Road Salt

[kirbyrama]

Is vacuuming road salt damaging to a Kirby, especially a much older one? I do not own a shop-vac, so Kirbys are all I own.

 

[thevacomaticiec]

Could cause some abrasion to the fan maybe others can chime on i t ?
I think you might be ok as long its not to big for the nozzle or fan not something id do every day but ya i think so .[this post was last edited: 2/3/2022-19:02]

 

[human]

It shouldn't be a big problem if the salt is dry. I wouldn't vacuum up wet salt, though. That could promote metal corrosion.

 

[madman]

Just imagine you're sucking up rocks of the same size. If you're comfortable with that, go for it.

 

[weltron]

Picking up rock salt isn't a problem. Salt water is where you would have to start worrying about corrosion.

 

[jo]

I don’t recommend

A fine coat8 g of the slat will likely come off and cost the metal parts and cause some corrosion eventually. If you have to vacuum up salt…I’d use a cheap plastic vacuum..perhaps a trash rescue model.

Jon

 

[eurekaprince]

Growing up and living in Montréal, we always had a lot of road salt and sidewalk gravel to clean up in our vestibules and foyers. This never seemed to be a problem for our gold “fan first” Rugulator Cordaway Eureka upright from 1974. It was always used to clean the little rug in our front vestibule and we never had a problem. I guess the metal motor fan was durable enough. I do remember that I would find little granules stuck in the fluff that accumulated on the ends of the brush roll chamber, but it never affected the Vibra Groomer.

 

[vinvac]

When I worked as a student in the custodial department at school, we had Royal commercial uprights and I must say they picked up a lot of salt. One of the staff got promoted to head custodian and he made the change to all Hoovers. We kept the Royals back because we knew the Hoover's were not going to cut it and we were right.

Both buildings had one set of attachments for the Royals. They all had shake out bags. The High School Building was all carpet except for one hallway the cafeteria.

The Hoover Conquests were constantly in the shop and needing repair and the Royals just kept on cleaning. I don't ever remember a broken fan blade or problems with the motors. I know the one Hoover had the motor replaced several times.

Although I must admit the little Hoover Port-a-power was handy when you didn't want to switch out the tools on the Royals but certainly did not maintain air flow well.

All this to say is the salt never hurt the metal fans in the Royals.

 

[huskyvacs]

The fan will pulverize the salt grit into dust and layer it onto the inside of the vacuum's suction paths. Now, salt needs moisture and oxygen to activate into a corrosive agent (to metal), so as long as you aren't picking up salt and then leaving it sit in a damp area to stagnate, you will be OK. You might notice some buildup on the metal but it won't completely eat through it if that's your worry. Aluminum won't rust through, it will just corrode the surface layer.

 

[hoover300]

Where is that poor old Hoover located???
I may have to make a trip

 

[huskyvacs]

@hoover300

Wish I knew!

EDIT:

Surprisingly I found it.

https://mapio.net/pic/p-17782084/

 

[panasonicvac]

I don't think they are dangerous to vacuum up if they are dry of course. But I don't like using any Kirby to pick up road salts, they just struggle to pick up unless if you use the attachment hose from my experience.