Rainbow

I was using my Rainbow the other day and I wondered why they have not become more ubiquitous as a household cleaning asset. Then, when I poured the detritus into my toilet, it struck me. People do NOT want to see the crap that it sucks up. And it sucks up A LOT. What’s a Rainbow you ask? Merely the best vacuum cleaner ever produced. Instead of a cloth or paper filter to entrap the crap that traditional vacuum cleaners employ, a Rainbow traps dust, dirt, debris, detritus, microbes, bugs, fleas, bedbugs and you-name-it in water. It uses a patented air/water separator and forces the junk into a canister with 2 quarts of water. There is no filter to clog or a bag that fills and stops the vacuum. A Rainbow succeeds in maintaining a steady molecular entrainment of vacuum and never fails to pick up stuff that other vacuums leave behind. I find beauty in seeing what you’ve sucked up when I open it up and dump out the dirty water, but I see now that I am the odd man out. Housewives especially don’t want to see the product of their work. If it is in a bag they can just discard, so much the better. And that water can get pretty nasty…I get it. More crap to clean, namely the canister. But if you put some cleaning agent in there, like ammonia, before each use, the canister stays relatively clean inside.
Thirty five years ago I actually signed on to sell “air purification systems” and went to a demonstration where I first learned of Rainbow vacuum cleaners. I had never heard of them before but I was hooked. I immediately “got it”. I grew up thinking that a “Kirby” was the Cadillac of vacuum cleaners; hell I even spray painted the primer on my first car with one. Boy was I misled. Kirbys are heavy and clunky and can actually cause health problems…you can throw your back out hauling one of those around. And emptying or changing the bag…a mess! Rainbow salesmen refer to conventional vacuum cleaners as “dust pumps’ and with good reason. You are cautioned to dust your house AFTER you vacuum the floors.
I no longer sell vacuum cleaners of any kind, but I got an education in selling door-to-door, in disreputable sales managers (I was cheated out of 3 sales – in Florida; no surprise there!) and, most importantly, in Rainbow vacuums. They cost $1,200 back then and that was a lot of money in 1982. I couldn’t afford one until some 10 years later I found one at the local flea market. Seller asked me if I knew what it was and I told him I know because I had sold them. He only wanted $20 for it because the wife didn’t want it anymore. “We have all hardwood floors now.” I think the wife didn’t like the idea of putting water in it and then having to empty it out. I have mostly hardwood floors in my 1902 Victorian and it does a great job, of couse. Rainbows also double as wet vacs to clean tile floors. You just have to make sure that you don’t suck up more water than the canister can properly hold. It has a powerhead to vacuum carpeted floors, too.
So back to my original thought. The other reason Rainbow vacuums are not more ubiquitous is how they are sold, and I believe the sales system is the same as it was in 1982; it is basically a multi-level marketing pyramid like Amway. But, to be fair, other vacuums like Kirby and Electrolux are sold in a similar manner where you have an in-home demonstration. Rainbows, due to their unique technology, do require a demonstration in the comfort of your living room in order to fully appreciate their capabilities. Part of the in-home demonstration is to show what your current vacuum misses by going over the same are that the Mrs. Just vacuumed with her unit and showing all the crap that it left behind.
But I digress.
I got to keep my Rainbow through the divorce and managed to find another one at a tag sale for, you guessed it, $20! Last I heard, they cost $2,400 new and look very different from my 80’s model, but I’ve had it for 20+ years and it is still going strong. I would never get a Roomba, (they’re toys) or a Dyson or any of the other dust pumps currently advertised. You can find used Rainbows in online auction sites for a fraction of the retail price.
Show up, out-perform, beat the Joneses and have fun!
Full disclosure/disclaimer: I am not employed by any company that produces, distributes, advertises or sells vacuum claeners of any kind. I am only a consumer of various products, services, systems and images and use them as any normal consumer does. I am not compensated for any of my comments by any entity outside Steemit.