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Kirby Vacuum

 
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Location: Proebstel, Washington, USDA Zone 6B
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One of my recent succesful repairs was this Kirby Classic III. My grandpa bought it back in the 70s or so. It had always served him well. I pulled it out of storage some time ago. When I tried it' it didn't work. Power comes through a two prong extension cord. So I tested that with a drill. The drill didn't spin. I poked some multimeter leads in the end, and only 20 volts were making it to the plug. I didn't have a two-prong extension cord handy, but Ebay had an exact match. So I ordered it and when it arrived the vacuum started right up!

I'm hoping it will run for another 20 years. We polished some of the aluminum with some old green paste that came with a Dremel kit. It shined up pretty nicely. And it wacuums really well

While I was waiting for the extension cord, I saw a modern, working Kirby at Goodwill. They are still designed roughly the same way.
20241216_184235.jpg
The Vacuum as we polished it
The Vacuum as we polished it
20241216_201521.jpg
Some shines return
Some shines return
 
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Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain
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They are excellent machines!
I found two at our thrift store years ago  very cheap and rewired one cord and cleaned the bags and brushes...did not think about polishing...that looks great.
When we moved I never intended to have carpet again so gave them away.

Has yours been used bagless?
The one's I had were and very hard to clean out.

 
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I had one of those years ago, I owned a commercial janitorial service, and the Kirby was a heavy creature, wasn't our day to day use machine, but when we needed the serious stuff, it came out. Awesome machines, built well and fix easily.
Glad you have that one back to life!

:D
 
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