when you guys are counting beans on these hi-priced vacs lasting for years, some of the parts to keep them running in tip top shape (roll brush, switches, replacing smelly cloth bag holders, etc) the cost of some of those parts are near as much as a whole new Bissel.
and they still don't suck as well as Bissel
I don't know about you guys, but I can't keep a vac looking good for years.
Mine start looking beat to hell in less than a year.
When my roll brush wears out , i don't replace it..I replace the vac with bright shinny NEW Bissel ..
and it sucks better than the hi-priced vacs ta'boot
Grant, I've owned several Kirbys.
They're build like a tank and the motor will last for generations ...BUT...the Kerby/Royal design is a dinosaur...they don't suck all that great .
Debris passing thru the fan isn't such a great idea ..
the by-pass design is much better
You mention the vac fan being close to the floor as better
sounds good in principle, but that fan has PUSH debris thru the plumbing and into bag or container .
The by-pass pulls ..
both accomplish the same thing, cept the typical by-pass has more suck to start with, plus you're not degrading the performance of the fan by "sand blasting" it with every use
..L.T.A.
G'day Ruff.
I agree the Kirby is an old design as is the Royal, as is the Sanitare but, so what so is the internal combustion engine, the lightbulb, the refrigeration compressor etc.
What concerns me is performance. Grab a tape measure and measure the total distance the air and soil have to travel in your bagless vacuum cleaner. I absolutely "guarantee" you it will be substantially further than the Royal, Kirby and Sanitare. I don't know if any of you guys did some science in school, but you'd surely be aware that the further something has to be moved, the more energy it takes to relocate. I just took my own advice and ran a tape measure over the air path of the Kirby from the bottom of the floor plate to the top of the bag fill tube. It measures 66cm. And the fill tube width measures 5.04cm which is 2 inches in your money. Now anybody who runs a truck mount would be aware that hose width and length matter a lot in maintaining power. Shorter and wider lengths will sustain performance better than longer and narrower lengths.
Here we have a vacuum cleaner with a bloody 2 inch air passage that's only 66cm long from floor to bag opening. And our pickup fan is a mere 12cm from the floor. It should be obvious at this point the losses owing to friction in the air delivery network are at a minimum.
Now lets's consider the dust collector of a bagless system. Most people don't stop to consider this cyclonic separator has to be driven, it actually has overheads. The dirt has to be spun at high velocity in order to generate the forces requires to separate in from the air stream. Cyclones are not free if you like. So now we need to work our how far the dirt has to travel, how narrow the air network is, and how much energy is lost over all this - and - sustaining the overheads of the cyclonic separator.
There's no such thing as a free lunch. In fluid dynamics physics this is certainly true.
Another thing that concerns me is this notion that "they don't suck as well". Well, we' need instruments to know this for sure which I think is a bit beyond Mikey's care factor. But suffice it to say you can't just put your hand over the hose and say "this one feels stronger". As I'm sure truck mount users also appreciate, there is a difference between suction (pressure) and air flow (volume). It's true that both are needed in sufficient measure to achieve useable performance. In contrast to water extraction where more water lift is better than more air movement, in dry soil extraction things are reversed. More volume is better than more velocity, I.E., more CFM is better than more inches of lift.
The Kirby doesn't have suction (pressure) as good as your bagless, but it's volume of air movement - will - leave it for dead.......
Recovering dust and hair isn't so hard, recovering sand, garden soil, shell grit, plant fibres etc is difficult. Airflow needs to be at its' maximum in order to effectively recover these soils, and these are the soils that damage the backing, abrade the pile and cause wicking issues.
I notice that the Kirby continues to test favourably against many newer and younger units in spite of it being a 100 year old design, the question is, how is this possible? Could it be that performance has given way to pretty plastics, cheap manufacturing, light weight handling, reduced noise and on board tools?
As I pointed out Mikey is NOT Mrs Smith. He's a professionally paid contractor, he's there to get the soil she can't. So he needs tools she wouldn't entertain to do that.
Dropping what amounts to a serious looking, heavy duty, metal vacuum cleaner - known by Mrs Smith to be super expensive does his image great service, and the sand and abrasive soil recovery prowess of the unit does justice to Mikey's care and quality of workmanship.
Big boys toy........BIG boys toy.
Grant