I read a question about Sentrias in the latest VCCC newsmagazine.The Sentria DOES NOT have the Kirby "bank".The "diamond G" model did-the last one to have the bank.The latest Kirby salesfolks DID not know what the Kirby bank was-explained it to them-and no mention of it in latest Kirby sales materials.With Kirbys latest plastic fans-the Kirby bank is needed more than ever!However the "bank" doesn't help if you pick up a coin hidden the couch.They should put a trap AHEAD of the fan(like the NSS M1)so the coins won't break the fan.what good is the "mini-emptor" if the coin passes thru the fan and breaks it-you can find the coin and the peices of fan in the emptor.

Re: Kirby plastic fans
I have owned vac shops for many years, and have never been that fond of Kirbys, although I will admit they are well built. However the lexan ("plastic") fan, first introduced on the Tradition, was the best thing they ever did. Unlike the previous cast aluminum fans, they have some "give," and therefore don't break as badly as did the metal fans. And they lowered the noise level of the machine. I remember when Kirbys were considered the loudest machine on the market. And best of all, the lexan fan completely eliminated the problem of fan housing breakage. We used to routinely replace fan housings, and hear horror stories from customers of chunks of fan housing flying across the room like a projectile, when broken. I'll give it to Kirby for this improvement, although the first use of lexan fans, with the same benefits, was by Eureka, six or seven years earlier.

Having owned and sold Kirby classic, 1cr back in the day (1970) and several family members also owning other kirby models. The bank was sold
as a place to put quarters and dimes to save for the $14.00
a month payment! Which was $5.00 or $7.00 a month in the 50's
Norm

i liked the metal fans better-and have run into more older Kirbys with intact metal fans than plastic ones-their early plastic fans were HORRIBLE!!In one Heritage I got as a trade in for A TriStar-the fan in it EXPLODED when I put the machine into the "hose" mode.It worked OK in the floor nozzle mode.I have NEVER seen a broken Kirby fancase.I would love it if kirby went back to metal fans and used whatever alloy that Royal uses-several years ago I saw a dramatic Royal demo where the Royal rep put the hose adaptor on the Royal upright-then he sucked several pennies from his hand.He then took the pennies out of the bag-they were bent-and then he removed the front of the Royal fan housing to show the fan-only a couple of nicks in some of the blades-and one just very slightly bent over-both bill(the owner of the vac shop-he was a Royal dealer) and I commented that the pennies would have broke the kirby fans-Bill does great business in replacing kirby fans-he wished for the metal one as well.with Kirbys NEW fan design-the lower trailing edge of the fan blades-would be tougher than ever.I also liked the throaty roar of those older Kirbys!I also DON'T like the all plastic Eureka machines-the plastic fan housings break as routinely as their fans-Bill services the ECU and ECU hospital vacuums-large fleet of Sanitaires-the most common repairs are broken fans and fancases-however from another former vacuum shop he ran into some metal fancase liners for Sanitaire vacuums-he tried a few of these-and they worked GREAT!On the packages the lines come in-no brand-but installation instructions.Now that was an improvement!He also got some metal Eureka fans and has been using them instead of the plastic ones.He commented they held up better-not only do the plastic ones break so easily-they erode quickly from the "sandy" soil that gets tracked into places here.the metal fans withstand the erosion better.

I always thought of Kirby and Royal uprights to be equal in terms of quality, at least in the 60s,70s and 80s.

Ian

Yes-I feel the Royal(older ones especially) were about the same in quality.I don't know how long the TTI built Royal metal uprights will hold up.I have a couple of the TTI built ones-they are built in China.Only time will tell.the chinese ones appear to be well made though-wether they are as good as the previous US made ones-I don't know.The Chinese made Royals have only been on the market for only a couple of years.

Well its good that the traditional style metal uprights are of a similar quality anyway, sure royal and thats (sadly) probably never gonna be the same but sometimes you've just gotta be thankful for what you've got I guess.

Although it's still a damn shame that most of the better vacuums out there nowerdays are in our collections.

Ian

Kirby noise-think the reduced noise levels is not due to the material the fan is made from-but the new NASA design that has the lowered trailing edge fan blades.Bet this design would work on metal fans as well-Meile vacuums have a similar fan design in their new "Vortex"single fan canister motors.