The Belt Makes The Difference

[tase]

Recently, I decided to clean my Kirby G3 and Sentria head. Both were caked in dust and just needed a good cleaning.

Back in June I bought my Sentria for less than $40 on Craigslist. Since I hadn't worked on a Kirby for over 4 years, I was a bit rusty and completely forgot what the belt was suppose to look like for a Kirby and just said, "Eh, the belt looks fine."

Since I got it, it's worked fine, but I realized how poorly it worked once I got my hands on a G3. I figured it was just the fact that it was newer.

I noticed that on my area rugs the Sentria would "hop," if I didn't keep the vacuum moving the brushroll would stop completely when I had the head lowered, and I noticed that it just didn't clean as well as my G3.

So, while I was cleaning out the two nozzles, I had set my two belts on top of each other. I noticed that one of them had the Kirby logo and the other one didn't. I stopped cleaning the nozzles and inspected the two belts.

The belt off my G3 was still in immaculate condition.

However, the belt off my Sentria was noticeably skinnier, lighter in color, and as mentioned, had no Kirby logo. The belt was also ripping and had a giant gash in it.

I put a new Kirby belt on my Sentria and man, I've gotta tell you, I love my Sentria now.

It glides across the carpet with ease, it's pulling the carpet up, it's a little bit harder to push the unit and Tech Drive is noticeably louder but wow, it's like a whole different machine. I ended up vacuuming the whole house and filled up 1/4th of a bag with stuff the Kirby could have picked up before... I even vacuumed the house before cleaning the nozzles. What an improvement.

Moral of the story, check your belts when you get a used system, you never know what "surprises" people leave in them...

 

[electromatik]

That sounds somewhat familiar to me. My Kirby has always hopped no matter what I do to the head. I thought it was because I was going against the grain of the carpet. No matter how high I raise the head it still does it. The only way to stop it is if I raise it too high to be effectual. My brush would stop turning at times also. I realize I might have operated it too low at first but I stopped putting it down so low. I've looked at the belt frequently and it does not look worn. It still pretty much looks like day one. I don't know what the problem is but it still vacuums well.

 

[beko1987]

I had the same on my G5. Would hop and skip when pushing it over the carpet, and the green led barely glowed.

Found a new belt in the shampooer attachment, put it on and it was transformed. Green LED lit the room up, it stopped skipping and started to REALLY groom the carpet.

Now, I always replace belts in machines I get, even ones to be sold for a pittance, it makes all the difference. I bought 20 packs of genuine Hoover turbopower belts for the very reason, every one of my fleet has a new belt on!

Even with the Dyson repairs I do, I normally get new belts for the machines, even if they don't seem to need it. Always makes a difference.

 

[tase]

It's amazing that a lot of consumers wouldn't spend the extra $0.20 for the official belts.

I found something similar to the belt that was on my Sentria: $1.00

Official Kirby belts from Amazon: $1.20

 

[thevacuumman]

I had to quit using the generic belts on my Hoover Convertible because I was going through a belt every two weeks.

 

[jkbff]

If you use your vacuum regularly you should change your belt around every 9 months... Its the cheapest way to make sure you have the best agitation all the time.