Is the Kirby recommended for a home with mostly hardwood and a few area rugs?
1967581
No. For hardwood, you should buy a canister vacuum. Canister vacs are lighter, and allow you more easily to get under furniture and into corners. I love my Kirby, but I never use it on my hardwood floors. You simply don't need that kind of power to clean wood floors. A Kirby is also not the easiest vacuum to use on area rugs since they are not tacked down. For wall-to-wall carpet, the Kirby is great. But in your situation, there are much less expensive options that will work better. And the Kirby is heavy, very heavy.
632000
In my experience you can but I'm not sure that I would vacuum hardwood since it may damage it. There is no toggle for carpet/hardwood. Honestly, this is a very inexpensive vacuum and you can tell. I have one room with carpet and another small stick vacuum for my wood and laminate. I am very happy with the vacuum but it does not need to do anything hard-duty.
131311
Absolutely! We've had Kirby, Orec, Hoover, Electrollux & other vacumes. I bought this one because most of our flooring is tile or wood, for which it does a superb job, but I was astounded at how well the powered worked on the carpet. The unit is light, versatile, powerful and gets under nearly everything except our sleeper sofa and Chinese hutch. It is by far the best vacume we've ever owned.
1062892
My entire downstairs is tile and wood flooring. Yes, this puppy really serves my purposes well. I actually bought the PortaPower after checking out what the house cleaning service used. Being that a vacuum is a tool of their trade I followed in their tracks. Be sure to buy the optional canvas shoulder carrier. You do not want to be carrying this unit around by its handle. Even with the shoulder straps you will be using one hand to vacuum and one to manage the cord.
1603111
I only have two small areas of hardwoods and don't use the vacuum cleaner to clean them. I do like the vacuum cleaner though - I'm quite happy with my purchase.
1878981
The manufacturer specifically recommends a rug pad. Our works beautifully with the pad.
154666
Yes, I primarily have hardwood floors, but we have a number of large rugs and it doesn't have a problem moving to and from both (doesn't get stuck either.) I have also used it in a house with carpet and I have used it in a house with hardwoods. Hope this helps!
1624025
Well, we have a low pile carpeting, almost like berber, and it works well. I just had to open an adjustment on the turbobrush to allow the brush to rotate faster. If you have a higher pile, I would consider a model with the powerhead. As far as for the wood floors, I will never use a broom again. It's so smooth and you feel like no dust is being stirred.
1363439
I think so! We have hardwood with some area rugs and it's been our sole vacuum for just about a month. We'll likely need to pull out the Electrolux just to vacuum off the bricks on our woodstove hearth, but I really can't fault the Roomba for not getting in the deep mortar joints on our brick work. We were thinking about picking up a small handheld vac (like the Shark 12 volt) to make such brick work and stairs a breeze.
1334393
We have several area rugs for which it works quite well. The only rugs I would avoid would be those with a lot of fringe or 'shag' type carpet. It is most effective on hardwood and tile floors.
436099
I also have three dogs and was given a Roomba for Christmas. You WILL still have to use your regular old vaccuum even though you have a Roomba. It will probably be great on your hardwood floors--likely a big help. However, on the carpet, it will probably just do 'maintenance-quality', picking up quite a bit of hair, but still not replacing a good manual vaccumming. (But hey, every little bit helps when have multiple pets). I run mine every day, and I appreciate its ability to perform damage-control every day with the "kids'" daily shedding, supplemented by my own once or twice a week regular vaccuuming. I empty the bin every time it completes a cycle. It only takes two seconds. If you try to run it will a full bin, it won't be able to pick up anything very well, just like a regular vaccuum. One more very important thing-- since you have pets, you'll have to be extra dilligent about cleaning the brush and the rubber thing next to brush. The brush is relatively easy to clean with the cleaning tool, but the rubber thing next to the brush can get hair wrapped around these tricky grooves next to its wheels--its kind of time consuming, but if you don't keep those things clean than its bad for the Roomba. Oh, and for other pet people out there, I was at Roomba's website the other day and they have now came out with a Roomba for homes with pets, so you may want to look into that if you are considering buying a Roomba. The Roomba Sage for Pets is like 219.00, and the Roomba Discovery for Pets is around 300.00. The brushes are supposed to be easier to clean than the standard Roomba.
1396579
I have hardwood floors and area rugs. This vacuum has an adjustable deck which makes it rather effective on hard floors, in my experience.
2046674
Works just fine on carpet actually you might prefer carpet. on wood and tile it can be a bit of a racket
1363305
In general I would say yes. It's optimal on carpet but you don't have to do anything to adjust it for going on hardwood or linoleum. Nothing's "perfect" but it's hands down the best vacuum I have ever owned.
1839233
Doesn't do area rug well if you are trying to go through the middle. You need to keep part of the sweeper on the bare floor. Problem is the sweeper has so much power that it sucks the rug up. Great sweeper.
2264195
I agree with others. Get the bare floor attachment. I had one from my other Kenmore and it fit just fine. When lazy, I have used the carpet head to do my hardwood floors and it does an ok job, it is just so bulky it does not go around furniture very well.
1684526
It works great with the area rugs, it even does well with our bath mats which have no backing, though it sometimes flips a corner up, but it's not a big deal. I upgraded mine to a brush roller which is less noisy on the wood flooring. You might also look at the XV-21 which comes with both.