Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

Curiously Overstock.com has been stocking refurbished Kirby vacuums for a while, and they have added Rainbow SE vacuums (along with Panasonic, Royal, Dyson, and Oreck offerings).  The Rainbow SE is "factory refurbished" (not sure which factory) and is offered with a brand new Wesselwerks 11" power nozzle and a 5 year warranty. 

http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Rainbow-SE-Bagless-Water-Vacuum-Cleaner-Refurbished/3402181/product.html

My thanks as well Severus.  All I can say is that I wish 'em luck.  Good used and rebuilt Rainbows can be had for at least a couple of hundred less.  Considering the low-end power nozzle and generic attachments they added on, the $629 price is way too much.  As well, a good Kirby Ultimate G, same model they're offering, can also be acquired  for about half the $700 Overstock is asking.

Well before my time I believe, as well as the new regular brands of the day, catalog houses like Spiegel sold rebuilt Lux model 12s and 30s along with some early day Hoovers.  Nonetheless this is an interesting development to learn of.  I wonder how well they are doing.

By the way, in the vacuum market, exactly what is "refurb" in comparison to "rebuilt"?

Best,

Venson

Venson wrote:

Hello Venson:

"Rebuilt" is old school vacuum vernacular.  "Refurb" [short for refurbished] and "repack" [short for repackaged] are new school vacuum vernacular.  Refurb/repack became more pervasive in the vacuum industry in the early 90's.  Why?  Regina's CEO and CFO were in cahoots cooking the books to inflate Regina's stock price on Wall Street.  How?  By double counting re-sales of the returned new Reginas.  In essence, this overstated Regina's profits/net income and understated its expenses/cost of goods sold. 

One of the permanent judicial imposed consequences [after both the CEO and CFO went to jail] was for Regina [and the US vacuum industry] to clearly mark the cartons/boxes of the re-sales of returned vacuums as 'refurbished/repackaged.'  The terms stuck in the industry and are frequently truncated to 'refurb/repack.'

I still like the term "rebuilt" better.  I'm from the old vacuum school.

Carmine D.

Who would have thought?  From the pictures it looks like good quality, but I find it interesting that they are outfitted with bojack accessories, some of which can be found for next to nothing on eBay.  And I bet that the aftermarket replacement power nozzle isn't NEARLY as good as the original (with or without the 4-row brush). 

I'm curious, how could you tell the P/N was a Wessel-Werk?  It doesn't look like the usual Wessel-Werk I see, and I wasn't aware of any other models.

-MH




 

Motorhead wrote:

Hello MH:

By reading the specs which I excerpted and highlighted here.  And also presuming that 'Warrick' is bad German spelling for Werk.  

Carmine D.

Rainbow SE Bagless Water Vacuum Cleaner (Refurbished)

• Keep your home clean with this reconditioned Rainbow SE Canister vacuum cleaner
• Home cleaning device comes with a 5-year motor warranty
• Vacuum boasts on-board tools including duster brush, crevice tool, ulphostery tool, and floor tool
• Runs on water, no bags necessary
• Also includes the famous Squeegee tool for cleaning hard floor surfaces.
• Brand new high end 11-inch electrical power nozzle made by the worlds best power nozzle maker Wessel Warrick
• High End Power Nozzle features double pivot system which makes it more maneuverable

This high-quality item has been factory refurbished. Please click on the icon above for more information on quality factory-reconditioned merchandise.

if its the 11'' w-w power head without the headlite,then its the same as what bosch and miele uses on their mid range machines. Its not the 236 powerhead, considering that rainbows attempt at building their own power head since leaving the eureka camp back in the d2 d3 era, they just cant seem to find the right combination,too aggressive not aggreesive enough, Good brushroll, wrong bearings and pullies, side hung belt then center hung belt, neither which work with the cheapo flat belt.Take the adjustment height out put the height adjustment back in.ITs just too expensive and heavy and is just too hard to push.I think the customer is really better off with the W.W head.Hey why not OCEAN BLUE uses it................

MOLE

I forgot to mention that you can buy a new Amway Bagless ClearTrak Vacuum with Tools for only $450 - supposedly an $850 value.  I've never used on of these, but I'm not sure why one would want to buy a primitive version of a Dyson for more than a modern Dyson?  Or am I missing something.   The reviews are actually quite good for this product. 

http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Amway-Bagless-ClearTrak-Vacuum-with-Tools/2996694/product.html

Severus,

Thanks for the info. I do not know much of this vacuum, but if one was to look, it is missing Dyson’s shroud. I believe Dyson invented the shroud (an industry changing innovation - an industry standard today) while developing the first dual cyclone for Iona. Interestingly there is a eBay seller who was/still is? selling NIB ClearTraks (with shrouds, if I remember correctly). I called the seller and ironically they bought the lot of these vacuums from a woman who recently went to prison. To bad the Amway “suits” who decided to steal Mr. Dyson’s innovations did not go to prison too. Certainly, if small time inventors could see a suit or two go to prison for stealing backyard inventors inventions, then more life changing inventions would come forth and well... change lives (with better innovations), change industries and ultimately bring forth more wealth and jobs for many. DIB

Filter Queen [copied also by Lewyt] uses an aluminum 'conical assembly' in their 1940's bagless canisters to cover/protect the motor from dirt and dust.  This conical assembly is IMHO the precursor of today's 'shroud.'

Carmine D.

Carmine,
The conical assembly and perhaps others too predate the Dyson shroud. But it is the Dyson shroud that is being copied globally and nothing at the USPTO predates this industry standard [the Dyson shroud]. If designed correctly and if the distance between the shroud and the interior of the bin is “perfect", this results in no or almost no debris getting hung up or sucked into the shroud (if the bin is not overfilled, note: uprights work a little better than canisters). It’s genius, that’s why it’s copied so heavily.

DIB

DysonInventsBig wrote:

I suspect that Filter Queen never bothered with the USPTO.  In part, the reason Lewyt copied FQ bagless cann including the 'conical assembly' and filter cones.

Carmine D.