thrift store we went to. It was a great day for both of us.

David

 

[andy]

Amazing. I have never seen a Tradition that nice! Congratulations Patrick!

This particular model of Kirby brings back so many memories for me. The janitor of my early elementary school used one of these for the rugs by the doors. There was a particular set of doors that my bus passed by as it pulled away from the school at the end of the day. The janitor always vacuumed those rugs every day at the exact same time, because right when my bus passed those doors, I could see him using that Kirby.

 

[louvac]

Kirby Model Tradition

Hey Guys!
I am so thrilled to see that there are other guys out there who love the Tradition as much as I do. It was my first Kirby I got my hands in 1985. My mom had traded in our model 514 in 1976 for a Eureka model 2062 with Bicentennial Bag! I never forgot that machine either and now I have one of those, too!
But, getting back to the Tradition. So many collectors poo pooed the Tradition as being one of and even THE worst Kirby model ever because the fill tube is too narrow and thus decreases air flow. Well, let me tell you, mine is one excellent cleaner-I don't care what anyone says! This machine is gorgeous in blue. I now own five of them. My first one had the speed control switch under the visor (headlight assembly) and when it was rebuilt, it was converted to the usual place where the speed control switches are-outside the fan housing. All five of my Traditions are slightly different from one another. Some models have a suction control on top of the rug nozzle and some don't have one at all. I love the cotton textured blue hounds tooth bag. Some of these models I found with the dump bag and some have the paper bag option. I can't enough of this machine! And to think, I thought I was the only guy who liked this model. Actually, there isn't any Kirby model (or Royal or Electro Hygiene, too!) that I don't love!
I would love to find an original Tradition with the speed control switch in the headlight assembly!

 

[luxg]

Happy Birthday Patrick, That is one beautiful Kirby. Did John restore it himself? If so he sure did a great job on the shine!! Thanks for sharing. Terry

 

[vinvac]

Welcome Louis

Good to see you posting..

Kirby Traditions were also one of my favorites if for no other reason than the first Kirby with a paper bag system. I love the Blue color. I was unawre of the differences in the model. I have never seen the speed switch you talk about so looking forward to seeing that.

I must admit, I thought Kirby was the best until I have started using the Electro-Hygiene, it is one cleaning machine. Plus the attatchments are so much more durable. I have always liked the Kirby tools and found all Kirby's until the G series (when they cheapened the attatchments) to work very well. Unlike most of the newer machines, all the tools work well. People must not use their vacuums for much today other than carpet... me on the other hand dust, do the bare floors, all the upholstery, curtains, ect. using the vacuum. The dusting brush on most of the newer models are stiff, small and literally useless and we won't even go there with the upholstry tools and bare floor tools...