So I cut into my Rainbow 5 year old hepa- Here's what I found

[mark40511]

I couldn't cut the outer part.....so I dug into the hepa to see what the layers REALLY looked like. It still smelled very clean...there is some dirt on the layers, but it was very light and a lot of the layers were still snow white - and after using this hepa for 5 years in my Rainbow I was shocked at how little dirt was on it. I know you're supposed to change them every two years I believe? I changed mine about a year ago but kept this one because it still was working well....I wanted to eventually cut into it someday to see what it looked like.......this was five years of moderate to sometimes heavy use. It actually looks worse in this picture that it did looking at it. I will also add that when I FIRST got my Rainbow in 2006, the first few months I wasn't changing the water as often I should have. Luckily, reading the forums taught me and from that point on I started changing water and cleaning the separator each time - I also fell off a ladder once with my rainbow running. I took the brunt of the fall but you can imagine how much sloshing water and the motor running during that fall. I will also post a pic of the fans in my rainbow

 

[mark40511]

Here is

pic of the fans

 

[mark40511]

another

one of the fans

 

[williamr1248]

So I cut into my 5 year old Rainbow Hepa filter

Mark,
You really DID check it out! I was wondering if I needed to replace the hepa on my 2 year old black machine. The hepa still looks perfectly clean,no loss of air flow that I can tell. Even the fans on my old Rainbow SE were just as clean as yours after almost 20 years of use. Maybe the whole secret is like Tom Gasko says-just replace the water when it looks too dirty to mop a floor or every 30 minutes. I do know in my daily use of the machine,I would not be using it over 30 minutes at one time and when I do "real dirty" jobs like the porch or garage floor I always clean the separator.
Also know you like a VERY clean house,so I know yours has seen a lot of use.
Thanks for sharing the picture.

 

[chris]

Looks about like my 2011 rainbow does and it was bought in june of 2011 and gets daily 5 to 8 times a day use and I never change the water until I'm done and the water is usually just hazy. Most of the time I can still see through it after I'm done. Most people don't realize that some of the dust in the motor and on the fans is dust that is pulled in through the vent over the cord wrap to cool the motor