It's sucking me in!! (Kirby GSix Vacuum)

Member Name: deathy

Product:	Kirby GSix Vacuum
Date:	13/06/03 (4946 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: very versatile, excellent at cleaning, excellent back up service

Disadvantages: long sales process, expensive

The Kirby...

...Vacuum cleaner of folklore.

Can it be true? A domestic cleaner costing over £2000?
Who'd pay that?

Do you know anyone who has one?


Yup - me!

But here's the secret - I bought it on ebay (sorry Mr Kirby Salesman - but when they're available for less than £500 and if the machine is, as you say, designed to last a lifetime, then how can you argue your way out of that one? Oh, and the warranty is transferable and for £130 they'll do a complete refurb with no hidden costs).

The phrase that springs to mind is "Gotcha"


OK, let's rewind.
In my lifetime I have sat through three kirby demonstrations. O, so the first was when I was five years old and all I remember is that the salesman's trousers split, so I guess that doesn't count. I do remember a particularly ghastly pictue of a dust mite (magnified 60 billion times or something) that caused me sleepless nights for a couple of weeks - but I digress.

The other two demonstrations have been in the last couple of years. On both times I have been hugely impressed by the cleaning qualities of the machine and its versatility. The salesmen do go on a bit, but if you enter the spirit of it you'll have fun and, at the end of the day, they'll stay happy too. The most amusing piece of the first demonstration was that our house had wooden floors throughout and the only "carpet" was a rug which cost £150, so I was hugely amused by the bloke trying to get me to part with almost 15 times the cost of the rug. Still, it got a free shampoo, bless.

The second demonstration was in our new old house which has more carpet that Allied Carpets. After much haggling we managed to get them down to £1400 for a new gsix or £1250 for a ex-training model - so if you haggle, it can be done.

We did not bite though.

Instead we bought a Gsix for less than £500 through eb
ay and are more than happy with it


So what's so good about the Kirby?

Well, before I get into that I want to point out that the Gsix is now a discontinued model. The Ultimate G is the latest and, allegedly, the last for a couple of years.
Anyway, back to the benefits:

The kirby is not just a vacuum. It will also
shampoo your carpets
polish wooden floors (extrra attachment required, cost about £80)
inflate things that need,er, inflating

and most importantly (I love this bit) it has a light on the front so you can finally vacuum with the lights off. Yippee!

It also does other stupid things like sanding and so on, but who cares. Basically you are buying a very well engineered motor with a variety of attachments. Quite frankly if the fact that it can massage your shoulders sways you to part with £2000 then give me a call, I've got some grass clippings going cheap at £50 a blade.

So is it any good? Oh yes. It is widely regarded as the best vacuum on the market. And I have to say that of all the vacuums I have watched my wife push around the house (come on guys, let's be honest), it is the best. We have inherited a disgusting (and I mean disgusting) carpet when we moved in. It was beige. Well, it was beige once. When we move in it was more like brown with the occasional black splat. Three weeks after getting the kirby and one shampooing session later, it's back to beige (okay, not spanking new). Incredible.

The weight. One of the common complaints levelled at the kirby is that it weighs more than the Forth Road Bridge. We compared the weight of it against our old standard vacuum and the kirby weighed considerably less. What's more, when you switch it on there is a clever "drive" facility you can engage which actually pushes and pulls the machine in the direction you want. Think of it as power steering for a vacuum. It isby far the lightest vacuum &qu
ot;in action" I have ever used.

Each vacuum is supplied with a video explaining how to use it, and a neat cupboard tidy for the attachments.

Ergonomically you'll either love it or hate it. It's shiney, a bit like the floor polishers they used to use on the gym floor at school but hey, it's a vacuum. It cleans up MUCK. You don't put it on display when you're not using it do you? A shovel wouldn't win a beauty contest would it?

From a price point of view it is expensive for a one off hit. Over the course of you're life though, if you estimate a good quality vacuum lasts around five years and costs around £250-£300 then assuming you buy five hoovers in a lifetime, then that's most of the cost recovered. On top of that, the carpet shampoo would save you about £100 every couple of years (be that the cost of a professional or buying/renting a machine) and then on top of that you have the additional lifespan of your carpets. So I reckon, it more than pays for itself, but obviously not as much as Mr, Kirby would claim.

I'm not going to et into the sales technique - I'll let you discover the joys of that. But remember a couple of things. If they can smell a sale they will come down in price. Their final price is not their final price. Be interested, be concerned and appreciative of them and their product and they'll respect your bank balance. And if possible, get the demonstration toeards the end of the month - that's when their targets start to come home to roost and you an have a lot of fun.

Finally, if you want a great game to play during the sales process, here's two:

1. Before the Kirby salesman arrives, each of you pick a location somewhere in the world that you think the current sales promotion is for. Whoever is the closest wins

2. Each of you guess how many times the salesman will mention the holiday during the presentation.

r>Ah, the kirby.

Great vacuum. Great fun. Buy it on ebay