Kirby, you get what you pay for.

My previous vacuum was a wind tunnel. It did ok, but I wanted something more. Then, the Kirby people started calling. We gave in and let them come to do their demo. We didn't buy the Kirby that night (due to both funds and the highly pushy, can't take no for an answer salesperson), but the desire to have one was put into both my husband and I that night.

We decided that we needed a Kirby. So I started looking around the little mom and pop vacuum stores in our area. I found one. Five days old and only used three times. SOLD! I bought my Kirby in November of 2000 for $1000 less than what the salesperson wanted to sell it to us for in our home.

This sweeper is wonderful. There are so many attachments that I don't even know what they all are supposed to do. And there is an attachment holder that you can attach to you wall to hold these attachments in. (Did I just sound like a broken record?) I will have to admit that I have only used two of the attachments: the hose and the shampooer. Both work wonderful. I love having the ability to shampoo my carpet whenever I want to without having to pay out money to have it done.

With the wind tunnel I had, it had one little hole that was used for 'sucking'. With the Kirby, the whole vacuum head (?) is used for sucking.

Shampooing a carpet isn't easy, even with a Kirby though. The water tank only holds so much so for my family room that is about 17'X17', I had to refill it (if memory serves me correctly) at least 3 if not more times. But it did a wonderful job!

It even has neutral and drive! In neutral, the Kirby is more difficult to push along. But it is still easier than the wind tunnel. Put the Kirby in drive and it is almost a breeze to push. The Kirby has to be in neutral to push it around while not running. You cannot pull the vacuum backwards if it is in drive.

I almost forgot to talk about the hepafilter! This is another reason we purchased the Kirby. Our son has asthma and I wanted to be able to remove as much dust/dirt from the carpet and mattresses as I possibly could. One reminder though, you must change the bags according to the directions or the hepafiltering system doesn't filter correctly. User error though, not the machine.

Would I recommend the Kirby to my friends? YES! I've even looked for Kirby's for them.