Rainbow Estate Sale find!

[hoovercelebrity]

Found this in the basement of a house today; sitting under a card table. It was marked $15 ... for $15, I couldn't leave it. It's the regular E series, one speed. I've never really played with one of these, so I am excited to have found it! I would, of course, love a brand new model that lights up.. but just can't justify that price. So this will have to do! I plugged it in and it sounds just fine. I was surprised at the amount of suction it has.

It's not complete -- I scoured the house for any sign of other attachments, nada. It's also pretty dirty, so I have my work cut out for me. I had seen a thread in the contemporary forum that showed a video of one of these being taken apart, so I watched that and it doesn't look like too big of a deal to do. I may have to order a new gasket for below that motor.. I'll probably also order a generic HEPA filter from eBay or something. This did come with the regular-sized water basin and the larger 2-quart basin.

Does anyone have any connection, or know the whereabouts on an extra set of parts that I would need to complete this? Mainly a new set of wands (these are pretty rusty on the indside), bare floor tool, powernozzle, powernozzle wand, and even the regular 3 attachments (the ones that came with it are in pretty rough shape). Used, of course.. I would also love to find a straight suction 12 or 14 foot hose. Any help or advise would be appreciated!

~Fred

 

[hoovercelebrity]

Closeup of the machine:

 

[hoovercelebrity]

Underneath:

 

[longlivekirbys]

Wow! Great find Fred! Especially for that price congrats!

 

[williamr1248]

Rainbow Estaste Sale Find

Fred,
That was a good find and price. You could always clean it up and sell it on ebay as the Rainbow seem to retain value or trade it for a Hoover!
Just kidding. I have had very good service from Ken Bashford at Galaxy 2000.
He of course knows the Rainbow INSIDE and OUT and he ships very fast and prices have been good.

 

[mark40511]

Wow! 15 dollars. It is filthy though! The one speeds look like they are MUCH easier to take apart and clean than the two speeds. That shouldn't be a big deal. Definitely get the 14 foot wet/dry hose if you can find one. You can clean floor to ceiling and not move the machine very often. That's my favorite part about my Rainbow. I think I bought mine from goodvac.com - I bought a generic hepa filter off ebay. I can't tell the difference. I've got the new filter I bought stored away because the filter that came with mine is still fine. I just wanted one for backup.

 

[fairfax88]

Fred,

If you send that Rainbow too me,I will totally rebuild it for you for free and send it back too you,and you WILL be SHOCKED at the outcome!!!

~David, 407-583-9514

 

[floor-a-matic]

I sold the single speed E Series back in 2001-03 but I can't remember how well those did; all I remember is the water got really chunky after vacing my living room with the E Series after vacing with the D2 with R1024 Power Nozzle, which needed repairs at the time.  Also remember the water got chunky after vacing the customer's living room after they used the "ordinary vacuum"  I had to change the water 5 times!


 


At the time the machine I used for demos was marked "DEMO USE ONLY!" so the demo model cannot be sold to the customer & they get the brand new, unpackaged E