G6 (Gsix)

I bought a used Kirby G6 for $75 off Craigslist. It's a boat anchor. But it does a good job, so I can't complain for the price.

I have a Kirby repair guy in my town. Super nice person. After I bought it, he serviced it, replaced my fan blades, gave me a new brush roller, gave me some belts and bags and spent about 20 min showing me how it all works for, I believe $100. They're good vacuums that will last forever with proper service. But they're WAY overpriced. And their sales practices are truly horrendous. On the plus side, they don't really hold their value in the used market. It's easy to pick one up for cheap on Craigslist, Offerup or Facebook Marketplace.

Buy a used kirby off marketplace , heavy but self propeled and super hi high hight adjustment

As well, a Kirby is probably the best carpet cleaning Vacuum made. It’s just antiquated.

KIRBY! Get a refurbished Tech-Drive model. They can easily outlive their owners with adequate maintenance, tune-ups, etc. They’re very different from modern vacs, but, for carpet-only, for the price, value, they’re perfect.

Kenmore canisters for carpet are very good. For hard floors, they’re awful. Obsolete. Deal breakers. Etc. Why not buy a refurbished Miele or Sebo, or if you have wall to wall carpet in most of your home and rarely use attachments, definitely go for a Kirby, or a Rainbow if you have a mix. Goodvac dot com for Kirby parts, Rainvac dot com for Rainbow parts. Miele parts and Sebo parts are easily accessible. Hyla parts are not, in contrast, but they too last a long time. I think they’re easier to use than the Rainbow but they don’t clean carpet very well at all. Kirby is about the best you can get for carpet.

You can get second-hand Kirby vacs off of marketplace for under $100. I think anyone who is even halfway serious about deep cleaning carpet should get one. Just make sure it’s been taken care of, if not recently serviced.

It’s not impossible. Look at a refurbished Kirby for carpet. You won’t find a better vac for that, but, you can research their carpet performance and why they clean carpet better than anything else (airflow, height adjustment, nozzle design/ brush roll performance). You can get them for $270 or so refurbished and get possibly decades out of it. A properly refurbished unit should be completely clean inside and out, and fully functional mechanically, performing within spec of a brand new unit.

I don’t know if you’ve considered self propelled vacuums. The Kirby is the one I have, a professionally refurbished one so I paid around $200 (every part that could be replaced or repaired was and the machine was polished and sanitized), but it’s not the only one out there. It’s heavy, but the self propelled feature makes it very easy to use. Plus, it’s great for people with allergy and lung issues. I have a primary immunodeficiency that causes lung issues and an autoimmune condition that saps my energy. No fragrances needed, because the filtration in the OEM bags keeps the odors in that well. The only thing that’s a pain in the butt is if I have to carry it up or down the stairs, but the tech drive makes it very easy to push and pull. Maybe others on here can suggest other self propelled vacuums that also have great filtration. I don’t sell vacuums, so my knowledge on all the brands out there is limited.

Buy a used Kirby vacuum on FB marketplace. Go for a Heritage 2 or later G series Kirby vacuum and you'll be quite satisfied. With the G series, Sentria, or Avalir models, you can find a lot of attatchments for them. They made the same basic vacuum and attatchemts for 30+ years so they are interchangeable. You can still get parts for all of them. The Heritage 2 and older ones are great vacuums but parts and attatchments for them aren't as easy to find. They're still out there though on ebay a lot. Any vacuum store is more likely to carry parts for the newer ones. These Kirby vacuums are a bit heavy and bulky but they have so many uses and last forever. I have one from the 1950s that still works great! You can't buy a better vacuum for longevity.