Ho hum what can I say about Kirbycleaners.......well they are a fantastic ‘hoover’ to coin a phrase. They clean your carpets, curtains, beds, windows, work surfaces, cars, patios, strip wall paper yes I kid you not! They do just about everything around the house except for making a cup of tea, the dinner and have a ciggy!
They are a bizarre looking ‘hoover’ looking like an antique but coming with the most amazing array of attachments imaginable. If you can think of a household chore, then the Kirby can
do it!
I have never ‘owned’ one of these amazing things, but I have spoken to people who have, and I have also seen this machine in action.
I was ‘referred’ by a friend, that is how Kirby drum up their trade, you have to refer 5 people who you think would benefit from one of these machines. I was pretty miffed about this referral to be honest, but soon understood.
I received a phone call from a very pleasant person offering to clean one of my carpets for free if I had a demonstration. I had just moved into a rented house, and the previous occupants had had a dog, so I though this would be great.
How I soon learned to regret that decision!
The rep arrived very promptly. was very smart and polite and began his demonstration. He worked very hard! He explained what the Kirby could do, how it worked and why it worked, I was impressed. The came the demonstration........OH MY GOD! I wanted the earth to open and swallow me!
He wanted to hoover a small section of my bed, I led him to where the bed is, he hoovered it opened the black bag attached to the hoover and showed me the contents! The results of 5 years hard sleeping was staring me in the face in the form of copious amounts of white powder. That explained the young man was skin cells, dust, dust mites, the list went on.
Thoroughly ashamed we went back downstairs. The rep asked what kind of ‘hoover’ I currently used, a’ a VAX’ I replied. He then proceeded (with permission) to rub a pound bag of silver sand into my carpet until it disappeared. He then invited me to vac it with my VAX 50 times. I did this and figured that I had taken up most of the sand if not all. He then went over the area twice with the dyson, opened up the bag and there in the bag was a pile of silver sand together with dog hairs and other ‘bits’. It was then my VAX was condemned!
I can truly say that I was impressed, I wanted one, I felt dirty, grotty and grimy, as soon as this guy went I was going to set about the house with venom. Then the bombshell hit, how much??? the price was truly staggering £1250 yes £1250 for this dream machine. Well I had to have one, my house was filthy!
Sense kicked in, in the shape of my boyfriend, I wont repeat his words I would get banned from here if I did, but he said ‘NO’, cant blame him really. The guy persuaded and tried, I was still hooked, he cleaned the carpets and made an excellent job of it.
Although the Kirby was a great machine, it was way too pricey for what is essentially a hoover. I have spoken to many people who have bought them, and yes they used them for every job that they performed. That was until the novelty wore off. It then became far too much hassle to put all the bits on it to perform the different jobs. It then became a very expensive ‘hoover’.
Another downside of an otherwise great machine, is the fact that they replace each model every year, with a new improved one. The parts then for your model become obsolete. You can only get Kirby parts, from Kirby and they are very expensive.
Kirby also use very devious means of selling their product, it does an excellent job, but who needs a stranger coming into your home and proving to you that you are dirty! It is humiliating to see the muck coming away from carpets but from your bed!!! How much more personal than that can you get? You also have to try and refer at least 5 people for them to go and visit, I am afraid I pretended to be Billy no mates on this one, as I didn’t want people to think I thought they were in need of a better hoover!
If you really want to have one of these machines, then I suggest you look in places like the admag, or loot, as they are always on sale in there for a fraction of the price.
The overall rating i have given is for the performance of the kirby cleaner, it is a great invention, but not worth paying £1200 for, unless you dont have to worry about money!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
I recently bought an older model. A legend 2 with all the accessories including the shampoo attachment. Well from first impressions it was good as a hoover but then i tried the carpet cleaner. What a joke that was. It just dumped water all over the carpet and left it there. Not worth the money if you want it as a carpet cleaner but great as a vacuum. Great review .
hamster177 13.08.2003 13:08
I have had 'The Demonstration' too. Yes and in the bedroom.
a lovely young lady told us that if we bought one she would win a trip to New York for being sales person of the month.
So?? We would still have to shell out £1100 for the priviledge of sending her.
My husband thought it was a wonderful machine. But a grand for a hoover??? No chance.
purebitch 11.02.2003 19:41
I use to work for this company and I can not fault their machine, just their sales tacktics. The amount of muck they remove from your home is enough to shame you into buying one! Good op, georgina.
Advantages: so many machines in one. motor driven lightweigt to use Disadvantages: A bit heavyto carry upstairs (you just need to carry it by handle base)
Nitso 10.07.2008 (10.07.2008)
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Review of KirbyG4
Advantages: Superb cleaning power, loads of accessories Disadvantages: heavy, a bit awkward sometimes and bags and cleaning liquids are hard to get and expensive
ramcharan 22.12.2000 ·
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