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kirbyds80

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 21, 2011
Messages
350
Location
California
Hello all,
Today I got a new Kirby and would like help in idtentifing what model this is. The serial plate is rusted. the trim is brown, with a round handle like a Sanitronic would have, and a Classic III bag and cord. Pics to fallow

kirbyds80++3-27-2012-20-26-37.jpg
 
You have Frankenkirby's Monster.... :P

Looks like a brown-trimmed Sanitronic model to me, but the lack of an ID plate (and a pic with the nozzle removed) makes it a bit difficult to pin it down...
 
It's a marriage . . .

None of the components on this machine appear to belong together. The bag comes from a much later Classic III and so is the Sani-Emtor I believe. The handle style goes way back, and the front wheels don't appear suited to the vintage. What it looks like is that you have acquired someone's bright idea of a refurb.

There's too much to investigate in one sitting but the link below may be an aid in helping you help yourself.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q...st=0&qpvt=old+kirby+vacuum+models&FORM=IDFRIR
 
I don't know about the gaskets myself, but the safety switch can nail it to it being either a 500/Sanitronic or a Dual Sanitronic motor unit...
 
"What 500/Sanitronic model?"

Post the requested pictures and it'd help, after all, "A picture tells a thousand words"...

As for the ID plate, have you tried just washing it to see if it's just dirty? The plates are usually Aluminium, they don't "rust" like something made from iron & steel, but if the plate has been wet for some time, it may have caused the paint to flake off the metal, so the actual model number will be gone forever, hence the reason for asking for more detail in the form of photos...
 
Well, the guess as to it's original colour would be about as accurate as guessing what colour a house built in the 1840's originally was, there's three colours I can see on it, Classic Omega Brown, ClassicIII Red and Sanitronic Tan, the most likely would be the Tan colour as the handle lock and footswitch are tan (though the footswitch button can be pulled out and swapped easily, the handle lock trim is fiddly to remove), so, unless it was completely rebuilt with Tan parts in the past, I would give Tan as an educated guess... :&#92

That's the problem with vacuums that have been rebuilt in this manner, they lose a lot of their originality so that it's pretty much a beast of many parts, hence "Frankenkirby", once cleaned up and refurbished, it'll work fine and do everything it's meant to, but it's a bit of a mutt and would take more money than it's worth to get it back to original, but at the end of the day, if you're happy with it, then that's fine, people are happy with rebuilt models with many colours, and others are only happy with all-originals, it just depends on the owner... :)

At least your Kirby has an ID plate, my D80 hasn't as it had been removed in the past and not refitted, so I know it's 1967-70, but I don't know when specifically it was made, but I love it anyway... :)
 
KirbyDS80

Going by the color of the motor switch alone leads me into believing it's either a Sanitronic 562 or Sanitronic VII, as I believe it appears to be original.

All Kirbys had narrow wheels on all fours until the Classic 1-CR, in which new wide wheels were assigned to the front axle.

~Ben
 
With the Sanitronic VII, Kirby began using the nozzle gasket that's still used to this day. Prior to that, it was a much thinner gasket. That's why the gasket helps to narrow which model it might be.
 

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