Kirby G5 / 6 / 7 Review

Do you look at your carpet with a microscope? You almost certainly shouldn't do it.



I used to buy a new vacuum cleaner every time one broke (average every 1-2 years). We had just had one for a few months, an 1800W Electrolux cylinder vac, when my wife called me to say I would have to be home prompt from work: some guy was coming round to clean the carpets for free. Well I know you get nothing for free so I said, "What's the deal?" to which she eventually revealed it was a Kirby salesman coming round.



Well, I wasn't happy, but obediently I did as my wife said. The guy was a geek, supposedly used to be an island DJ, but I just couldn't believe it. He started his demo, setting the Kirby up as a carpet cleaner, all the time explaining the features and benefits of the system. As he explained it I rudely started to read the paper. My wife glowered at me as I looked up from time to time.



The geek finished shampooing the carpet in no time and then returned the Kirby to vacuum mode. Placing a black cloth where the vacuum bag goes he vacuumed a small patch of carpet. Stopping the machine again after barely 10 seconds he opened the black cloth to reveal what had been sucked up. There was an impressive amount, but we knew we had dirty carpets, but even still was this some sort of magic show? Was he secretly putting a handful of dirt in the bag? Again he did the test and this time I watched carefully same result. I tossed aside the newspaper, went out and found a brand new vacuum bag for our cylinder cleaner. I went into our hallway and thoroughly vacuumed an area about 18 inches square for about two minutes. I returned to Geek and asked him to put the Kirby on the same area, which he did for about 10 seconds. He opened his cloth. I opened the cylinder vacuum bag. After first using my cylinder vacuum for about two minutes, there was a small amount of dirt .but in barely 10 seconds the Kirby had already collected about three times as much dirt!



All that money we had spent on previous vacuums, all those times we had taken time to 'clean' round the rooms we had been conned. Most of the dirt was staying in the carpets. How many hundreds of hours of wasted toil over the years? I hated the thought that we might go on living with the 'unseen' dirt. I had to have the Kirby. Anything else was a complete waste of money. I could not allow myself to do something knowing the job was only part done. I was sold. My wife was stunned.



Over the last 11 years I have never once regretted paying for the Kirby. It was alot to pay but I've seen others buy other 'miracle' machines, vortex, bagless, Dyson's, etc, etc. They weren't cheap either, certainly more than half the cost of the Kirby, but they've already replaced their machines at least twice. And all that time I've laughed at the pathetic cleaning abilities compared to the Kirby. It may be heavy, it may look old-fashioned .but you try it. The reality is that most people carry on in ignorant bliss with carpets full of dirt, completely blind to the fact that their vacuum simply doesn't do what they think it does.