Two Kirby 561 handles, is one a replacement?

[northwesty]

These two handles, or rather the shafts, are both on Kirby 561s, but this one is smooth...

 

[northwesty]

While this one has ridges. I have another Kirby with this type of pattern on the handle shaft though it is different than this one.

 

[twocvbloke]

Seems you have Bojack Frankenkirbys to me, the ribbed handle I think came from earlier 500 models, and the smooth one from later models...

 

[lunchboxsean]

The first one is a replacement. You can tell by how far it goes down.

 

[kirbyvacuum]

Kirby

Hi All I have a Kirby 561 it has the ribbed handle Doug

 

[vac_whisperer]

Ridged is definitely a replacement, (or maybe a cannibalized part, you never know) and the smooth is the original.

 

[vac_whisperer]

The first one is a replacement, because, like Sean said, you can tell by how far it goes down.


And the ribbed handle was used al the way up to the D50, which was the last irby to have the "Stick" type handle.

 

[ralph]

If you search for electrolux~137’s Kirby 500 series history you will see that the 509 was the last model that had the smooth wand and the 510 was the first model that had the ribbed wand.

 

[northwesty]

Thanks all

For the information. But it sounds like the older Kirbys had the smooth wand and then were followed by the ridged ones? 509/510.

 

[vac_whisperer]

Rigid ones came somewhat later, the smooth ones were on anything up to about the 510.

 

[broomvac]

Hopefully all of the handles were rigid! It would be hard to vacuum otherwise.

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

The mid-year production of the 513 was the first Kirby with a red grip (it was gray when production first started). When the 514 superseded the 513, the red grip was changed to the more common style that ran through the 561.

~Ben

 

[kirbymodel2c]

Hi

Hi, The mid section of the handle was smooth/plain up to the Kirby 517.
As it say on Mr Lesters site under the Kirby 500 series section 517/518/519...

"Middle (longest) section of handle became ribbed, not plain, metal tube. First rib design had the ribbing spaced about 1/8" apart and rather fine -- not very deep. Later, the ribbing becomes deeper and spaced much, much closer together -- (and that same style was used until the hideous-green Sanitronic D-80 came out, when a new plastic handle was introduced)."

Hope this helps.

James)