In-house visit by a "Rainbow vacuum" salesperson

[Ignoramus32056]

We had a visit by a saleswoman who was trying to sell us a $2,000 "Rainbow cleaning system". For just listening, we received a gift of some bed sheet and also a "gift travel certificate" from a company called "Certs, Inc". (which is a florida based travel gifts company that does not make me very excited)

What this thing is, it seems, is a 25k RPM impeller sitting on top of a Lexan bowl filled with water. The impeller sucks air in, makes it whirl in a way that it makes contact with water and sheds the dust and other stuff into water.

There is no filter, like on conventional vacuums that trap particles into a filter. Water acts as a filter.

The machine was supposedly "1.9 HP", however, when measured with my Kill-A-Watt power meter, it registered only 850 watts consumed from the wall outlet, so it could not be more than 1 HP. OK, we all know that everyone is lying about HP these days. No biggie. If it was 1.9 HP, it would trip the breakers all the time.

As a side comment, what we have now is a Sears Kenmore upright vacuum that is a real beast, it uses about 13 amps and has a HEPA filter.

Then the saleswoman proceeded to make various points, which I may not remember all or in correct order, but I will mention a few.

1. Vacuum cleaners do not pick up sand from carpets/rugs, well. No comment on my part.

1. After just 15 minutes of use, due to dust getting into the fine mesh of the vacuum's filter, the "air flow" diminishes due to dust blocking the little pores. So a vacuum cleaner is not usable.

This was a total lie, as was easy to demonstrate with my vacuum which has its bag 2/3 full already. It still sucked well and produced a lot of suction and air flow.

1. Vacuums blow dust around and increase amount of dust.

I cannot say that it is false, for sure, but the 2.3 full bag in our vacuum attests that it traps at least some dust. Plus, it does have a HEPA filter.

She did some acrobatics by taking out the HEPA filter, which had some dust on the back, kind of mashed it in her hands a little and put back, -- then when the vacuum turned on, a lot of dust was indeed blown out.

1. Then there were some demonstrations that Rainbow would still pick up dust after vacuuming with a Sears vacuum, which could possibly be true but I think that she cheated a bit by going outside the area that I actually vacuumed, a bit -- it is kind of hard to tell, I think so but my spouse is not so sure.

1. She made some claims about infections that her system prevented, which went somewhat over my head but overall I was not sure if it was not complete bunk.

We did not purchase this system in the end, but I wanted to hear some opinions on this stuff.

i

[yourname]

I sold them briefly over 25 years ago. they are a good product that is overpriced with a scam of a marketing system. I starved for a few weeks then got a job

Lessee.

I want to talk to you today about air pollution, not outdoor air pollution, but indoor air pollution......

[Jim Stewart]

A "cult" vacuum cleaner like a Kirby. They've been around for ages.

Some people love them. I had a housemate years ago. She was a professional janitor/ housecleaner and she swore by them. I couldn't imagine dealing with the water bowl everytime I'd use it.

Like the Kirby, if you want one, you can usually pick one up on ebay for about 1/3 the door-to-door price.

[Nick Mueller]

Igiot, he should have sold you some brain. Then you could have figured out that you made just another posting not belonging to crafts.metalworking.

Nick

[co_farmer]

"Our youngest son tried selling them years ago as his first sales job. Learned a lot! Had to sell a minimum of 5 a month, I think, in order to get any commission. He sold 4, including one to his Grandparents. He practiced his sales pitch on us, but we didn't buy. Yes, they work and work really well, but hauling the bowl of black water to the toilet at the end of a job didn't strike me as very desirable. He quit after 4 sales, having learned same valuable lessons, particularly how scams work.

By the way, the Grandparents let theirs set for months with water still in it and next time they went to use it, the motor was rusted tight. There, some actual metal content!

Paul

[Roger Shoaf]

I recall someone trying to sell me a Kirby. I gave him an entry mat that had a rubber back and a short nap and asked him to take his Kirby and suck away until he thought the rug was clean.

When he stopped I turned the mat upside down and ran my old beater rescued from a dumpster Hoover over the rubber backing. The beater bars were the only thing doing anything banging the back of the rubber, and when I stopped and flipped the carpet right side up there was a bunch of dirt that had migrated out from the nap of the carpet.

I said "Look at all the dirt the Kirby left behind! I don't thing that guy was a vacuum cleaner salesman long after that.

[ed]

True story - My uncle was a door-to-door vac salesman during the great depression. My father was out of work and so my uncle offered to train him. This was in the days when door-to-door salesmen would literally stick their foot in the doorway to keep the homeowner from slamming the door shut.

Anyway, the routine was to start the demo before the homeowner could say no. They would take a small bag of dirt, throw it on the carpet, and demonstrate how well the vac picked it up.

My dad, finally ready to go it alone, went into a house in a rural area while my uncle waited in the car. Too much time had passed so my uncle went to the door to check how the demo was going. He found my dad sweeping up the dirt with a broom.

"What's the matter with the vac?" "The vac is fine - this lady's house has no electricity!"

Ed

[Leo Lichtman]

"Ignoramus32056" wrote: (clip) 4. Then there were some demonstrations that Rainbow would still pick up dust after vacuuming with a Sears vacuum, (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This is an old trick. Chances are that ANY vacuum cleaner will pick up SOME dust after any other vacuum cleaner. This might be hard to demonstrate with your Sears, because the dust goes into a bag, where it is hard to find. But I'll bet the demo machine would pick up more dust after itself.

I used to see this method used to sell press wash to printers. Wash up the press with what you're using now. Then we'll wash it up with this "super-duper" press wash, and you'll see that we got off some ink that your stuff wouldn't touch.

[Roger Shoaf]

A similar sales ploy was for a brand of salt that was mined rather than sea salt. The salesman would start his speial about how the pure salt was taken from deep in underground mines whereas the sea salt was salt water left in big ponds to evaporate with all the sea gulls flying over head and all of the fish guts tainting the flavor of the salt. He then would dip an apple wedge in his brand of salt and ask the prospect to taste. Salty apple. Then he would dip another apple wedge into the competitors salt and urge the prospect to taste. Since the first bite had loaded up the salt receptors in the prospect's mouth and their mind was filled with the vision of fish guts and seagull poop the second dose of salt tasted really foul.

[David Billington]

[Jeff Wisnia]

There are lots and lots of people who got conned into becoming insurance salespersons who give up after they made two or three sales to relatives and found the rest of the world isn't quite as easy to pitch insurance too.

Jeff (Who removed RCM from the "To" address list for this reply. )

[Melinda Meahan - take out TRAS]

hee hee hee I heard a story like that in Reader's Digest years ago, and it's *still* funny. The salesman said if the vac didn't pick it up, he's eat it, and the housewife said, "Here's a spoon. We don't have electricity."

[Omnipotent]

[Steve]

Dunno, I guess some folks like them, or maybe ya just gotta justify taking out a second mortgage to buy a vacuum...

[Trevor Jones]

We let the sales guy hold the cat while we tried to vaccuum it (He said the machine was good for reducing the dander,and it WAS his idea. The cat was not so enthused)

Once the bleeding stopped....

He spent another hour trying to sell us on the machine (Rainbow, too)

We had told him that he was wasting his time, but we were without other engagements, so offered to let him give his pitch.

At least he was not wasting someone elses time. :-)

Cheers Trevor Jones

[Jerry Foster]

A similar thing happened to a TV dealer in, as I recall, LaCrosse, Wisc. back in the '50s. An old farmer came into the TV and Appliance store and watched a TV for a while, but when the salesman tried to sell to him, the farmer replied, "It won't work at our house." Well, the salesman arranged for this elaborate demo, complete with trailer-mounted portable antenna, and, well, you know the rest...

[Jerry Foster]

If you want a good vacuum, go down to your friendly local janitorial supply and buy a commercial vac. You should be able to get a reconditioned one for a couple hundred bucks. Pick up a couple extra drive belts (you WILL get something stuck in the beater and burn one up every now and then...) It will last longer than you will...

[val189]

Also, part of the plot of an "I Love Lucy" episode.

[val189]

Also, part of the plot of an "I Love Lucy" episode.

[sonofabitchsky]

$150 worth of chink parts. Similar to Bose. Crap.