Sentria II Home Cleaning System

Growing up, we had this absolute beast of a vacuum. It went through three generations and still could inhale a quarter within 3". Downsides: probably weighed 300lbs (per my recollection of trying to vacuum the stairs as a 10 year old), would try to eat its own cord if you weren't careful, and once it ripped the curtains down - rod and all. Every vacuum I have ever used gets mentally compared against this machine and always fall flat. After a bit of internet searching, I'm pretty sure it was a Kirby Classic III (now running $140 to $300). The Kirby Legend II ($100 - $350) and Kirby Heritage II Legend ($100 - $350) are generally comparable. Newer Kirby models (lighter, have push assist, shampooing, easy to find parts) that hold their own: Sentria - pure sucking power ($100-$350) Sentria II - improved 4-position pivot ($150-$325) Avalier - peak Kirby engineering & multi-surface shampooing ($150-$300) Avalier II - minor ergonomic tweaks ($200-$400) Note that pricing runs all over the place, but this is "sweet spot" pricing with lower end being private seller with perhaps not all the attachments and high end being professionally refurbished with warranty.

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. 

Tenho um sentria. Resolve o problema dos pelos na roupa que é uma maravilha

Your Kirby will last through the apocalypse.

Find a used Kirby Sentria. We’ve been using ours for 15 years. It’s a beast of a machine

They definitely aren’t the most nimble machines. But they’re great at what they do and add in the benefits of the 1000 adding run by the propeller. I do get what you’re saying for sure. We use robots and run the Kirby weekly for corners.

I’m wondering if it’s high pile carpet that’s causing it. I have carpet in one room that most machines don’t do well on. I didn’t realize it was high pile, I thought that was only shag carpeting.  My Kirby is the only thing that really clean it.

Sentria. I bought one in eBay and got a second at an estate sale. Learning curve but great machine if you can get a good deal.  I’m not sure if it’s the carpet or the thick padding, but the Kirby is the only thing that works 

Kirbys are great because they're so easy to fix. Every single part is user-replaceable