Your one favorite Kirby OF ALL TIME

[dualsanitronic]

The Dual Sanitronic system model 50 is da bomb. The lighted logo, the wall to wall bag ovals, the 1st 2 speed, the 1st Rug Renovator, the Laura Petrie lookalike in the instruction book, the gold trimmed belt lifter that sayed Dual Sanitronic instead of Kirby,the Dual Sanitronic 50 logo on the vinyl bag top, the sound of it, the way the logo appeared on the attachment box, all add up to the best!

 

[tolivac]

I like the Dual Sanitronic Kirbys as well.

 

[chuffle]

Classic 1CR

I am not saying that my choice is the best that Kirby ever made, just my favorite.  


 


I like the machine for a variety of reasons, the first being of a sentimental nature:  my parents owned this model, purchasing it new, when I was in junior high school.  I have always been drawn to the colors of that era, and the shades of brown used on the machine, combined with the wonderful curves of the Sani-emptor and huge rug nozzle all nice and shiny just click with me.


 


I also fondly recall the sound, the whine of the machine, that could be heard throughout the neighborhood.  The neighbors always joked about how they knew that we were vacuuming - they heard the whine multiple houses away!


 


I also remember faithfully spreading the newspaper under the vacuum, shaking and scraping the bag, opening the emptor and emptying the debris.


 


That being said, I recall the Kirby to be a bear on my parents' newly installed plush avocado wall to wall carpeting - the huge nozzle just wanted to bog down.  


 


While I have the entire "classic" line in my collection, the restored 1CR takes pride of place.


 


Joe

 

[floor-a-matic]

My favorite Kirbys

Vintage:
Classic 1CR
Classic III
Dual Sanitronic 50
516

Modern:
G3
G4
Legend

Generally, I like all of them!

 

[2011hoover700]

I would have to say between my dual sanitronic 80 and my tradition.

 

[chestermikeuk]

Favourite Kirby

Would be the Kirby Tradition, just love the retro look of it, and it was the first vac I had when I started the collecting bug....

 

[djtaylor]

My grandparents D50. I got it back in 1988 when my stepfather gave them a Hoover Commercial upright. Ok, today it is more of a FrankenKirby. It has a Classic handle, Heritage II mini-emtor with a brown open-top cloth bag. Lately, I have been using it with a Classic nozzle that someone had trimmed off it's 'wings' to make it look like a Heritage II. I love that vacuum. It's been used more than any of the others.
Great machine.

 

[red_october]

In my case it's a toss-up between the Tradition and the Heritage. This is mostly due to colours and attachment sets as they are basically the same machine, but the Tradition had the Handy-butler and the plastic tool caddy whereas the Heritage had a paper caddy but it had the turbo-tools and the better turbo brush. (Or at least of the ones I own... my Heritage turbo-brush is miles better than the Roto-zip or whatever that shiny round thing is that replaced it in later years...

 

[thissucks]

i just picked up a 505, neat, the sound is strange, you hear the zzzzzzzzzzz of the comutator (its all in good shape though)and it has a siren type howel with no load (again fan is immaculate)

3Amps it has it puts them to good use and isnt a bad cleaner.

i like my omega better though!

 

[gmerkt]

I've got a couple of favorites.

One, the Tradition, with a classic styling and the blue color, which is different for Kirby.

Two, I like all of the G-3 through G-6, and as stated in OP there are slight nuances but I like the G-5 with the maroon color trim. One hasn't come my way in good enough condition yet to be a keeper at the right price.

 

[MikeKLondon]

```````````````````Tradition

I love the look of the tradition.

 

[watsonw]

Perivale built.......

Hoover 450/475

Lightweight but not light, just the correct agitator size which combined with the dust bag capacity and height adjuster its the machine of all hoovers that
makes best use of its motor power/speed.

 

[Sablekid]

yes, that was an excellent Kirby model

 

[sanitaire]

both of my sanitronics. one is all orgional except I had too weld a hole on the fan case and the other came with a after market kirby dimond cloth bag with paper liner, new brush

 

[briankirbyclass]

Kirby slogans written in the instruction manual and on the boxes during the Classic 1CR, Omega, and Classic 3


"The Amazingly New Kirby Classic Omega. Built to put more leasure time into your modern life!"

"Kirby Classic Omega, Plus Benefits. No other appliance is as versatile, or provides so many benefits."

Kirby Classic 3
Quality
Reliability
Performance

Kirby Classic
"More Leasure Time For You"!

 

[fanonthefloor]

G4 which is my aunts vav.

 

[broomvac]

To spice things up a little...

What is the Kirby that has the best:

Performance?

Looks?

 

[uprightman]

Generation 4 - LOVE that vacuum!

I'd have to say it is the FIRST one - the one I bought NEW (for around $700.00 when it first came out) - the G4. LOVED that machine! Lent it out to an older aunt of mine since the TECH DRIVE feature made it easier to use than her Kirby Legend II. But, as things happen, her daughter saw it and claimed it - so, I'll never see that one again.

Of course DISPOSABLE bags are a PLUS, yet, I'm REALLY loving a Kirby 514 (from 1954) that a co-worker gave me. (It cleaned and polished up a TREAT!) The nozzle width isn't as wide as the newer models, and that has actually been a plus. Down side is having to dump the bag onto newspaper (and rubbing the sides of the bag together to get the BIG chunks to rattle down); coupled with the fact that the hose has air loss, and IF I use the hose, little fibers that look like pubic hair are found in the emptor. So, don't use the attachments. Instead, I rely on the Electrolux AE for above floor stuff. (Although, DO wish that Electrolux had made a curved tube. Would be SO helpful for up high shelves and ceiling fan blades and the like.)

By the way, here's what I like about the older Kirby's - the floor buffing pad. It's like dust mopping and vacuuming at the same time. Neither the hard floor tool (with brushes) on the G4 OR the floor brush attachment on the Electrolux quite to the same job.

All the same, IF I could turn back time, would NOT have given the LUSH G4 away!

 

[uprightman]

MANLY, yes, BUT I like it, too..

Forgot to mention this -- BUT, the pre-cursor to Kirby's ODORIFIC was a product called SWEET-AIRE. Have no clue what the original scent might have been - BUT - the Kirby 514 came with a glass bottle with two, maybe three drops left of the CEDAR PINE scent. I don't want to use it in the Kirby because I am AFEARED that these may be the LAST DROPS left in the WORLD! So, like a sorry freak, I just sniff the bottle when needed.

It makes me feel as if I am a lumber-jack, in a GAWJUSS flannel shirt with muscles ripplin' ALL over, in a knotty-pined Den. It is a FRIGGIN' manly-vacuum cleaner-collector's yearning to smell like that. YES, that fragrance fairly much defines me.

 

[tolivac]

When I use any of my dump bag Krbys-don't do the newspaper bit-just too messy.I take the Sani-emptor off the fan discharge and just dump it in the trash.Easier and less messy-gets the stuff out of the house.