What's a Rainbow worth?

[petek]

I got my hands on a Rainbow SE vac this morning at my favorite store..yes...it's is in near unused condition, powerhead, attachment holder, all the attachments, even an extra non powered hose and two extra wands.. for $24.99 Cdn. I'm looking at Ebay and see 20 bids up to $197 right now for the exact same thing.. are people going to pay that much for one of these?

 

[petek]

BTW

I found a cool little Superior electric fan as well..metal, light blue.. who was it said they collected fans on here..?

 

[scott55405]

If it's in that good shape and complete, it's quite likely. I would say use it, but I seem to recall you're not a big canister fan. The Rainbow is a fine machine.

 

[petek]

Hi Scott

I don't think I want to keep it, you're right, I don't like canisters so I'm going to sell it..just trying to figure out how much I can reasonably expect to get for it...
here's a pic, it really is pristine, even the sole plate under the powerhead hasn't got a scratch on it but one of the plastic beater bars is scored so I can tell it has been used.

 

[jaxsunst]

Is Rainbow the one that has the water filter? Never seen one, How does it work?

I'm a Kirby man myself, but this does look nice.

 

[petek]

Yessir it's the water trap monstrosity. Getting it home was my first ever time, I didn't get a manual with it..but it has a water level marker. I vacuumed up a bunch of dog hair, bird seed and feathers and sure enough they were all there floating in the pan..it's a nuisance taking it apart, then flushing it down the toilet, rinsing out the pan etc. On the positive side, the machine is very quiet, the powerhead is a bit noisy. I'll take another pic of it apart.

 

[scott55405]

You put water into the pan under the machine, and dirt is sucked in and deposited into the water, which of course kills the flying dust.

You then dump the water and the dirt every so often as you clean, and you start with a clean, fresh machine each time as opposed to storing a bag of dirt. It gives the house a nice, fresh smell after you use it.

 

[petek]

Here it is apart

You fill the bowl on the left with about 2 quarts of water and the motor housing on the right clips over top. The bowl does come away from the wheel dollies

 

[petek]

Here's the little fan

and no plastic!!! A little charmer

 

[scott55405]

Cute fan!

 

[petek]

Did anyone notice

by my bottom stair,,the carpet chewed away on one side and the sheetrock chewed away on the left side...hahahaha..That's courtesy of little Ben when he was a pup..

 

[SactoTeddyBear]

Re: Rexair/Rainbow Air Purification System:

That is what they actually call the Rexair/Rainbow Vac's. My Mother and I bought one that looks just like yours in 1994. They cost us around $1,500.00 new and my Mother even got the "Door-to-Door" Salesman and his Wife, to throw in the Shampoo Attachment as well.

I've just sold mine recently for $950.00 and it had never been out of the Boxes. I'm keeping my Mother's, since unfortunately the Salesman and Wife didn't get the Shampoo Attachment to us, before my Mother's Death. I helped her with cleaning the house, since she was getting quite Arthritic and since hers was getting use and mine wasn't, that is how I decided to sell mine and keep hers. It is quite a great Vac and when I bought mine, I also got the optional 4-Quart Water Tank, so it doesn't have to be emptied as often, depending on what your picking up with the Vac.

Good Luck with selling yours...

Peace and Happy Air Purifying and House Cleaning, Steve
SactoTeddyBear...

 

[DADoES]

I heard once that Rainbows tend to spew out droplets of dirty ick -- wet dustballs. Yes? No? I've never used one, but my grandmother's sister had a Rainbow. No idea what happened to it.

 

[westytoploader]

My aunt had a Rainbow SE bought new in 1993-1994 for a while. Bought it from my uncle (dad's cousin-in-law) who was selling door-to-door for Rainbow as a side job at that time. He actually did a demonstration at our house with the "Special Edition" power nozzle, motorized upholstery nozzle, and carpet-cleaning system. I do remember it was extremely fun for a 5-year-old to use and watch, but my parents were obviously not sold (keep in mind that this was when they thought $300 was too much for a washer; would they have paid $1000+ for a vacuum? LOL).

Was I sure glad my aunt bought one! Her version was the "basic" model I believe, with the standard power nozzle and no carpet-cleaning system or motorized upholstery brush. Still was fun vacuuming with it...did a good job and it gave you a workout too, especially for someone my size! Now emptying the water bin...that's another story!

She had it for a while but pretty much went through many different uprights since the Rainbow was so cumbersome and messy. Not sure what happened to it after that...

 

[tolivac]

The Rainbow Se's were pretty good solid machines-have one in my collection-its in pretty good shape-was a trade in toward a TriStar.Use it now and then. The owner took pretty good care of it.Didn't bang it around like some Rainbows I have seen.Some folks let the Rainbow canister bang into walls when they are using it-with the water in its dust pan-it gets heavy and gets quite a momentum when it gets going from an energenic tug on the hose.
I haven't had problems of a Rainbow spitting-it could possbly happen if there is too much water in the pan.However-unfortunately some dirt is not "wettable" this can blow out of the Rainbow.thats is why they don't recommend you pick up ash or plaster dust with them-these items are not wettable by the water.I can remember a Kirby salesman that showed this.He commented-"got more Rainbow trade-ins after this demo"

 

[petek]

Tolivac

What do you figure mines worth if you were selling it?
The picture for some reason doesn't do it justice.. I don't know why all that "white" is showing because it's clean black. must be reflections.

 

[toggleswitch]

What's it worth to ya?

In a nutshell, whatever price the two parties agree upon.
or in plainer English..... as with everything else in life "Aim high, and settle for what you can get!!!!"

Fancy definiton follows--

Market value, is defined as the most probable price which a property should bring in a competitive and open market under all conditions requisite to a fair sale, the buyer and seller each acting prudently, knowledgeably, and assuming the price is not affected by undue stimulus. Implicit in this definition is the consummation of a sale as of a specified date and the passing of title from seller to buyer under conditions whereby:

1) Buyer and seller are typically motivated.
2) Both parties are well informed or well advised, and each acting in what he considers his own best interest
3) A reasonable time is allowed for exposure in the open market.
4) Payment is made in terms of cash in U.S. dollars or in terms of financial arrangements comparable thereto.
5) The price represents the normal consideration for the property sold unaffected by special financing or sale concessions granted by anyone associated with the sale

 

[petek]

Methinks I'll ask about $250 and see if anyone bites though I doubt it, no rush for it to go yet.
I still haven't got that belt rod and fan off the Kirby Legend and was planning on taking it to a shop, stopped at VV today an guess what another Legend II albeit not as pretty looking but the motor sounded perfecto, so I swapped the motor in and the good looking one now runs perfectly. Hard to believe that people just give these things away to GoodWill and VV.
VV doesn't seem to have any formula for pricing things thank goodness most of the stuff is less that 20,