In-house visit by a "Rainbow vacuum" salesperson

Ignoramus32056 · 2007-04-27T16:27:13+00:00

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 ofsome bed sheet and also a "gift travel certificate" from a companycalled "Certs, Inc". (which is a florida based travel gifts companythat does not make me very excited) this thing is, it seems, is a 25k RPM impeller sitting on top ofa Lexan bowl filled with water. The impeller sucks air in, makes itwhirl in a way that it makes contact with water and sheds the dust andother stuff into water. There is no filter, like on conventional vacuums that trap particlesinto a filter. Water acts as a filter. The machine was supposedly "1.9 HP", however, when measured with myKill-A-Watt power meter, it registered only 850 watts consumed fromthe wall outlet, so it could not be more than 1 HP. OK, we all knowthat everyone is lying about HP these days. No biggie. If it was 1.9HP, it would trip the breakers all the time. As a side comment, what we have now is a Sears Kenmore upright vacuumthat 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 notremember 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. 2. After just 15 minutes of use, due to dust getting into the finemesh of the vacuum's filter, the "air flow" diminishes due to dustblocking the little pores. So a vacuum cleaner is not usable. This was a total lie, as was easy to demonstrate with my vacuum whichhas its bag 2/3 full already. It still sucked well and produced a lotof suction and air flow. 3. 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 ourvacuum attests that it traps at least some dust. Plus, it does have aHEPA filter.She did some acrobatics by taking out the HEPA filter, which had somedust on the back, kind of mashed it in her hands a little and...

Apr 27, 2007 89 Replies

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Arthur Shapiro 17 years ago

Actually, I recall that the traditional term was "All-American Five". A decent circuit, although the simple power supply could be hum-prone.

BTW, I've had a Rainbow since 1978. It doesn't quite have the airflow of some brands, but is a quality product that does a fine job if one can tolerate the nuisance value of emptying the water tank each time the machine is used. Otherwise, evaporative corrosion will eventually eat away the motor guts. Obviously one should never buy it from the big-bucks door-to-door salesman, but with a little bit of luck it can be found at a non-jawdropping price. Last year I shipped mine half way across the country to have it rebuilt, not trusting my local shops to do a good job.

Art

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Michael A. Terrell 17 years ago

I used to rebuild the motors for those Rex-Aire built vacuums. A neighbor was in the used vacuum cleaner business, and always needed motors. After a while I could tear them down and replace the bearings and brushes in 10 to 15 minutes, depending on what type of motor that brand used. He would give me a truckload of old motors at a time. :(

BTW Rex-Aire built a higher suction version, but it was recalled after a few people succeeded in pulling their carpet loose from the tack strips.

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Lew Hartswick 17 years ago

That sounds like just what is needed to suck the oily chips out of the T slots of a mill. :-) ...lew...

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Stormin Mormon 17 years ago

Thanks, got a good smile from this thought.

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Michael A. Terrell 17 years ago

As long as they are smaller than a bowling ball. They could pick up a bowling ball, but it wouldn't go down the hose. Put a few drops of detergent in the water, and it will trap oily dust. A place was using one to clean up drops of mercury where they made thermometers fro several years. When the EPA found out they had to spend $30,000 on a replacement system hat didn't work as well.

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