Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

Looking back over the past year, one thing conspicuously absent from this forum is a rabid Rainbow enthusiast.  Perhaps it is difficult to justify the outrageous price of these door to door wonders.   To some extent, a Rainbow owner has to believe in the Rainbow sales pitch and doesn't want to be confronted with any negative information about the Rainbow.    I also noticed that overstock.com is no longer selling the refurbished Rainbow SE's with the Wesselwerks small power nozzles.    Given the economy, it's got to be tough selling $2000+ vacuums - even if they can purify one's home. 

Thanks Venson.

Carmine D.

It has been FOREVER since I have been on this forum. I moved and got a new computer and I guess I just forgot to bookmark it. I still have my Rainbow 2 speed that I have had since 2006. I still use it on and off. I did want to share something.......U know the hepa exhaust on my Rainbow is still brand spanking new looking.....I still am confused as to if the fine dust/dirt goes past the water and onto the hepa, then shouldn't mine be really gross by now. Still white and smells new.

I still think the vacuum repair stores that open up Rainbows and see mud and dirt on the inside are seeing Rainbows that folks would use and not change the water....and letting it turn to mud while they keep right on vacuuming..Thus, of course you're going to see a muddy inside of a machine and a muddy hepa....The key has to be changing the water often......The hepa five years later on mine speaks for itself.........

I used my Rainbow a lot the first two years......I would use it more if it weren't for the crappy PN that chokes off the airflow. I still use it at least once a month, but not everyday The PN is well built and attractive but something in the way that it's designed just doesn't perform as well IMO

At any rate.......I will be the first to say these are overpriced and somewhat of a pain to use......I only get it out when I do heavy duty deep cleaning up on high areas and places I can't get with the Kenmore can since I have the 14 foot non-electric hose.....As for the PN, I'm currently looking for one that is designed better but I'm not sure which one's will fit........But I'm sorry, if these things are used properly, they filter EXTREMELY well.......

I messaged Venson

But if anyone knows which PN's will fit the e2 with stainless wand and electric hose without any modifications, please let me know.


Thanks

Welcome back and glad you still like your Rainbow, except for the PN, a typical complaint by many Rainbow users/owners. 

Carmine D.

My family suffered through a 2.5 hour "no obligation to buy" Rainbow demonstration as a result of my wife signing up to "win" a prize.  Of course everyone wins the opportunity for a token prize.  Note - it's not really a prize when you have to do something to earn it.  Our "prize" was a Rainmate - essentially a small humidifier comparable to the $15 ones at Walmart.  For the low price of $20, we can buy some aromatherapy chemicals.   I wasn't particularly impressed with the Rainbow, and the nearly $2600 price tag plus $350 if you want to buy the aqua-mate (carpet cleaner - alternatively you can sell out your friends if they agree to suffer through demos and get a "free one.") 

I would agree with the posters who say that the power nozzle is poorly designed.  It felt clunky to use.   Forcing the consumer to hold a trigger switch to avoid having to include a safety reset switch is a design flaw.  Having the belt in the middle of the nozzle with a 1 inch or so gap in cleaning coverage seems like a major design flaw.  I wonder if that's the biggest reason for Rainbow's poor performance in carpet cleaning in CR testing. 

I was absolutely amazed at the attempts at deception and outright lies in the demonstration.   Perhaps the most blatant example is how they rebox the Rainbow after the demo so they can pretend that it is brand new for the next demo.  I happened to take the cover off the power nozzle to look at the belt protector, and saw remnants of red and brown carpeting - not from my house.)  

To beat it all, the SOB thought we could be bribed to give him names of our friends/relatives who might want to suffer through demos.   I like my friends.   Friends don't sign up friends for Rainbow demos (at least not without prior approval and warning).  

The smart tyrant writes his own story to ensure that it is favorable.  The lazy will repeat lines from the book without fact checking. 

Severus wrote:

Yes.

That Rainmate thingy is nothing but an air freshener. It doesn't clean the air. I mean, it's a cool little unit but only worth ten dollars or so.

Dumb question.

Can the E series Rainbow's be ran without the hepa filter? When I had the hepa off the other day it warned not to run without it. Wouldn't running an E series without the hepa basically be like using a pre-e series Rainbow? I was thinking about just leaving the hepa off because it's not really doing anything. Perhaps it would create more suction? I don't know.

I'm also thinking about getting the Eureka Express PN for the Rainbow. But I also wondered what anyone thought of these PN's and would they fit the Rainbow e series?



http://cgi.ebay.com/Central-Vacuum-Electric-Power-head-Nozzle-Vac-NEW-/160535449028?pt=US_Vacuum&hash=item2560a88dc4

mark40511 wrote:

Same same with the P/N.  Rainbow E series price for P/N is $279.  Eureka P/N $70.  And .....the fact that the Eureka P/N has an all metal agitator with beater bars and replaceable brush strips; the Rainbow brush roll is wood.  Extrapolate the same mark-up and product worthiness to the rest of the Rainbow vacuum and attachments too  IMHO.  As I said, after Rainbow was forced to come clean on its product overstatements and claims, it never kept pace with the rest of vacuum industry for product performance and price. 

Most of the Rainbow owners I know store the vacuum away in the closet and use another one as a daily vacuum.  Pulling out the Rainbow for sentimental reasons whenever they have pangs of guilt for spending so much $ to get so little bang.  Most Rainbows are kept in storage like this for years and years without any regular and/or even infrequent use.  They'll last a lifetime with that little use which is a product plus if there were some/any collectible value for them.  I haven't seen it yet in my liftime.  But there always hope.

Carmine D.

CarmineD wrote:

Carmine,

the unscrupulous Rainbow salesperson would say that we enjoy living in a sea of filth without a Rainbow to clean our homes.   They actually put the Rainbow back in the plastic bags and box so that the next customer thinks it's brand new.   When I mentioned that I had read that the Miele was the only vacuum that was certified as an entire unit, he implied that I must be mistaken.  I pity the poor Rainbow salespersons because they seem to really believe the BS in their sales pitches.   They truly believe that if you vacuum with a Rainbow after any other vacuum and it picks up even a single spec of dirt that it proves the Rainbow is better.  they also believe that the Rainbow will get all of the dirt out of the rug - which is truly fantasy.   If he hadn't already overstayed his welcome, I would have considered showing him that my vacuum could get dirt that his missed. 

Severus wrote:

Hello Severus:

You and I have a friend who was and proudly claims having been a Rainbow salesman.  The Rexair/Rainbow 'sales schtick' has not changed in over 50 years.  Nor the personality of the sales crew.  They have the temperament of a thief and the skin of a rhino.  Nothing penetrates them.

We have a poster here whose niece tried her hand at selling Rainbows.  Wonder how she fared? 

Carmine D.

I was offered the Stae sales manager  position for  a distributor and was sent home with 39 page Demo Paper I was to learn . The Demo was not to be deveiated from. So if you had a questionm , I would we would answer it shortly. Everything I saw in the spiel was Half truths so they could call you an out and out liar. I don't think the Demo is that way now , aaat least I hope not but the half truths are still there.

I didn't take the job because the product didn't prove it's worthiness and I am glad I didn't.

                                                                                                                                 Procare