posted
Bob (Scopatz), I remember that you bought a Roomba a year or so ago. How's it holding up? How good of a job does it do? I need to buy a new vacuum cleaner, and I have to say, the gadget lover in my is crying out for a Roomba?
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
It's not a substitute for a real vacuum cleaner, but it does a good job of keeping things clean in between serious bouts of vacuuming.
Plus it's darn cool rolling around.
My advice, though, is to own a real vacuum cleaner. The Roomba is more like a dust buster with wheels.
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
I was kind of afraid of that, but I thought I'd check. Guess I need to go to the library and look through back issues of consumer reports; I've tried just buying a random vacuum cleaner in my price range in the past, and it's never turned out well.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
I love's my Kirby too, though I abuse it badly. You can get a rebuild if you send it to a service center (and there is likely one not too far away) for between $75-$150. Chucking it was a crime! THey also offer $45 dollar tuneups and cleanings which mine probably needs after only a year just due to abuse.
btw has anyone else ever recycled vaccum cleaner bags? The trick is (on non-kirbys) to carefully pull apart the bottom seam where it is glued. you empty out the junk into the trash can from the bottom then you re-fold that seam and staple it. It works like a charm.
The kirby bags are a little sturdier so I just wait until I already need a shower and stand over at trash can outside and pull out the dog hair. The dog hair fills the bags up pretty fast and if I got a new bag every time I'd end up broke!
posted
So what does a Kirby cost (yes, I could look it up fairly easily, but I'm feeling lazy, and it sounds like many of you already know)?
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
When I got my first apartment, my mom gave me a Miele "Flamenco II" vacuum. These guys really make quality vacuum cleaners.
Posts: 4534 | Registered: Jan 2003
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The anteater is my favorite suggestion so far. My only concern would be how well the cat and the anteater would get along.
A roomba is a relatively small (maybe a foot and a half in diameter) disk shaped, robot vacuum cleaner. It meanders around your house cleaning your floors while you do other things.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Kirby (www.kirby.com) is on the extreme high end of the price range. We paid about $1200 for ours after some negotiations, but we got the chemical carpet cleaning attachments and upholstery attachmets as well. They also have financing at a reasonable interest rate for a consumer type loan. (we were paying $50/month with like $200 down) You will never need another vaccum cleaner the rest of your life though. They even have provisions for the warranty to transfer ownership to your heirs when you die. The only way they sell them is for you to request an in house demonstration. You get clean floors even if you turn them down for the demo. They vaccum dustmites out of your bed and then show you them... it is lots of fun.
A kirby is an engineer's dream vacuum. Completely disasemblable with every part being replaceable and lots of gadgets and gizmos with more add-ons if you wish. I have used most of my gadgets at one time or another in the past year since I have gotten it. You can put most of the parts (except the motor) in the dishwasher to clean them. It can be either a cannister vaccum or an upright vaccum and the change in configuration takes less than a minute. It is also self propelled. I'm considering buying the "mini blind" add-on and the hardwood floor washing attachment. (It does hard floors wonderfuly in cannister mode, but there is an additional scrubbing attachment that minimizes mopping.)
Growing up in my parents house, in 18 years I know they went through at least 3 vaccum cleaners (and at least one more since I moved out) at an average cost of about $300 each. And the suction on those was far fewer horsepower than the kirby too. Steve's parents had one Kirby the entire time that still runs like a charm! When you include the hassle of buying a vaccum each time it really does pay for itself.
I also have used it for a use that it was never intended for, but performs quite well, as a blower for dog grooming. You can the hoses so that it can inflate air matresses etc. At 130 cubic feet per minute it performs in the same range as commercial dog blowers and saved me from purchasing another separate peice of equipment.
A Dyson is another high end vac that I have heard of through my dog show listserves. I think may be a bit cheaper, but I don't know anything about it.
posted
You know, the Kirby does sound fairly tempting. If it's that good, and that reliable, it would definitely pay for itself over time. I kind of balk at spending that much for a vacuum cleaner, but it does make sense when you think about it. Hmmm...
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
I have a Rainbow E Series by RexAir. Extreme high end on price, but it is so awesome.
Mine cleans the carpets, the hardwood floors, upholstery. It can clean wet and dry spills. No bags, it uses water as the filter, when you're through you just empty out the water.
We had a Bissell Steam Vac for our carpet and had trouble getting it clean. When we added on the shampooer attachment to our Rainbow it cleaned the carpet and made it look brand new. It was amazing.
I've also set it up next to my air return, and just run it so it can filter the air through the house. Put a few drops of scented oil in the water, and soon the whole house smells fresh and you'll have a layer of dust in the water, dust that has been pulled out of the air. At Christmas I put in a cinnamon scented oil and man, it was so nice!
My sister-in-law set me up with the in-home demonstration - and I got sold mainly because her aunt has one that's more than 25 years old and still works great. Yeah, it was a lot of money (we paid up front, we had some money in one of our accounts so we didn't finance), but I must say my house is cleaner and smells better since we've had it. It makes cleaning the hardwoods so much easier - no more sweeping then mopping.
It's worth it! And no bags to buy, ever.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
I have heard pros and cons about bagless vacs. But, I think the moral of the story is that if you buy a high-end vaccume you are probably going to be much happier than the paltry low end ones regardless of brand. Most of them do need to be dealer purchased though. You might be perfectly happy with one bought through the internet, but they are not guaranteed with all of the fabulous warranties and re-build programs that the company sponsored sales ones are.
AJ (judging from the non-factory ones going online, the Rainbows are more expensive than the kirbys too) AJ
posted
Hi CT! I thought you'd banished yourself from hatrack for 2 days! Glad to see you decided to go easy on yourself, and give yourself parole after only a day.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Dysons appear to be the cheapest but don't have rebuild policies like the kirby or as many attachments
Rainbows have lower reviews than Dysons but about the same as kirbys. Maybe people are expecting more of the higher cost ones too. Definitely with the Rainbow and the Kirby you can negotiate the price down considerably.
Kirby's are expensive -- but this is how I got mine:
My dad (remember - he died 22 years ago now) found it in a dumpster somewhere (who knows) where someone had apparently used it to suck up something icky that wasn't supposed to be sucked up. It was a mess.
He took it all apart and had the bag cleaned/shampooed, then hand cleaned the parts (he was very mechanical) and then gave it to me!
So free Kirby -- built with love from Dad.
It's a cherished possession. I get it routintely serviced now and then, but that's all it needs.
posted
Rainbows do start out more expensive, but I think operating cost is better - no bags and filters to buy. Plus we got the hardwood attachment and the shampooer unit free.
Bottom line, as you said - high end vacuums are going to perform better than the ones you buy at WalMart. Once you get into the high end, it's like a difference between two different types of luxury cars. You know they're both great cars, so it's just personal preference.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
I had an Electrolux in my previous life. It was really great, but it didn't do the rug shampooing and everything that some of these other high-end machines do.
Is the rug shampooer on a Kirby REALLY good or are you better off just hiring a service to come and do it?
By the way, there are several Kirby's on ebay and the prices seem pretty good.
What kind of warranty does a regular Kirby come with if you buy it new?
posted
Bob, I've never had anyone out to professionally clean my carpets but I can tell you my shampooer works better than the carpet cleaners you can rent yourself.
In my house, frequent shampooing is necessary (four kids and a puppy) so I can't afford to have someone come out to the house every time it needs it.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
I think the chemical cleaner works as well as ordinary steaming. When we moved out of our apartment we rented a steamer to see if the heat made any difference on a couple of pet stains and it really didnt. Kirby has excelent stain remover products for a variety of stains. *(the stains were the result of using an oil based cleaner on the petstain which made it difficult for any of the normal cleaners to remove it... and it was cheap white apartment carpet some were there before we got there)
The ones you buy online are the equivalent of Farmgirls, somehow refurbished. Still good vaccumes though!
I know ours has a 3 year bumper to bumper parts replacement no questions asked initial warranty. and I believe a $70 rebuild at any time. They can charge you a lot more if you don't have the warranty and a part breaks.
posted
My family had a Kirby when I was growing up, and the geek engineer person in me loved it. I would enjoy playing with all the attachments, doing them on and off, and all that, but my current philosophy on vacuums differs from that.
The Kirby is very very HEAVY! You wear yourself out dragging that thing around. And also since it doesn't have disposable bags, it tends to get very nasty. And it is a major pain swapping all the attachments around to convert it from a cannister to an upright type and back each time you vacuum.
So my new philosophy is to buy TWO cheap vacuums, one cannister type with the hoses and so on, and one rug beater type. Both with disposable bags, and then throw the whole machine out and get a new one as often as I feel like it. I can do this many times for the cost of one Kirby. And all the time I'm using a lighter, newer, vacuum with attachments I never have to change, and they have plenty of suction too.
The problem I had is that my old one never did break. I was thinking I wanted to toss it and get a new one, and I had no idea it would last this long, until it FINALLY quit beating the rug. But I made the mistake of looking underneath and all it needed was a new belt which I provided and it lasted for another 5 years. The EXTREMELY low duty cycle on this thing may have something to do with that, I'm not sure. But anyway, it finally did start making such a loud noise that I called it broken and got a new one. $50 and it does a wonderful job, and it's all shiny clean and new, and it is fairly quiet (much more than the Kirby was) and it's light and I really prefer it.
Just thought you might like to hear from someone with a different view.
Posts: 5509 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
[Edit, edit, edit. Good Night, first I'm arching my eyebrows at our Hobbes, next I'm getting all risque-ish with our Bob, who's already made it clear that the whole single-guy stud-muffin line is Not Appreciated. Sorry, Bob. *hangs head I will go do something virtuous and productive to make up for it. ]
quote:quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The ones you buy online are the equivalent of Farmgirls, somehow refurbished. Still good vaccumes though! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
posted
incidentally aka, in 1990 they did a major redesign of the kirby (the beginning of the G-series) replacing a lot of the cast iron with aluminum parts. I don't consider mine to be any heavier or unwieldy than any previous vaccumes. And it now is self-propelled mode so you don't have to actually do most of the work.
posted
Don't feel bad, CT. I almost made a play off your still-posted comment, then realized it contained an unplanned third meaning which woulda been in REALLY poor taste.
posted
aka -- as AJ said, Kirby now comes in self-propelled (they call it "drive) and they also now have removable, disposable bags. Most people just don't know this since they last 30+ years and no one has a new one!
posted
That sounds cool, that it's lighter and has disposable bags. But how does the self-propelled thing work? Don't you pretty much go backwards as much as forwards when you are vacuuming? Is there some easily accessible switch to change directions or something?
Posts: 5509 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
I think you make it change direction and than it automatically changes the "drive" so that it is propelld back as well as forward. You can also switch it from drive to neutral so you can have more fine control.
posted
CT, I wouldn't mind being thought of as a "stud muffin" among the Wenches at Hatrack. o_O
It's my annoying married male friends who keep asking me if I'm having sex with women whom I do not know that bugs the cr@p out of me.
Just wanted to make that clear:
- stud muffin reputation...okay - implying that I have random sex with teenagers or that I'm sexually active with every woman who steps inside 50' radius...not okay
Basically, every woman I know who I am even the least bit interested in also knows that I'm not dating at the present time. They also are, to a person, not interested in pre-marital sex.
...
At least not with me. LOL...
On the other hand, when have I EVER not been able to laugh at a joke or laugh at myself???
And I like a good triple entendre as much as the next person.
And I have yet to be actually insulted by anything that anyone at Hatrack has posted.
posted
By the way, does the Kirby come with an appendectomy attachment, 'cuz it looks as if Mack might need one.
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
We have a Kirby in my apartment. It's one of the newer ones.
AJ, I have no idea what you're talking about. It may not have cast-iron parts, but it's still a heavier vacuum than most. The Drive unit is unbelievably frustrating when you are working with rugs and hardwood floors. It keeps catching the rugs and messing them up. It also doesn't like vacuuming the same spot over and over in a tight space. I have to keep picking it up (no problem for me, but it might be harder for others) over and over again and putting it back before the spot. The drive unit as a "Neutral" position, but it's about 20 times harder to push in that position.
I'm not sure why we have the Kirby. To my knowledge, it's in complete working order. I don't know if my roommate's Mom just decided she didn't like it or what, but we've got it
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
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posted
I just got a Roomba, and I LOVE it! I'm sitting here posting while Daneel is vacuuming the room.
I hate vacuuming, for some reason, but I love the way a freshly vacuumed room looks and feels to my bare feet. So I always tended to go a long time between vacuums, but be vaguely unhappy about it. Now my whole house is sparkly clean cause Daneel does it all for me. I got the basic Roomba Red model. You have to clean the brushes and bins every cycle anyway, so all the fancy scheduling doesn't make that much difference. I think the basic model is perfectly adequate.
Anyway, here are my pros and cons, for anyone who is thinking of getting one.
Pros:
The vacuuming actually gets done.
It's fun to watch it go.
Doesn't cost much more than a regular vacuum.
After the first few times, I can let it go unattended.
It doesn't have enough power to damage anything it might happen to bump into or eat.
Much easier on the feet and back than vacuuming.
My house has that "just vacuumed" look and feel all the time.
It gets under most furniture. Places that haven't been vacuumed in a while are now shiny clean.
It gets the edges really well.
The cats aren't as scared of it as of the regular vacuum, though they don't like it much, but they're getting more used to it all the time. Eventually I think they'll learn to mostly ignore it and just stay out of its way. It doesn't move very fast, and they realize that already.
It makes hilarious beepy sounds, either cheerful or sad, to let you know things like "All clean now!" or "Charge depleted" or "Uh oh, I'm totally stuck." Just now it stopped and said "I ate a bottle cap and have indigestion. Please help me!" (The bottle cap is one of Drive By's favorite toys.) You can tell what the beeps mean just by the tone, which is so funny.
It almost never seems to get stuck. It has very clever routines for extricating itself.
It's just so cool! The gadget geek in me is thrilled.
Now here are the cons.
You still have to clean out the bin and clean the brushes after every cycle.
It doesn't have as much beating power or suction power as a regular vacuum.
The first few times, you need to watch it and sort of make your house a bit more robot friendly. I tucked rug fringe under, modified the rug pad in one spot to make it not see the edge of the rug as an obstacle, pulled wires up off the floor, picked up the cats' food plates (which it tried to eat), and so on.
It doesn't really get corners very well.
It doesn't do the baseboards, the window sills, the door frames, and the other things I vacuum when I'm vacuuming.
Even though it doesn't have the horsepower of my other vacuums, it does a great job. The floor and rugs look and feel clean after its cycle. And I actually DO it, which is the huge benefit. Nearly every day I set the thing down in some room and press "Clean". It noses around and does its thing and the room just gets *clean*. It frees up my time for cleaning other things, if I want, or just sitting on the sofa watching it go, when my feet hurt at the end of the day. I really love it! =)
posted
I had two Roombas. When I was single living in a small apartment, it was ideal. I could set it to run when I left for work and the place would be vaccuumed when I got home. When I got a house with new carpets, this did the Roomba in. The carpets shed so much that the little vacuum just choked. I'd gotten it with a warranty from Sharper Image, and they replaced it with an even nicer Roomba. That one lasted a while (I used it only on the hard surfaces in the house) then I gave it to my single-working-mother sister-in-law.
Now I've got a Dyson, which I *love*. That can pull some really scary stuff out of your carpet. Since I've got a dog that sheds four times its body mass every week (seriously, conservation of mass does not apply to Norwegian Elkhounds), I got the model designed for pet hair and it really does pick up every hair. And it's light and easy to carry, works great on tile and carpet, and as advertized, the suction doesn't decrease as the canister fills.
Posts: 700 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
OlavMah, does the Dyson run by itself? I mean, is it a robot or a regular vacuum that requires human propulsion?
I have pet hair issues as well. (You're right about the conservation of mass!) I let Daneel start on a really dirty house and it didn't choke yet. My carpets and rugs are all old, though, and I do have to clean him out very well after each cycle.
It's funny how I don't mind that at all. I like messing with machinery (though Daneel is so light-weight that I don't know if you would call him machinery -- more like gadgetry). What I hate is vacuuming. I may just be the ideal robot owner.
Another thing I love is how he sort of wiggles in a happy-looking way as he's following a wall. He sort of does a little bee dance down the wall. It's cute! The iRobot company does not anthropomorphize them, though the customers all seem to. I am tempted to paint eyes and big P40 teeth on him or something, to make him look cooler. Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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Here's the one I bought. I was tempted by the fancy scheduler model, but I'm glad now that I didn't get it. It's not like the thing doesn't have to be tended to each cycle, and I move it around from room to room each cleaning cycle. The scheduler would have been no extra benefit for me, for lots more money. Other people may feel differently.
I could see if you had a large house, and you wanted it always to stay totally clean, then you could maybe get a scheduler model for each room, and perhaps your house was so clean that it only needed to be emptied once a week. Then that might be worthwhile, if pricey.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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