The Kirby Vacuum

Over a year ago I was dreaming of buying a new vacuum for myself for Christmas, cause our 8+ year old Dyson was falling apart.  But, I decided to wait a little longer, hoping to find a good deal on a new Dyson on the classifieds, then in January the Kirby Demo guy knocked on our door.  I didn't know it was Kirby at first, it was a girl offering a carpet shampooing demo and they'd do a room for free, and our carpets were looking bad so I said yes please.  When a guy returned with the Kirby box, I kinda winced cause our last Kirby demo from years ago resulted in our first "fight", cause I was siding with the Kirby man that we needed this vacuum and NOW and I abandoned my poor husband to fend for himself in the "no way are we paying $2000+ for your vacuum, dude" camp.  So, this time around, I wanted to be polite, but hoped I could just let him do his demo then send him on his way.  As he started he said he'd really like/needed to have my husband come.  (Doh!)  Corey was in his office trying to get work done so it was not good timing...

Peeking in his office - "Hey sweetheart?"
Corey - "Yes my love?"
me - "Um, a Kirby guy is here (shrink) and wants you to come...(shrink again)..." 

...which was followed by a "tsk-tsk" look about like this:

He did the demo, I of course sided with Corey in the "No way, dude" camp, and we told him we didn't want to waste his time and he didn't have to shampoo our carpet, but he did anyway, which was nice of him, then went on his way. 

So after this demo, I realized once again that the Kirby is what we need.  So, off to the classifieds again, this time to see what the going rate for a Kirby was.

When the money in the bank and the posting of a great price on a Kirby were in harmony, I headed out to take a look at a Kirby in Layton.  I came home with a Kirby in the van, very excited to get all the dirt out of it's deep hiding place in the carpet.  Coming up on a year later and I am still very happy with my Kirby purchase and will not ever use any other brand of vacuum. 

I've bought these generic vacuum bags on Amazon for a lot cheaper than the Kirby ones - they fit and work fine on my Ultimate G model as far as I can tell, although a Kirby Rep would tell you to only use Kirby brand name.  

I still keep my Dyson downstairs for when I want a quick surface clean or to use the hose vacuum down there, and when I use it I just can't believe the difference I can feel in the suction.  I can totally tell when I vacuum with the Dyson that it is a surface cleaner, that's it.  Doesn't loose suction, but that suction is about at a 2 compared to the Kirby's 10.  It does not clean up the dirt that gets in the carpet from the 10 sets of shoes we have running around this place.  Corey thinks the Kirby vacuum is so ugly, it reminds him of old people (Dyson did win out the Kirby on "the coolness factor") but it works so great, carpets really feel and look clean - that's all I care about.