I had one years ago. Loved it for the way it cleaned. But...it was a real pain to empty the water/dirt.

They were definitely a "thing" back in the 70's and 80's but are no longer, so that should tell you something. I didn't have one, nor was I tempted to get one...seemed like it might have been a sales pyramid scheme, too, but I could be wrong about that.

eta: you'd think I'd remember you can google anything...looks like I was remembering correctly about a pyramid scheme:

https://www.bbb.org/us/ga/kathleen/profile/vacuum-cleaners/rainbow-0743-44414/customer-reviews

We had one u til our housekeeper could not manage it. It’s heavy and cumbersome, but IMO the best vac around. It actually cleans the whole house. No dust flying around with a Rainbow. We bought a Miele upright for her to use, then when she couldn’t do that we brought in a service to help her and they use Shark vacs. That housekeeper passed away, replaced but we still kept the cleaning service. New housekeeper let go during pandemic, still have service and do own Interim, spot cleanups with series of Dyson stick vacs, currently the v11 model. And still miss the rainbow and that incredibly fresh feeling the whole house had. We used those from the early 90’s to around 2010.

Of course. My aunt has one that she used for years and years. And she bought it USED! The Rainbow worked awesome and flawlessly. But she’s now 84 and can’t handle it anymore. Heavy and cumbersome.

When I was a young new homeowner (mid-90s), a Rainbow salesman came to my door. We actually needed a new vacuum cleaner, so I naively let him in.

I have never experienced anything in my life (regarding sales) like what happened. I can imagine it must be like what cult members do when trying to convince others to join. This man wore me down over a period of hours, until I was thoroughly exhausted and nearly in tears trying to get him to leave. Finally my husband came home from work, saw how frazzled I was, had some very angry words with the guy, and kicked him out.

I know, you’re thinking, why didn’t I just kick him out myself ... it’s hard to explain. I was so young, and honestly was getting scared of him. He started getting angry that I wouldn’t get my checkbook out, and when I demanded he leave, wouldn’t. Psychological warfare type of thing.

Anyway, that’s my Rainbow story! 😬

ETA: Googled after posting — I’m not the only one:

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/rainbow_vacuum.html?page=9

Yes. I has a rainbow. it was a great vac. You simply empty the bowl shaped canister. I liked that the dirt/dust went to the water, not flying around. That vac lasted a long time and I don’t believe we ever had a problem with it.

eta - Jinc thats awful! We had a nice lady demo ours and her demo really sold us, especially my husband! I don’t remember any pressure, I guess we were lucky!

So you empty the water, pouring it, along with the dust, fur, crumbs, down the drain?

Ohhhh yes. My ex sold them, and it sort of consumed our lives for a time. We went to a Rainbow sales convention in Missouri, where attendees seemed to eat, sleep, and breathe the brand. It was definitely a THING at one time. They were pricey, so sales were difficult to make. As Jinx attests, sales tactics were designed to wear down the customer in a very hard push. I still feel guilty that my ex attempted to sell a machine to my elderly grandparents, who certainly didn't have the money to spend on such a thing. I recall being so embarrassed by the way he continued to push on them, until they finally had to tell him in no uncertain terms that their fixed income did not permit such purchases.

I do think the product was probably decent, but the marketing model was horrendous. There was a very hard push to obtain "referrals" (sales leads), even from those who had no interest in purchasing a machine. The overall takeaway for me remains very negative.

I remember seeing them every year at the State Fair, in the Hall of Industry, right next to the guy doing the “slice and dice” demo.

I have a Rainbow and I love it. We live in the country, so I empty the reservoir into the drainage ditch beside the driveway. It's just dust, so it doesn't hurt anything--but when the kids were small it gave them a chance to retrieve any Legos or other captured items.

We agreed to a demonstration to help a friend. She'd bought a vac, and if she found enough friends who would agree to a sales pitch, she'd receive a free carpet shampooer. She got her shampooer, but we didn't buy a vacuum from the salesman. Now, my late husband could be talked into buying anything, or donating to any cause, so I was always the kill joy, and although I was very impressed by the machine, I wouldn't agree to buying one on the spot--which worked out great, because as my husband was talking about the vacuum the next day at work, one of his co-workers mentioned that her parents wanted to sell their Rainbow. They even let us pay for it in several installments, and forgave the last one. IIRC, it was almost brand new, and we paid about 1/4 of the original sale price.

Don't worry about the poor salesman wasting his time--he came back and tried to sell us a sewing machine and an under-counter water filter. He succeeded with the water filter (that's another similar scheme), and I still like it and use it, but after that I told him never to come back to my house.

Back to the vacuum: I don't find it cumbersome, except carrying it up the stairs, which is why the original owner didn't like it. I had to replace the plastic reservoir after just a couple of years, because one of the kids dropped it on our slate mudroom floor and it cracked. I had to order that one directly from the company, so ouch. Many years later, after the internet changed the world, I also replaced the head with another used one from ebay, for a good price, so I guess I've actually had two Rainbow vacuums.

I think they perform better on smooth flooring than carpet. Our carpet wand stopped working, and since we had only one room of carpet (master bedroom), I never bothered to replace it. There is a little basket on the bottom of the unit, which is supposed to be brushed out frequently. I didn't clean it often, which might be why the original head failed, but we definitely got our money's worth from the machine. I would recommend the Rainbow vacuum, especially for anyone with allergies, although I think some of the hepa-filter vacs probably do the same job at less initial cost.

The fellow on tv said his was from 1980, and he was probably born in the 80s, so I‘m pretty sure he didn’t buy it himself! But it‘s still in use, so that’s not bad.

Jinx, I had the same experience with a window salesman. I finally had to threaten to call the police to get him out of my house.

No we did not empty ours down the drain.

How awful, ded. :( It definitely changed my ever letting anyone in again! Lately, we’ve had a parade of roofing contactors canvassing the neighborhood — all have been friendly, but we talk in the driveway only (or I don’t answer the door).

My MIL had at LEAST 4 Rainbows! Our friend owned the shop in town, and MIL answered phones for her on Saturday mornings. She gave me one, but I hated it. It did not follow me, and was constantly getting hung on corners, and then tipping off the base. I lived in a subdivision, and I had to take the nasty water all the way down the driveway to the storm drain.

I remember my mom bought one in the early 80s and they were quite a thing. She was ridiculously proud of that machine.

Heavy as all get out to use. My biggest memory is my dad taking the filthy dirty water across the road to a landscaped garden area where he always dumped the water. I wouldn't recommend pouring that water down the drain or it could lead to clogs - that machine sucked up a ton of stuff. Think of all the debris that are in regular vacuum cleaner bags.

Handling all that heavy dirty water would be enough to dissuade me. But I don't even like bagless vaccuums, so consider the souce.

Several friends had them in the eighties. Emptying the water seemed cumbersome to me, so I never bought one. I had no idea they are still around.

Didn’t read the responses but yes the demos are impressive. Loved the vacuum and the spot cleaner. They literally put water from my sink onto a stain I was unable to get out of carpet and got it out very effortlessly. Even though it was a fantastic cleaner I thought it was cumbersome to use. (They left me test it all over the house.). I don’t like to drag behind canisters. I don’t want to store one somewhere either. That‘s a lot of space in a closet. I don’t want to look at it in a corner while it’s doing the water air purifier thing. I actually wouldn’t even use that because we have air purifiers we bought because of DS2 allergies and they work great. (Actually there was basically no lint/dust in the air for that part of the demo thanks to our purifiers.) It’s clunky. I think the price is awful. We were quoted $2999. Ten year warranty is great but knock the price down and the warranty if need be. Shouldn’t be more than $1500 at most IMO. I don’t know how I came up with that number but it feels better to me. I also bet they’d sell more units. Maybe they want people to ‘work it off’ so they can try and sell more.

Speaking of the actual demo we were helping a relative get demos in. She came with the higher up sales guy she got one through. You can pay outright or ‘work It off’ by getting so many shows in x amount of time. Not sure what happens if you fail. Maybe pay even more?? Most people must take the second option. The demo was to take 1.5 hours. They were here over 3. I didn’t mind the demo up until things got pushy. At that point it was after 10 at night and we needed to go pick up our kids! Even after we said about it we heard sorry but the guy continued with his push to get us to buy. Then of course on the phone with his higher up. He insisted us working if off was the best thing for us though it absolutely wouldn’t work for our schedules even if we wanted to. We had already explained that in detail too. He then asked what kind of vehicles we drove and went down a weird scenario path about getting baby sitters if the car would be paid for ... I tuned him out at that point, interrupted and we had to be very direct and stern. He kept flinging different offers at us. I hate haggling. Just give me your best price from the start and we’ll decide if we want to pay it. Also, they have to show it to a couple. It couldn’t just be shown to me or DH. There was a whole list of criteria in order for them to be able to give a demo.

We got a free rain mate with it. I like the noise and what it does but don’t like looking at it on my counter or anywhere. It’s in a closet cause DH wants to keep it ....

Yes they clean but are clunky and the sales push was awful. The sales guy on the phone was acting awful. Interesting how something can work really great but you remember the bad thing from an experience. Had there not been such a strong push I‘d probably be talking more positive about their vacuums and my experience.

They should have a rental option actually. The vacuums would have to be cleaned out and disinfected with each user though.

I have a Rainbow unit that is about 25 years old and still works great! However, it is just too cumbersome to use on a regular basis and takes too much storage space. I store it in a designated cabinet in my garage and bring it in a few times a year for deep cleaning. The attachments do a great job for specific needs. Mine has two separate hose systems....one for the sweeper for carpets and one for the hard floor cleaher and miscellaneous attachments. I only have three area rugs and the carpet sweeper really does pick up a lot of dirt that my upright doesn’t. The hard floor attachment is a soft wide brush that picks up everything on my wood floors.....actually makes them feel like they have been mopped!

It has an extension to the hose system that I can easily reach my ceilings, walls, tops of door and window moldings, etc. When I am deep cleaning I can actually use the soft floor brush on my ceilings and walls....it swivels on the end so that it will stay flat against the ceiling and walls. There is also a small, soft round brush I can run across the base boards, corners, etc.

When I worked, I had a house cleaner off and on for several years and she used it weekly. I just use a swiffer, broom, and cheap upright for my every day cleaning. But, I do LOVE my Rainbow. I would not pay that much for a sweeper now. Still procrastinating on a Dyson stick😜.

Shee, I think I gave about $1300 for mine way back then. The price you were quoted sounds shocking!

DH fell victim to the vacuum salesman. I looked at pictures and didn't see the one we had, however, I also don't remember it being called Rainbow either. We bought it in the 1990's. Our's looked like a silver R2D2 and I remember the salesman went to the back of the house with some air freshner, turned it on and how excited we were that we could smell it in the LR.

Oh yes, during one demo he had the sofa cushion sucked down to a pancake! I was too stupid to know any vacuum would do that. lol

Can't remember what we did with it, but I'm so thankful for my Dyson upright. I hated lugging that other one around!

If you really want a water filter vacuum without the hard sell or high price a quick Google search finds other brands, like the Sirena. https://www.sirenavacuum.com/?utm_source=adwords&utm_campaign=campaign_2_usa_mobile&gclid=CjwKCAjw19z6BRAYEiwAmo64LYO9UfohDwDA4Y5PMJm-4HL_Lp2_MZf0MpBvMAmtoBRs4u0mLA_seBoCSOoQAvD_BwE

The Tristar is another vacuum with similar high pressure sales pitch. I owned one for years, and it was actually a well constructed piece of machinery. Heavy and clunky as hell though.

I must have had a new saleswoman who didn't know what she was doing, because there was really no hard pitch. The demo sold the product. Like Tuesday, I still have my Rainbow although I rarely use it - only when doing a deep cleaning. We bought it before we built this house (which puts it around 25 years old) and I believe we paid somewhere around 1200 - 1500. That was alot then but 25 years later it's still kicking. I agree with Shee, it does take up space because you have the canister, the carpet attachment and the hard floor attachment. When we bought it, we had mostly carpet and that vacuum will suck more dirt/dust, etc. out of carpet than any I've used. Now that we no longer have carpet, that is another reason I use it less. We also had an actual downstairs then with carpeted steps and I really liked their step attachment. I have had allergies most of my life and my husband thought it would be good for me - and I really do like the fact that you are not stirring up dust, etc. But, times change, we changed houses, etc. and for everyday/weekly cleaning I like having a lightweight, stick-type vac.