Sebo automatic X1 1997

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No, I said that they machines topple over because I had a play with one at my dad's workplace. They had a grey and orange sebo look alike, like an X4 and the design was oretty much the same, and the hose is located at the upper part of the machine, so when it is tugged, the machine topples back. Yes I haven't used it, but its pretty obvious that when the machine is on, it is more likely to fall over easier than the hose with no suction.
 
That's a fair point Tayyab, but what about this Sentria you want - have you actually used one? Matt brought his Sentria 2 down to my house the other week and whilst its a great machine, we have hard wearing, loop carpet and the Kirby stuck too it so much that it was too difficult to push, even with Techdrive on. How do you know you want a machine until you've tried it? It could be the exact opposite of what you want.

Just do yourself a favour, don't make any decisions or spend a load of money on anything until you've tried them.
 
If the Sentria was hard to push with the Tech Drive on, then the floor nozzle was set too low to the carpet and not letting some air to enter from around the sides of the nozzle which is required to maintain proper airflow through the machine.


 


If the nozzle is set too low then it will suck right down to the carpet and will be very hard to push. This not only hinders cleaning performance but is hard on the Tech Drive mechanics as well.
 
I grew up in a house with a Kirby, I do know how to use them. My in laws have an Ultimate G, which I've used at their house a fair few times and is fine on their carpet.

On one height setting, it was skimming the carpet and the next one down it was glued too it. There was no inbetween. It was totally useless on our carpets and just ripped the 2 shag rugs to bits. Can't say I'm in any rush to spend £1500 on a tank that rips my rugs up.
 
I'm...

<span style="font-family: book antiqua,palatino;">I'm sure <a name="start_27681.309579"></a>Tayyab is old enough to decide for himself if he wants a Sentria. If he doesn't know anyone who owns one so he can try it before buying one I'm sure he will just get one and keep it if he likes it and sell it on if he doesn't. No big deal... I've never found a carpet I can't use a Kirby on and if the rugs was that delicate or poorly made you could of just turned the roller off or used the hose attachments.. Again no biggy!
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<span style="font-family: book antiqua,palatino;">James
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One would have thought so, but if people insist on basing their opinions on what other people say and not their own experience, it really does beg the question.

I'm not for a minute saying that Tayyab shouldn't get what he wants, but it's s lot of money to splash out for something that might not be what he's expecting.

Contrary to popular belief, not every vacuum is suitable for every home or indeed every person. I'd always recommend, regardless of the cleaner, to try before investing in something.
 
Yes the hose detaches from the wand for car cleaning. Just remove the hose from the wand when the wand is stored on the vacuum. Not sure if you can remove the hose from the wand when you have already removed the wand from the vacuum body. I'm sure someone can confirm this. I would attach the extension hose for car cleaning personally. I do on my Felix. When you return the hose into the wand if the vacuum is on it will suck it into the wand itself returning it to its storage position. I think the hose and wand I the X series is very clever design personally.

SEBO could change the top hose setup but it will make the air path complex which I found on my S7. This can open the vacuum up to protential blockages which may be hard to get at to remove. The SEBO setup makes easy maintainance and simpler air path for the dirt to travel through the vacuum, quicker air path to the bag.
 
Like James said above:


 "I've never found a carpet I can't use a Kirby on and if the rugs was that delicate or poorly made you could of just turned the roller off or used the hose attachments..."


 


Chris, You must have some very strange carpet if you couldn't get the Sentria II to work!


 


I think that Tayyab once mentioned on here that he has very plush carpet in his house and if so the Sentria II should work very well on those types of carpet. I know because my home has plush beige carpet throughout and my Sentria I does a fantastic job. I'm getting ready to shampoo my carpet for the third time and my Sentria does a fantastic job at that as well.
 
Yes, thanks. All of you are correct. Chris, thanks for reaching out to me with advice on buying a Sentria, I have not used one so may not get what I expect.
Thanks James, yes I guess I could sell the Sentria on as it is metal and is also very valuable.

Hi Stan! Yes I do have thick plush pile carpet in my room, yea. My Dyson DC25 struggles on it, because it leaves the carpet spotless on the surface, but when I put the vacuum on a random part of the carpet and apply pressure to the motor head, there's larger debris living in the carpet that comes out. I had to get the stair tool on the wand and scrub very hard, or use the crevice tool. It is a pain.

I wanted a Kirby because of its power. Of course a dirty air has a lot more suction at the cleaner head than a clean air one, so thought it may be a good piece of kit for my thick carpet which is like American style, approx 2 cm, or just about an inch thick.

In our house we have that thick carpets, burber carpet, large area rugs which are plush, but we will get new carpets. On the stairs and landing we will get plush instead of the burber.

Kind regards :)
Tayyab
 
Or, I could get the DC41 mk2 if I try one out in Currys, Oliveoiltinfoil made an impressive video of it beating the carpet, and another. Idea of it pulling two types of carpets off the floor. Thick and thin. Impressive! :)
PS I don't care how hard it is to push a vacuum. Infact I like it better when it is harder to push :)
 
Hi Tayyab,


You will not find a vacuum cleaner that is more powerful or cleans better than a Kirby Sentria. With a Sentria, you can have the option of having it glide effortlessly over your carpet with the Tech Drive engaged, or if you choose to leave Tech Drive disengaged, you will feel quite some resistance as you will be able to notice it sucking down to your carpet. You can try it both ways and see which one you prefer.


 


Also you will be able to shampoo your carpet if you choose to get your Kirby with the Shampoo attachment. The shampooer works very well on thicker plush carpets like yours.

[this post was last edited: 12/23/2014-14:28]
 
Thank you! That has make me convinced to buy one. The fact that it is a dirty air vacuum is tempting due to it's power. Kind regards and Merry christmas all :)
 
I've not posted on this site for a while now but something has got my goat so I'm going to have my say - regardless of what day it is. Merry Christmas everyone BTW.

I paid a lot for my Kirby as I bought it new from the dealer, and I feel I must make a few corrections as I feel some rather unfair claims have been made in regard to my machine.

While I did take my Kirby to Chris' house, we had no trouble using it on any of his fitted carpets. I actually commented on how easily it glided over his loop pile carpets with the tech drive in the off position, thus with tech drive on it was easy as pie. Chris also took the machine down to the main entrance hall to give that carpet a good going over, and while it didn't suck any huge amout of filth from his already immaculate carpets he seemed quite pleased with what it had managed to collect into the freshly fitted HEPA bag. There was no issue with the height settings on the machine.

No damage was caused to shag rugs as the Kirby didn't touch them. For the same reason we didn't use my Sebo D4 Premium with electro brush on them - the pile is too delicate.

While I'm making a few corrections I must also point out that your mum does not have a Felix Chris. She has a bagless Vax. She got rid of the Felix (you sold it on eBay for her) because she found it too heavy.

I feel bad that I've had to make these corrections, but I won't have somebody making slandering claims about something I have paid a lot of money for.

Yes the Kirby is big, heavy to lift and at times cumbersome, and at the moment I am favouring my Sebo D4 Premium for daily use, however the Kirby is still a fantastic machine that will always be my 'go to' when I want to get my carpets as clean as they possibly can be.

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....where the heck were you? I even said at the time it was difficult to push with the tech drive on compared with other carpets and we DID try it on the rug, albeit briefly. It sealed to the stuck-down carpet a bit too much.

There are no "unfair" claims made at all. At no point have I said its a bad machine. The critique I've made are the same that I've made to all other Kirby vacuums and I'm not gonna sing its praises just because it was expensive. Just because it has a stupidly high price tag, doesn't make it better.

I certainly thought the Sentria 2 was far nicer to use than any of the tech drive Kirby's, but it still suffers with the same drawbacks. Just because you were daft enough to buy one new at that price is no reason why I should feel the need to shower it with praise! I told you at the time I thought you were an idiot for buying it.
 
"On one height setting, it was skimming the carpet and the next one down it was glued too it. There was no inbetween. It was totally useless on our carpets and just ripped the 2 shag rugs to bits"


I'm sorry but I seem to of developed memory issues. You clearly said it was useless on your flooring and that it ripped your rugs to bits.

For a start I don't remember any issues with the height setting or any aspect of use for that matter. We lowered it till the tone changed and then gave it one more 'click' lower. No issue there. I certainly saw no issues with it being 'glued' to the floor or being abnormally heavy to use. I don't remember it being used on or shredding any shag pile rugs either. We used the Numatic Henry to vacuum the shag pile rug.


The machine hasn't been used since the visit to your house, and still has the same bag fitted. Perhaps I should cut the bag open? With two shredded rugs I expect I'll find it full of brightly coloured fluff?

You even said at one point that you might perhaps start borrowing your partners parents Kirby and giving that an occasional run around the place.

I'm not expecting you to sing the praises of the Kirby company, think what you like of them. What I DO have an issue with is you making false claims about an occasion where I brought my machine to your home for you to try.
 
In regard to the shredded rugs, please see the contents of the bag from your house. Some cat hair, some fuzz from your cream loop pile carpets and a respectable amount of sand. No brightly coloured rug shreddings.

Everyone is welcome to voice their opinion, just don't go making false claims that simply aren't true, especially about somebody elses things.

On a final note, from somebody who has worked in the flooring industry, you shouldn't really be using an upright vacuum on wool loop pile carpet anyway. It causes it to fuzz and loose its 'looped' finish.

A straight suction machine would be best. Or fit your Sebo machine with their 'delicate' brush roll.

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Maybe useless was the wrong word. "Difficult" would be more appropriate. I certainly noticed it the more I used it and had to reset the height. When lowered until the pitch changed, it wasn't quite enough but once more it was glued. Sure, it picked up, but it was damn difficult to use. Hardly surprising given that our carpet is glued down and I've yet to find any dirty fan cleaner that does well on it.

By the way, it's not wool.

We did try the Sentria on the rug (the dark purple one by the sofa) very breifly but uprights never do well on it, so we kept it brief. Clearly not a memorable moment for you.

Yeh, I'm absolutely wanting to borrow the in laws Kirby from time to time. As I said earlier, it's a great vac on carpet and it did pull grit out. I don't want one to use day to day though. Like you said, you barely use yours anymore, favouring your D4. Why? Because it's easier.

I formed an opinion of the Sentria after trying it in my own setting. Sorry if you don't agree but, hey, tough.
 
"It was totally useless on our carpets and just ripped the 2 shag rugs to bits"

I'm merely pointing out your 'slight' exaggeration. I noticed no issue at all with the weight of the machine, nor did I notice any rugs being ripped to bits. Just like your claim of your mum currently having a Sebo being incorrect.

I do however apologise for my assumption on your carpets construction. I had assumed that with the same flooring being fitted throughout the house and the house being a relativly new build that it was the original carpet that the house builder had fitted. In this case they tend to go for neutral short pile flooring with a high wool content. Something I could of sworn yours was. The content of the Kirby bag certainly looked and felt like wool fiber at least.

Again, speaking as somebody who has worked in both sales and fitting of bespoke and premium floor coverings I can not see why your carpet would be 'glued' to the floor. This would involve gluing the underlay to the sub-floor and then gluing the carpet to the underlay. Something that would be costly, time consuming and, well, pointless in your home. The only time I have involved glue in the fitting of a carpet is in the fitting of thin commercial style carpets in office blocks where the sub floor was concrete. Sometimes glue would be used in a domestic situation in small patches if a bespoke carpet that had been made to order was suffering something called 'fullness', resulting in it not laying as flat as would be desired.

Man made or wool, and glued or fitted normally, the fact still remains that a loop pile carpet should not be cleaed using a machine with a revolving brush to help maintain its 'looped' characteristics. Feel free to check this on 'Google'.

Anyway, I've not a lot more to add to the topic. I simply wanted to clear up your claims of my machine sticking to your floor to the point of being difficult to push and it ripping your rugs to bits.
 
Mistruths...

I'm sorry Chris, but I'm going to have to agree with Matt on this one.


It is evident to me that Matt has caught you in several mistruths (lies) regarding the testing of his Sentria II at your home.


 


I have owned a Sentria I for 2 years now and have used it as my Daily Driver for those 2 years so I have a lot of experience with that flavor of Kirby. I have not only used my Sentria on the plush medium pile carpet in my own spacious 2 bedroom apartment, but I have also used it on the glued down commercial carpet in the hallway outside my apartment. I must say my machine performs almost exactly as Matt has described his Sentria II performed in your home. 


 


Chris, I just don't find your arguments to Matt's correction points to be credible.


Therefore I will have to say that the Kirby Sentria I & II are still the ultimate in home care systems performance, reliability and quality.
 

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