Customer Reviews

KIRBY SENTRIA (G10) 2009 BARE FLOOR SYSTEM WITH SHAMPOO ATTACHMENT

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I bought through in-home sales pitch. I'd been leery about spending that kind of dough but now that I own it, its worth the investment. I too got hooked by the baking soda demo, that's just amazing. I'd just bought a Dyson the year before and I loved all the accessories but the bagless feature I thought I'd like turned out to be a negative...dust goes everywhere when you empty it, you have to go outside...and then it just blows back on you. PIA. I'd rather just dispose of a bag thank you. Also, I continued to have dust settling problem on all my furniture and electronics, the Dyson seemed to stir up a lot of dust in the air. After a week with Sentria I won't go back. Much less dust on all my furniture. I suspect it will continue to decline to nothing as I cycle through all the dust in the air settling on the floors.

Yeah, the shampooer isn't as thorough as a commercial shampooer/vacuum..but I didn't buy it for that anyway. If you spill something that goes to the pad, even a commercial shampooer won't get all that out...just lift your carpet and see for yourself, been there done that several times.

I also like the wallmount accessory box, very nice way to handle all the accessories.

I agree the in-home sales approach limits them in the market.

but its a great vacuum.

i just recently purchased this vacuum from a door to door sales man. and yes you do have to get by the sales people, but they are just trying to make a honest living. i was so embarrassed when they were doing the in home demo. i had a electrolux oxygen 3 and i thought it cleaned pretty good but i had absolutly no idea that there was so much more dirt being left from the vacuum. this kirby just simply took care of all the dirt. and i have 2 dogs, a cat and a baby. after seeing how much dirt was being left behind i just had to buy it cause since my daighter is now crawling i dont want her in that filth. oh and the shampooer i also just bought a 5 star rated shampooer before i got this kirby and there was a couple of stains that i couldn't get out, lets just say that this vacuum did it all. the stain is gone and my carpets are restored once again. i am so happy to have this vacuum, yes the price is pretty high but the one that i got came with a lifetime warrantee, so it will be the last vacuum that i buy for life. buying this vacuum will be the best decision that you will ever make.

Honestly, people think you are either a salesman for kirby or just plain crazy if you say it's an amazing product. I am neither. I work for a 3rd party telecom company which provides call centers for AT&T. The job I have there is as a staff memeber doing clerical work. But I did think at one point about selling Kirbys. The job itself is pretty flipping crazy, don't think I would ever want to try it. Did seem like people who were good enough at it were able to make a decent living with it though. Just not for me...

But...while I was there listing to the spiel of how selling Kirby's is like becoming a cross between a deity and Chuck Norris, they did setup a demo between a Eureka XL Pro or whatever (an $800 dollar vacuum essentially, the types hotels buy all the time) and the newest Sentria model.

I wasn't expecting much, seriously - I thought, okay - a vacuum great - I just really need a job now, whatever. But then the guy hosting everything (the "training" course, 1st day) pulls out a little rug, dumps about 3 pounds of baking soda on in and then proceeds to smash the crap out of the baking soda working it into the carpet as deep as possible. Interesting, so they bring out the Eureka (maybe it was a different type, I can't remember the name) and let people watching actually come up and try to vacuum as much of the baking soda out as possible - it is like stacked on the carpet so the first person comes up and then vacuums what appears to be all of it off. The person training is like "no you need to keep going, I need to make sure you got all the baking soda off" so like 5 other people comes up and continue vacuuming this spot of carpet for like 10 minutes straight. Finally he takes the vacuum and the presses his foot over the top while vacuuming the same spot just to show that there is no chance this vacuum could have missed anything it might be able to get out of the carpet.

The carpet looks spotless at this point - so he brings out the Kirby and then just positions it over the spot and puts a small test filter in the machine which allow you to actually see what dirt is being captured and then seriously, just flicks on the switch. Not even joking - like a full pound of baking soda just exploded into the filter, seemingly out of nowhere. My jaw dropped...I was just like, what the heck just happened??? He had to turn the vacuum off about 3 seconds later because the filter was jammed full of baking soda. I had never seen a vacuum do that before. I honestly was in disbelief, as was the rest of his training class. So he throws another filter in there - doesn't even move the vacuum, then turns it back on. Same thing happens, another ridiculously large amount of baking soda just explodes into the filter section and he has to shut it off. This happens honestly about another 6 times until it finally seems like the amount of baking soda blasting into the filter starts to tone down a little. It was completely crazy. It made this other uber-expensive $800 vacuum look like a fisher-price toy. Unbelievable. My opinion of other vacuums (really nice ones) had just been tossed in a dumpster with that demonstration. The Kirby just destroyed the other vacuum, it wasn't even fair.

This seems like kind of an absurd thing to posit about a vacuum cleaner, I know. Even I feel it's a little weird that I go around looking at people's eletroluxes or whatever and thinking "what a POS", but that's seriously what it's like. Kind of like every car in the world was a Chevy Astro and then someone introduces a Lamborghini and has a showdown between the two. That's how stupid unfair a comparison is between at least the new Sentria model and basically any other vacuum ever made.

I just had a vacuum die on me today. Really lame "12 amp" (oooh! big amperage! watch out!) hunk of junk so I'll probably try to buy a second-hand lower generation kirby to see how that fares.

With all due respect to other vacuum cleaners and the companies that make them: ouch. You got p'owned. Hard. I will never buy another piece of junk "billion amp" piece of plastic malarkey again, they all seem to just die and never bother having any built-in fail safes that tell you "hi, I'm the really important motor and I'm about to overheat and kick the bucket - you should probably turn me off". On the other hand - people who sell the Kirby's door-to-door are seriously either insane or just really good at what they do and, I dunno. The trainer at the meeting was flashing more dollars signs at me and the rest of the crowd than Jay-Z at a hip-hop charity tax-deductible donation event for the fight against breast-cancer/AIDS. At the end, the only thing I remember was how flippin cool the Kirby vacuum was and how ridiculous I felt for taking selling those things seriously at all. Maybe it was just that guy.

I just purchased the Kirby Sentria G10D and have no regrets!!!! My first and main reason for buying this vacuum is my mother bought a Kirby from her neice and has had it for at least 20 years, and never had any problems with it. In my opinion they are built like tanks.I am not lazy and don't mind taking the head off the unit to convert it to a canister after a few times it's like 2nd nature.It took me ten minutes to find an online store that sells the bags, belts, and parts cheaper than a Kirby dealer.

I have gone through alot of vacuums over the last 15 years,1 eureka, 3 dirt devils,2 hoovers,2 Dysons!!! 1 yellow and 1 purple one called the animal.Out of all of those my wife and I liked the Dysons. Even though they would break due to the fact they're made of plastic they would really perform nice.Until we bought the Dyson animal, stores that sold them had a good warrany.They claimed to many problems contributed to the limited warranty. We took a chance and went with the Dyson Animal for over 500 dollars with tax I think. It lasted five years with several repairs needed and constant cleaning of the clogged tubes, air chambers and seals.

That was it we had enough with the plastic crap. Which to me doesn't weight any less than our Kirby. We needed something heavy duty that will LAST!!! My wife vacuums 3 times a week if not more!!!

I bought the kirby for 700 dollars.Here is how it went down. I had a referal from a friend to get a free carpet cleaning with their attachment for the sentria. As soon as the guy walked in the door I wipped out the laptop in front of him. I then looked up how much they were going for online. Like I do before I buy ANYTHING!!! Especially from a salesman! He started at about 1200 dollars if I remember wright and I said how long is it going to take you to finish shampooing my carpets and couches as I turned on my sons xbox and started playing Darksiders. This led to him telling me about their friend and family program or whatever it was. Next thing you know after several phone calls to his office, and finishing cleaning my carpets and couches we had him down to 800 dollars.I then said give it to me for 700 dollars including tax and you have yourself a deal. SOLD!!!700 bones!!! I hope someone can get one cheaper, but I thought that was a fair price for a vacuum, floor buffer, and a shampooer.

I had to write this review to let people know what these machines go for. New out of the box with a warranty!!! I hate pushy sales people taking advantage of people who have no idea how much something goes for. The sales man later told me they sell for about an average of 1600 dollars and have heard of people actually admiting they paid 2500 dollars for one. If you are impatient or cave in easily don't even let them in your house. My advice is while they are there let them know you are not even remotely interested in the vacuum and make sure they know, you know about the friends and family thing and how much they are selling for this will save you time and money.If you don't like to haggle don't even waste your time with a Kirby Vacuum.

5 stars for the vacuum which is made in U.S.A!!!!!!!!!!!
3 stars for the sales aspect

Here are a few things you need to know. First, we get a phone call (don't know how they got our number its unlisted) offering a free shampooing of any room in our house. Why? They said they hoped they would like their carpet cleaning service, use them again and recommend them to others. Sounds fair enough. No mention at all that they sell Kirby equipment and that this was really a sales call to sell us the equipment. We are in the market for a shampooer and new vacuum so that would not have been a deal breaker, but its not a great way to start.

So the salesman comes and we quickly find out its an attempt to sell us the equipment, and not a shampooing service company, but he is going to do that by demonstrating how well it cleans so we said OK. After the first hour of showing us all it can do, we were nowhere near getting anything cleaned. Approaching 2 hours and clearly there was no shampooing coming. We were getting tired of the sales pitch and hosting the salesperson for so long so we stopped everything and sent him home.

A few more cautions. To start the demonstration, the salesperson vacuumed an area of our rug with our vacuum and then with the Kirby. The Kirby did seem to pick up a lot more dirt. But watching carefully, the salesman put our vacuum on the hard floor setting which of course wont pick up much on the carpet, then ran over the same area (and other ares he did NOT vacuum with our vacuum) with the Kirby. So its not surprising that he picked up more dirt. What vacuum wouldn't?

Also, he will tell you some story about how he is in some contest to earn a trip or some other prize if he sells during this visit. Maybe true, maybe not, but clearly an attempt to garner sympathy. Also he may tell you some story of how his family told him not to go into commission sales, that he will work very hard and earn nothing and that he loves proving his family wrong each time he makes a sale. There will be comments about putting bread on his family's table etc. All to make you feel sorry for him and more willing to buy. These stories may be true or not. You may hear other stories. But why would you buy ANYTHING because you feel bad for the sales person? You like the product or you don't. Simple as that. Especially for something this expensive, emotion should not play into your decision. But of course they want it to because if you take time to THINK about it, you are less likely to buy.

One other bothersome tactic. He would check in with his manager from time to time to ask a question or give him status. Then when we started balking on the price, $1800 who should show up at our door but his manager! Huh, he just HAPPENED to be in the area? Not likely. The manager will try to work through any objections you have and will offer a better price to buy NOW. Our advice would be to turn him down and send him away. After he left, we told the salesperson we would think about it and thanked him for his time. That's when he offered to call his managers boss to see if he could get us a better price if we bought today. At that point we were tired and fed up and just had him leave.

But the important message here is that DO NOT PAY $1800 for this equipment if you like it. You can get it much cheaper. At least $300 to $500 cheaper. Maybe more.

On the positive side, the salesperson was very knowledgeable, very professional, courteous, well spoken, well dressed and patient. We attribute our complaints not to him personally, but how he has been trained to sell by his company.

As far as the equipment. It does seem well made and sturdy. It MAY be as good as it appears, but given the tricks we caught (and maybe some we didn't) its hard to be confident in the product. Also it has A LOT of parts and accessories that you have to attach, click, turn etc. It does replace many other cleaning tools so maybe this is ok, but if you want a simple device, this is NOT for you.

So I'm not saying don't buy one. But if you agree to a demonstration, be very careful. Oh and you most certainly will not get your whole carpet cleaned or vacuumed. We SPECIFICALLY asked the person who called to make the appointment and she "absolutely guaranteed" they would shampoo the whole carpet. Not only did they NOT shampoo the whole carpet, they didn't even demonstrate the shampooing feature.

Last night we got thrown the pitch. The door knocker came by and offered a demo, to which my wife and I slipped and said sure. 3 hours later, after talking the the guy doing the demo, and his boss (who kept coming and going, kinda strange) we ended up saying sure. The original price on the sheet they gave us was $3197 plus tax. We ended up settling for $1400 with tax. After reading a few reviews later, and seeing some customers had paid anywhere from $800 to over $2000 for theirs, I figure we did OK, although some more haggling might have dropped it a bit. We did like the guy doing the demo, and figured the extra money was worth going to him. From what I understand the distributor boss gets $1000(before his cost of the vacuum), and the three people required to make the sale take the rest of the cut. Which is fine, I understand the costs of overhead and such, and the sales team has to pay for their vehicle, gas, and lots of expenses out of their own pocket. I know these guys work hard and are trying to make a living. I would just think that by now, Kirby would realize that door to door sales tactics aren't the way to reputably sell their products. With this economy, the internet, and the skepticism of the average person towards solicitation, these salespeople have to take a very hard and forward approach to sell their product. They almost have to sell high to make up for the lack of volume on their sales. We said no thanks quite a few times and they were "well we're just going to vacuum this spot over here, we have to do it to make the points for our trip" and then continue to haggle during the process. Interesting stall technique.
I must say, in the end I think I did end up with a good investment. I do know the vacuums I have had in the past aren't very good and mostly just pick up surface dirt. If this vacuum lasts me 30 years, I will be happy. One $200 vacuum every 3 years ends up to be $2000 at that rate, so financially it's better, and figuring in that those vacuums won't perform as well the quality is definitely better long term as well.

The one thing I'm not 100% sold on is the shampooing. They sell the fact that it doesn't go all the way to the carpet pad as a good thing, but frankly if I spill something on my carpet, its soaking to the pad and I'll want that cleaned. Also the shampoo tray attachment at the front makes it impossible to get into any corners all the way. For regular maintenance shampooing, this would do the trick, but deep cleaning, no way.

Pricey, yes, but it's a lifelong investment. I wish I just had some more time to think about purchasing an investment of this magnitude.
Solid functioning product, it does have small flaws, but that's too be expected by anything.

Overall product review: 5 Stars
Overall sales tactics review: 2 Stars

Get with the times Kirby Corp.

I bought a new Sentria the other night. I went through the normal sales pitch and truly believe that the Kirby is a very vacuum. I did try reversing the demonstration that the sales did the night before and vacuum a spot on the floor with my Kirby and then went over the same spot with my other overpriced vacuum (Dyson). I was able to pick up some additional dirt with the Dyson. I personally believe you could go over the same spot with another brand vacuum and still get more dirt (and my house is clean).

Bottom line is my husband and I liked the Kirby and it's well designed attachments but we told the sales we weren't interested. The rep called his supervisor and he showed up in about 10 minutes. I was promptly asked the normal questions of if I thought that my house, carpet and lungs deserved the Kirby and I said yes but declined purchase at this time. The supervisor promptly told me that he needed to sell one more in order to qualify for a Las Vegas vacation and that he was willing to cut a deal. His first offer was $1750.

While he was making his sales pitch, I actually went online to Ebay and priced some refurbs ranging from $800 - $1100. I told him that I did like the machine but I probably would buy a refurb at a much lower cost. The rep then asked me that if he could get me a NEW Kirby (no shampooer) for $800 "Would I buy it?" I said I really liked the shampooer and would consider the deal if I got everything (shampooer included) for $800.

After making another call to the manager, the supervisor offered it all to me for $800 which I accepted. So I ended up with a new Sentria, shampooer, some type of rotary brush that was demoed by the sales rep. The supervisor also threw in a set of three bags and a couple of belts. In addition, the supervisor said he forgot to ask about a vacuum to trade in and asked if I had "ANYTHING" I could trade. I told him that all I had was my Dyson and he wasn't getting it. The supervisor said not to worry about as he had something that could be turned in from another sale.

Bottom line is I got everything I wanted for $800 and probably still overpaid somewhat as I believed that everyone involved still made some commission. What I've found out is the price is very negotiable and you can get a better deal by being persistent.

The warranty on a Kirby Sentria is a 3-year limited warranty. All parts and labor are covered on the powerplant, which is the motor and suction aspect of the machine. After that, if the Kirby quits working, they will completely rebuild it like new for $ 175.00. This is of course if you buy from a qualified dealer that offers the warranty.

I know this because I sell them in in-home demonstrations. If Kirby offers any other type of warranty, I haven't heard of it. Also, if you buy any way other than from an in-home demonstration, chances are there is no warranty at all. Kirby only advertises by word of mouth, and showing the machine personally in homes.

Honestly, though, the Kirby Sentria is most definately the best home maintenance system I've ever seen. Whether paying full price or getting a deal on a Sentria, investing in this awsome machine is the wisest decision anyone can make for the health of their families and cleaniness of their home.

I purchased this product last year from a door-to-door sales man. I paid $2000 for it. It was an expensive purchase, but well worth it. My carpets are incredibly clean and I am always amazed at how well the shampooer works. It pulls stuff out of your carpet that other vacuums don't even come close to! My carpets look great and I never have to worry when there is a little one crawling around.

I have dealt with the Kirby salesman on numerous occasions, but only one time did I actually allow them in my home for 4 hour demo!! My husband was pretty upset to have to come home to some woman cleaning our carpets but since that day I was intrigued with the Kirby. A couple years later I realized people were selling Kirbys on Ebay and Craigslist and decided I was willing to pay those prices versus the $1000+ the Kirby saleswoman was offering as her "lowest price". I got a Kirby Sentria from a vacuum store for $500.00!! It is by far the most amazing vacuum I have ever owned (or will ever own). I am a clean FREAK and this vacuum has amazing suction and overall cleaning power. The shampooer leave a bit to be desired since it does not "suction" the water/dirt out of the carpet but rather shampoos and scrubs with a brush. It is effective but I wish it would suction the dirt out. I definitely would never have paid thousands as others have and would look for a good deal on either the Sentria or Diamond model as they are are pretty much all the same. There is a great article on Ebay comparing the Dyson and Kirby if you aren't convinced. That article will convince you beyond a doubt!