Thread Number: 23635
Kirby Tradition Bag Conversion |
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Post# 264608   1/23/2014 at 23:50 (3,716 days old) by dandagreer (Nashville, TN)   |   | |
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Hello everyone; new to posting but I've been lurking for some time.
I'll start out by saying, I've been a Kirby lover my whole life. My Mom acquired my Great Grandparent's Kirby Sanitronic VII when I was about 8 years old and it was love at first sight! I've been a Kirby fan ever since. Come to find out years later, it was a FrankenKirby bojack, replaced with red trim and a red F&G bag conversion. But I ended up taking it to college and it served my family for 20 years. Anyway.... Last year I rescued a Tradition from the curb; it was sadly tarnished, rusted and a general mess. It had been left in the sun for long periods of time. The bag and handle were both badly UV faded. I ended up cleaning it up, polishing it, washing the outside bag, and replacing the brush roll and it has worked well since then. I ended up taking it to work and it has been the primary vacuum for six months now. My only gripe was the old Style 1 bags. I used "genuine" Kirby bags; but it seemed no matter how hard I tried, the bag ended up leaking. Every time I would go to change the bag, the cloth outer bag would be filthy on the inside and full of dust and yuck. Bleh! Having had enough, I decided it was time to order a new outer bag since the original was so faded. After having read here about a conversion to the new fill tube allowing the ability to use Hepa bags, I thought I'd make an attempt. I ordered a Fill Tube assembly for a Heritage 1HD, #189881 ($20); a second-hand G4 top bag adapter ($9); and a new outer bag, #190079 ($40). The old Tradition paper bag adapter came out easily enough. I inserted the plastic adapter from the Heritage in, marked the holes, and drilled the emptor to receive the screws to hold the emptor adapter in place (you can see the bottom screw in one of the pictures). Once tightened, it sealed quite nicely against the lip of the emptor (I was very pleased with that). Now, getting the outer bag back on over the emptor...that was a PAIN! My fingers are still sore trying to stretch that thing out over the lip. Finally managed to wrangle it back on. Once I got everything back together, I took her for a test run. I simply could not believe the difference in the suction. It's like a brand new vacuum. I'm so pleased! For anyone considering this mod for your Tradition, it's worth it. So happy to be able to use the Hepa bags now. No more mess! My next project? Picking up a Classic III that I found on Craigslist. So much fun! |
Post# 264609 , Reply# 1   1/23/2014 at 23:51 (3,716 days old) by dandagreer (Nashville, TN)   |   | |
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Post# 264610 , Reply# 2   1/23/2014 at 23:52 (3,716 days old) by dandagreer (Nashville, TN)   |   | |
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Post# 264612 , Reply# 3   1/23/2014 at 23:53 (3,716 days old) by dandagreer (Nashville, TN)   |   | |
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Post# 264613 , Reply# 4   1/24/2014 at 00:03 (3,716 days old) by BrianKirbyClass (Eudora Kansas)   |   | |
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Welcome and very nice job on your Tradition! Yes, it can sure get addicting rescuing these old machines.
I bet you could find a new blue handle for your Tradition easily,,thats one of the great things about a Kirby. Parts are generally very easy to get, even for the older machines. Specialty parts may be harder, but for general, run of the vac parts,,they are easily avalible. There are many awsome members of this group that can help you obtain parts here too. |
Post# 264897 , Reply# 6   1/27/2014 at 11:24 (3,712 days old) by KirbyClassicIII (Milwaukie, Oregon)   |   | |
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Post# 264972 , Reply# 7   1/27/2014 at 17:15 (3,712 days old) by dandagreer (Nashville, TN)   |   | |
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You can get a replacement bag for the Classic; but you'd need to have a zipper installed. Any seamstress with a heavy duty sewing machine could do it. Then you could use the method I used with the same parts. You would just need to acquire a Tradition emptor then detach the brown bottom piece from yours and use on the Tradition emptor.
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Post# 264973 , Reply# 8   1/27/2014 at 17:16 (3,712 days old) by dandagreer (Nashville, TN)   |   | |
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Post# 266039 , Reply# 9   2/3/2014 at 22:45 (3,705 days old) by KirbyClassicIII (Milwaukie, Oregon)   |   | |
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David,
That is true... but even on the earlier machines, the Classic Omega/III speed switch is also used on those batch of machines when converted, since the original speed switch that was mounted on the inside of the headlight cap was somewhat troublesome since several Kirby users often jammed the headlight cap which eventually led to wear and tear on those internals, causing the switch to go into high (hose) mode all the time. ~Ben |