The boys and I have used it a few times now, I gave it a good floggin on some nylon pile and an Olefin glue down.
Very impressed with how it vibrates the carpet and the ease of use. The drive wheel make it feel like you're cheating.
It really is an incredible piece of equipment.
but damn, does it ever need a bypass hose that's ready to go.
I acknowledge your observations about onboard tools. You're right. It would make your life easier and I too would appreciate the assistance it would offer.
BUT....
It will NEVER happen on the Kirby. To implement the onboard tools would dictate relocation of the pickup fan and substantial revisions to the geometry of the air path.
This would blunt the stellar carpet pickup performance you have now observed.
The Kirby is proof that not all new things are an improvement in terms of how well things work as compared with older and usually simpler devices.
The Kirby is outright crude. It's a 100 year old relic. But 100 years ago housewives did not complain about trivial inconvenience as they do today,
This is why so many Kirbys are virtually given away second hand. Carpet cleaners are however performance sensitive, they have already gone to great lengths to recover soil homeowners don't. The thing to remember is that this notion that "it makes it easier for me" is a homeowner point of view, not really one to be bought into by professionals, tempting for the time and effort savings as it may be.
If you're spending money and tine with high end processes to sell to your customer, you can live with Kirbys being performance cleaners that forsake onboard tools. Just invest in a small shoulder canister for edges or tell your guys "tough it out, you work for me and we work for the customer. They deserve premium service so we'll just live with setting up the Kirby".
Grant
