matt8808
Well-known member
At the end of last year / start of this year my Kirby developed a power supply issue.
I opened up the machine, had a quick visual check for loose wires and blew the motor area out with compressed air as inside had built up a layer of light fluff and dust.
The issue seemed to go away for a week or two but then returned full force leaving the machine unusable.
I'll include a video of what it was doing....
Anyway, the machine still had a month of the 3 year warranty remaining (I'd bought it brand new), but having seen the general attitude and workmanship of one of our local Kirby dealers repair men when I went through them for a warranty claim on the power cable a year or so ago I wasn't too keen on having them fix it again.
The fault seemed to be the power switch and I found a seller on eBay selling what they claimed were new, genuine power switches for £25. I bought one and the part I received was blatantly old and used.
Unwilling to fit this to my machine I ended up buying a power switch from the local Kirby service place at an eye watering £80.
When fitting the new switch I found that the fan was showing signs of heat damage where it meets the belt shaft and needed replacing. So a new, genuine fan kit was also fitted.
At this point my Kirby was fully working once more, but unimpressed at it needing a new cable due to an internal breakage, a new power switch and a new fan after only 3 years of light use I put the machine away and left it for a few months.
The other day I was looking at Kirby stuff online about people rebuilding G series machines and saw something about only putting the fan on finger tight. I remembered I'd tightened my fan on as tight as it would go so asked the question on here about how best to tighten it and ultimately I ended up getting my Kirby back out from its months of solitary confinement in the cupboard to loosen off and then retighten the fan only finger tight.
Happy that I'd not messed anything up or overtightened anything, my love for the Kirby started to return and I decided yesterday to give the house a good going over with it.
Now I've read multiple things online where people and collectors say they have never resealed a fan case after a fan change and have never had any issues at all.
Well, guess who's fan case was leaking fine dust at the top?!
So this morning I've had to open it up again, for what I hope will be the final time!
My advice to anybody would be if you're fitting a new fan it is SOOO much easier to apply the small amount of extra effort to seal it while you already have it in bits. Rather than my way of reading online where people say "it will be fine without" to find that it isn't fine and you have to strip it back down
I opened up the machine, had a quick visual check for loose wires and blew the motor area out with compressed air as inside had built up a layer of light fluff and dust.
The issue seemed to go away for a week or two but then returned full force leaving the machine unusable.
I'll include a video of what it was doing....
Anyway, the machine still had a month of the 3 year warranty remaining (I'd bought it brand new), but having seen the general attitude and workmanship of one of our local Kirby dealers repair men when I went through them for a warranty claim on the power cable a year or so ago I wasn't too keen on having them fix it again.
The fault seemed to be the power switch and I found a seller on eBay selling what they claimed were new, genuine power switches for £25. I bought one and the part I received was blatantly old and used.
Unwilling to fit this to my machine I ended up buying a power switch from the local Kirby service place at an eye watering £80.
When fitting the new switch I found that the fan was showing signs of heat damage where it meets the belt shaft and needed replacing. So a new, genuine fan kit was also fitted.
At this point my Kirby was fully working once more, but unimpressed at it needing a new cable due to an internal breakage, a new power switch and a new fan after only 3 years of light use I put the machine away and left it for a few months.
The other day I was looking at Kirby stuff online about people rebuilding G series machines and saw something about only putting the fan on finger tight. I remembered I'd tightened my fan on as tight as it would go so asked the question on here about how best to tighten it and ultimately I ended up getting my Kirby back out from its months of solitary confinement in the cupboard to loosen off and then retighten the fan only finger tight.
Happy that I'd not messed anything up or overtightened anything, my love for the Kirby started to return and I decided yesterday to give the house a good going over with it.
Now I've read multiple things online where people and collectors say they have never resealed a fan case after a fan change and have never had any issues at all.
Well, guess who's fan case was leaking fine dust at the top?!
So this morning I've had to open it up again, for what I hope will be the final time!
My advice to anybody would be if you're fitting a new fan it is SOOO much easier to apply the small amount of extra effort to seal it while you already have it in bits. Rather than my way of reading online where people say "it will be fine without" to find that it isn't fine and you have to strip it back down
