Rainbow E2 Black Teardown and Restoration

[hoovercelebrity]

Makes sense on why you want to replace the fans again!  I would do the exact same thing, lol. 


 


Keep us posted - congrats again on finding such an awesome machine!


 


-Fred

 

[gottahaveahoove]

Derek,

You did a great job there. I appreciate your efforts. I also echo your sentiments. HOW can ANYONE spend that much $$$ and not take care of it? It boggles the mind.
John

 

[floor-a-matic]

Makes me wonder how long it'll be until I need to check the fans on my Rainbow; I bet it'll still be clean as new

 

[marks_here]

On my newly aquired black onyx addition I did the same thing, tore it all apart but nothing was found on the fans, I must have lucked out on this one but on my gold 2speed that's where I had that issue that almost killed me so on this one I was prepared! I do like the newer power head with the side belt but I doubt I'll ever use the Rainjet because I have real wood floors & don't want to take the polish off.

 

[floor-a-matic]

U can use the soft sponge attachment for your RainJet; its softer than the bristles so it won't damage wood floors

 

[marks_here]

On the directions of the Rainjet Page 5 it says it will take the shine off the wood floor. I don't want to take that chance so it will be kept in the box it came with. These floors don't even get a swiffer but they are fun the slide on with socks on that's how shiny they are & people can't figure out why their floors need constant maintenace on them.

 

[reo580]

Update!

The fans and my 14' hose arrived!
I really like the extended hose.
The fans on the other hand: BENT!! I found out after going through the replacement process, my machine sounded worse than it did before! I was so mad.
Here is what I learned with that project: Don't bother with the fans. If they are bent or caked with S*&t, replace the "pump". The fans are way too delicate to get shipped. On that note I think it is a stupid design to have a brass nut sit directly atop the "Faberge Egg Fragile" aluminum fan without a washer. I fixed the issue by using one of the original fans and the best of my prior replacement fans. It sounds pretty good.

Long story short: Don't monkey with them! Save yourself the headache and just replace the pump. That's what I should have done in the first place. These fans are worse than Lamb Fans- not worth the headache.

I also got a mini powernozzle aka Rainbowmate. It is smaller than its predecessor. It has a smooth belt instead of the geared belt. It bogged down on my sofa. I am able to completely jam it by putting my fingers in it (Don't try this at home kids!) I like the direct connect but the smaller cleaning path and flat belt are nothing to write home about. IMOP this could use some improvement.

My Rainbowmate on my 2003 E-2 Series is bigger and has a cogged belt. It will tackle and task I've thrown at it. Including deep cleaning my large, overstuffed sofa. I'll post pics of the two later.

 

[reo580]

P.S.
I don't mean to scare anyone off. If your Rainbow is properly maintained, or even reasonably maintained- You'll never have this problem. My 2003 E-series was clean enough to eat out of when I got it. My E2-Onyx is food grade clean after the clean out I gave it.
I think the Rainbow is a great machine. E2B is not as forgiving to work on as E2 Single speed but Still no regrets.

 

[mark40511]

yea

that's why I refuse to let anyone touch mine but me. Over the years, I've had 3 people want to borrow mine and I said no and even made one of them mad by saying no, but I don't care...

 

[durango159]

Excellent work!!

Thanks for all of the photos. Looks great. It's amazing what gets inside of them. If I still had mine, I would've been interested in taking in apart. I bet the collector I gave it to, does that some day. He loves it though.

 

[reo580]

40511.

Same here. Nobody borrows my Rainbow at anytime. Ever.
I once loaned a mint condition Eureka 1400 upright to a customer to use while I fixed her vacuum. When I picked it up a week later, it looked like it had been in a demolition derby! scratches, a dent, the machine stunk something awful. Lesson learned. No one borrows my vacuum cleaners, especially my Rainbows.

 

[floor-a-matic]

I use my Wessel Werk HEB160 instead of the RainbowMate

 

[tolivac]

"Pump"?You mean the motor and fancase,fan assembly?This could be more expensive than the fans alone.I have found just handle the stampted aluminum fans CAREFULLY and you shouldn't have any problems.Also when disassembling the fan-motor aseembly-note where any balance notches are on the fans-draw a pix or take a pix with your phone.then reassemble as in the picure aligning the balance notches.Then your motor and fans should be fine!Kinda like when balancing a ceiling fan.Usually on those the blades are marked as to where they go on the motor.Oh yes,the edges of the stampted fans can be knife sharp--so handle carefully so you don't get cut.

 

[vacerator]

Derek

Nice job! that one was a real mess.
I had a rainbow demo in my home last year by a friend of a friend strictly as a favor. I have a central vac, so will not make another large vac investment.
But I was impressed. My ten year old dense area rug made the water dirty. Although it has never been steam cleaned, I only have used Capture on it.
I restored the same friends old chrome dome he inherited. It only needed new brushes, oiling, and cleaning. The separator cleaned up nice with my roto tool.
The exterior is in fine shape. Polished up brilliantly.

 

[vacerator]

Vacuum abusers

The can slow down when they clean house. My own step daughter included.
I realize some have little ones to look after, but they manage not to beat them up, usually.

 

[reo580]

@ tolivac:

The motor assy is referred to as a "pump" in Rexair literature I have seen.
Balancing notches in the fans? This is new to me. Tell me more about it, I'm curious.

I have replaced countless fans in Lamb motors (FQ, Compact Royal pony etc) and Rainbow single speeds ( B through E2) and never had any problems like this before.

In this rainbow the fans were so funked up with layers of caked dust, I thought it best to replace them- they were loud. I handled these with great care.
I am curious to hear more about balancing notches.... I'm all about learning a newer, better way to do something. Get back to me on that.
Thanks again,
Derek.

 

[floor-a-matic]

Do U buy Rainbow parts thru RainVac.com or your nearest Rainbow distributor?


 


I cleaned up the blue E2 that my dad used to own & now it smells like new; gone away are the dirt (mostly nicotine from the air) & cigarette odor

 

[tolivac]

When the fans are matched to the motors often balance notches were cut in the edges of the fans.I noticed this on a central vac motor Me and Mike were working on.Before we took it apart-took pictures of how the fan notches were oriented to each other on the motor shaft.Then we we put the motor back together after cleaning the fans(the previous user used the NuTone vacuum without a bag)We put the fans on how the notches were oreiented.Motor works great!Before was very noisey from the dirt that got into the fans-had to wash them out and the motor fancase.
Never seen the Rainbow call a "pump"-guess will have to reread the book.Sometimes Kirby called their machine an air "pump" when the unit was set up as a blower-inflator.
Back to the fan for a moment-remember on the old Kirby fans when they had the circular areas cut into them for balance?For single fan-the fan can be put on any way-but for the dual fan motors-like the central one-we put the fans on as to how the balance notches were originally.Hence the taking pictures of the fans on the motor before taking apart the fans for cleaning.Used to do this years ago for "Lux" motors.But,yes its easier to get a new motor adn fan assembly-but this is more expensive-and what if a replacement is not available-then you have to take down the old motor and clean the fans.

 

[vacerator]

tolivac;

True about balance. The size of the fan determines the amount of out of balance. I've seen small weights clipped to squirrel cage fans for that same reason.
Bearings also come into play, as do the fan diameter, length, and weight.
A jet engine has giant blades, so the bearings which keep it on it's shaft need to be very beefy, because the diameter of the blades is so much greater than the shaft length. If the shaft terminated externally or in front of the fan intake on a super structure, a second set of bearings could be added. This would put the fan in the center of the shrouding. This would however, defeat it's purpose, as their would be no air available for thrust.

 

[tolivac]

Bearings in gas turbine-jet engines.If the engine is a dual spool or dual rotor hy bypass fan type engine-most in use today on airliners.The bearings in these get rather complex-its like two bearings inside each other to accomidate the 2nd rotor driven by the hot gases coming from the pirary rotor.The secondary rotor turns that big fan that provides the engines thrust.Now if we took the fan off adn just used the second rotors shaft we could then have a power turbine-you could have it power whatever you need that needs to be spun with high HP-28,000-50,000HP.Electric generators(most common use)natural gas compressors-pumps-the engine runs off the gas-water pumps,ship propellors and so on.And the balances of these are critical,too.More so than a vacuum cleaner motor adn fans becuase the gas turbine parts are bigger and bad things will happen if they fail!There are double sets of bearings in dual spool-rotor engines.One set for the primary rotor-other for the secondary.And their support are high grade steel,the heaviest part in the engine.Think of them as like the engine block in a reciprocating piston engine.