Help! What is happening to my Rainbow

[mark40511]

During the past month, I've noticed this. At first I thought it was just because I didn't have it seated correctly......and it started working after a few tries. In the middle of cleaning if I needed to turn it off/back on, it would go off and on fine. So now, I'm using it again to clean and this is what happens. It's like it takes a few tries of on/off before it will actually start up. It is 14 years old and never been serviced but I've taken very good care of maintaining it. But I think it may be time for a trip to the dealer to have it cleaned/checked, even though I don't thin it needs it. The fans looks fine, hepa is fine. Just this weird startup. I think something must be going bad or coming lose. Does anyone know what this could be?

 

[joshp83]

Weird!

I've never seen mine do that. I would have suggested it was a switch problem but clearly it's trying to do something when you turn it on. Does the separator still spin freely by hand? I hope your motor isn't going. Hopefully someone else will have some experience with this issue. Good luck!

 

[mark40511]

yep everything looks perfect on the outside

seperator spins freely. Nothing is dirty. Anyway, after it started today, as I'm cleaning it shut itself off mid-cleaning and I swear I could smell something burning, not smoke.....but more like a hot wire or hot metal smell. I guess I'll just take it to dist here in Lex and have them look at it and clean the inside while they have it.

 

[dysonman1]

14 years old would make it a Rainbow Gold E2. Just letting you it might be the board. The old circuit boards in most of the Gold E2's around here have been replaced. I should know, I've replaced them for customers. Good news, the board has been perfected and made much smaller with less capacitors, etc. The motor itself will never wear out as there are no carbon brushes. Warning, the board is about $300. All the electricity goes through the board, where it's run through capacitors to turn it to DC current which runs the stators. Except for the AC to the power nozzle. Good news is that once the board is replaced, it shouldn't fail again.

 

[crazykirbydude]

There's a distributor here in Lexington?

 

[mark40511]

Yep it's been here a LONG time.

 

[vaclab]

E2 2-Speed Motors Never Wear Out?

"The motor itself will never wear out as there are no carbon brushes."

Tom,

This motor has bearings which wear out/fail in a fairly predicable manner. Rainbow wants you to run these newer machines as much as possible and when the bearings go, have customers simply buy a new vacuum. The bottom bearing is a 6001 and can be had cheaply or simply rebuild it as shown in the video.

2006 Rainbow E2 Gold Teardown Cleaning And Bearing Rebuild


Please notice the nearly complete lack of grease in the bottom bearing before refurbishment. About half the time this 2006 E2 was cycled on and off, the motor exhibited an awful screech during wind down.

When something spins, there exists friction which generates heat and that causes wear on parts (or lubrication degradation).

Bill

 

[chris]

My e2 gold did the same thing after only having it for 5 years. It would run fine on the low speed but only run at about half on the high speed. It too had a burning smell and there was smoke

 

[rexairfixer]

I have fixed many of those old boards for people. On the older boards, there is usually one to three thermistors on the 120 vac side. As these age, the thermistors limit the current when they heat up. Over time, I have seen these crack in half or blow themselves completely off the board.

If you are handy with a soldering iron, you can buy the thermistor from an electronics vendor for very little money and usually fix it. They sometimes do get a little pyrolytic when they fail.

The bottom bearings on these don't seem to give as much problems as what the top bearings did on the direct supported upper bearing ones. Those had a run from about 2005 to 2009. The first gen two speed used a metal upper bearing retainer, as does the last generation with the upper clamped bearing design. I have noticed that since the upper bearing was pressed into phenolic plastic on the direct support design, the upper bearing ran hot and expunged all of its grease, since it had no heat sink.

 

[madman]

Thermistors, eh? Seems kind of unnecessary to me. Of course, I don't have the whole picture of the electronics on this machine. Thermistors as circuit protection, I can tell you, have a finite number of turn-ons before they go bad.

 

[mark40511]

I don't know the exact date my Rainbow was manufactured. I bought it NIB summer 2006 without a demo. Anyway, I'm not sure what the issue is with it, but I don't think it has anything to do with bearings. There's never been any change in the sound of it now vs day 1. I do know that screechy sound but luckily I've never had that issue.

Truthfully, I'm a little surprised I'm having any issues at all from a Rainbow that's been babied all these years (babied, but used a lot). But I guess everything needs to be serviced no matter how well it's made.

 

[huskyvacs]

" more like a hot wire or hot metal smell"

If what dysonman1 and Rexairfixer said is accurate - that might be what you are smelling is burning solder or the motherboard itself melting. Maybe the solder on the board or a capacitor has failed and its exhibiting this weird behavior. I'd have the circuit board looked at, preferably tested with a multimeter.

I just had two of my Acer computer monitors blow up on me that were made in 2005. The capacitor in the power supply on the motherboard went bad is what I am presuming. For 2 months before they totally blew - the monitors would either turn themselves on at random, or they would only turn on if unplugged, waiting 20-30 seconds, then plugging back in. They would also turn on on their own at random or from being plugged back in without even pressing the power button.

 

[dysonman1]

All the problems Rexair had with those first circuit boards forced them to change the board's design as the board had an 8 year warranty. If you look at the board in your machine compared to the replacement board, they are very much different. Interestingly, the new boards are shipped complete with the new board holder, which will not work with your machine. The service man has to very carefully take the board holder apart without destroying it, to put the new smaller board into the old holder. I've done it so many times now, it's a piece of cake. But it sure wasn't the first time I had to do it.

Most people don't baby their machines, which is why we saw the board failure early on. Today, most of the E2 gold models have had their boards replaced and even with hard use (as most people give them) they are not returning for a second circuit board. If they will let you, you might want to actually watch as they service your cleaner.

 

[mark40511]

well

it's at the dealer. The person at the desk took it and said the person who works on them will be in later. I just hope they do a good job and don't half-ass it. You never know.

 

[huskyvacs]

I'll bet they will likely just replace the whole board and not monkey around with changing a couple bad circuits. A quick open and shut repair. I think it will be OK. But yeah that is a strange problem for sure.

 

[lux_luthor]

Have they gotten back to you about what was wrong? Or did you decide to upgrade to the latest model?

 

[mark40511]

No

I've heard nothing from them. They have my #. No I'm not upgrading I still love my gold 2 speed. I mean, I think the new model is great and I'd love to have one but I really don't want to upgrade because the prices are too steep. I will update when I hear something.

 

[mark40511]

Rainbow guy just called me

He said: Is this Mark? I said yes. He said it was the board needed replaced and that normally it's $300, but he said he has absolutely never seen a rainbow as clean as mine. He said since I take such good care of it he would fix it for $225. He was full of questions about how I keep it so clean. He said the fans don't even need cleaning. He said the boards on mine are new and improved that ship with the board holder "will fit my machine". He said it was the previous ones (maybe the early 2 speeds that didn't have foam insulation?) where he said they were a pain to replace because you couldn't use the board holder. He said after this repair I should have no problems.

Anyway - I asked him even though he thought the fans don't need cleaning, if he could clean them anyway (LOL) He said ok no problem. He said it was no nice to see someone respect their machine.

 

[chris]

I've seen the rainbows my dealer would get in for repair before they closed and it's a wonder some of them were even still running some were only a couple years old. It blows my mind that somwone would spend that kind of money on something then turn around and destroy it. Rainbow dealers get a bad rap yes there are some out there that only want a sale but then there is some out there that truly care about customer service