Disclaimer:
Goodvac.com is not affiliated with The Rexair, Inc. (Rainbow vacuum cleaner manufacturer). This review of Rainbow model vacuum model is authored by GoodVac.com is not endorsed or approved by the Rainbow vacuum manufacturer - Rexair, Inc. These materials should be only used at your own discretion and risk.
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We do NOT sell brand new Rainbow vacuums and if you would like to purchase this model please go to your local authorized Rainbow dealer. This article is for information purposes ONLY.
 May 2011 Rexair, Inc. releases new model Rainbow E2 BLACK model 12.
No one would argue that sluggish economy is taking the toll on nearly all industries and businesses. Door-to-door vacuum sales was never an easy business to be in but today when banks are scared to extend credit especially it is even harder.
While many companies are holding off on more significant expenses towards product updates Rexair Inc. deserves respect for investing a lot of money in research, design and manufacturing to bring us the new "Rainbow E2 BLACK model 12":
Main motor unit remains essentially the same as E2 - 2 speed system released in 2003. However we should not forget that Rexair was probably the first company in USA (if not the world) to install an advanced brushless motor pump with computer / controller in a household vacuum cleaner. Even today, 8 years later not many companies have made this move while this type of motor proves to be success.
Rainbow maker has achieved better performance through upgrading the nozzle by closing gaps and making sure that whatever suction / airflow is produced by the vacuum motor is all put to work. Nozzle was redesigned from the ground up and looks like they have done pretty god job. It is not only airtight but has received a nice looking headlight and seems to be much more rigid than its predecessors.
Few more updates to attachments and electrified hose that will make cleaning better experience than ever before.
So all together this is much more significant upgrade than just a new look and very likely to result in more sales, more trade ups and a lot more loyal to Rainbow company customers .
Lets look in more detail at all of these upgrades that Rainbow sweeper has gone through |
| PACKAGING |
 Outer master carton - weight 39 pounds measuring (in inches) 17 1/2 long x 15 wide x 26 deep
Inside packs a box with nozzle and box with Rainbow sweeper plus accessories:
Box with nozzle - weight 7 pounds measuring (in inches) 17 long x 14 1/2 wide x 4 deep
Box with vacuum and accessories - weight 30 pounds measuring (in inches) 17 long x 14 1/2 wide x 22 deep
The way the system is packaged, the fact that wands are pre wired for use with nozzle and only hose included is the electrified hose indicates that the way the system will be sold is changing. Carpet/rug nozzle attachment (a.k.a. "Beater Bar") used to be packed separately with long extension pipe and electrified hose and was presented by a salesman as a separate "optional attachment". The most of the time it still was sold with the system but a customer had a chance to purchase it without the nozzle. In regions where wall to wall carpets are less popular more systems were sold without the nozzle. New E2 BLACK model is packing the electrified hose in the box with the Rainbow, regular 'non-electrified" hose is not even there (it still would fit the new Rainbow sweeper) and only extension wands that are needed to use a regular floor tool have harness permanently attached to them. So if customer chooses not to get the nozzle attachments, only thing that could be deducted would be the nozzle itself. It is not yet known to us if distributor would be offered the option of not purchasing the nozzle when he/she is buying the system from the factory.
For those who purchased the system and do not need the power nozzle option GoodVac.com will purchase the nozzle, electrified hose and 2 wands with harness and send a regular hose and 2 wands without harness along with the check. For details please contact 708 853 0461. |
| MAIN MOTOR UNIT |
Design
 Weight 15.6 pounds. The most noticeable difference is the black plastic color and more contemporary looking set of side labels. Front big label and label on the handle got carbon fiber-like background. Nice accent - bright gray side latches that will resonate with hose latches. |
Cord Caddy
 On prior Rainbow vacuum e series and e2 series models Rexair was experimenting with cord caddies. First version was way too small to hold the long cord then exhaust cover plate design was changed to double its function as an additional ear to wind the cord. Rexair, Inc. redesigned it yet once more. Now filter cover is completely redesigned making it capable to easily accommodate Rainbow cord. There are no moving parts and no more caddy ears broken. However getting the vacuum ready for vacuuming will take a bit longer. Sliding ears were prone to breaking but releasing the cord took one second and on the new model cord has to be unwound manually. |
LED light
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 LED lights are very durable and take up very little electricity making them very easy and inexpensive to use everywhere. This Rainbow vacuum water pan illumination does not improve its performance but it certainly makes it much more attractive. Isn't it good to know that the manufacturer cares not only how the appliance is serving its main purpose but how it looks as well. |
 Looks like they have been planning it for a while as all computers / controllers have had the outlet to plug in the lights for quite some time prior to the new model release. |
 This is the LED board lens and harness |
 RED arrows - location of the LED lights on the bottom of the unit.
BLUE arrow - Rexair, Inc. decided to give the separator cleaner brush back. It has been taken away from you as it was not included in the set and compartment housing it wasn't there. Rexair used to call the separator "Self Cleaning"and that is what people expected letting the separator get overgrown and overtaken my fine dust. Please keep the separator clean if you want to extent life of your Rainbow sweeper.; |
Dolly
 Dolly has a completely new design. Has prolonged shape and got the rubber bumper all around the perimeter. It is less likely to scratch your furniture and will remain looking good as white paint that may end up on the bumper will not be visible as it used to be on bare plastic dollies |
 Casters are on vertical shaft that is inserted into plastic dolly body. This was the design Rainbow dollies had many years ago and around 1990 they switched to another design that was great for vacuum shops as dollies were one of the best sellers. Switching back to this type of wheel attachment hopefully will proof to be the decision that will save more money to the customer. Instead of 4 wheels Rainbow dollies now will have 5. 3 of them are a bit larger and two are significantly smaller. Hopefully this will not make it harder pulling Rainbow vacuum over the edges of area rugs. |
Motor
 Motor or as it is called in parts catalog - "pump" is all the same as in all 2 speed Rainbow sweepers | |
| POWER NOZZLE ATTACHMENT - model # PN12 |
Packaging
 Weight 7 pounds. In the box there is only the nozzle. . |
Design
 This is a completely new animal. Much wider bumper, LED headlight, rotating edge brushes.. It is very well insulated / sealed construction so no more loss of suction through structural gaps that were inevitable in prior design. This needs a bit more detail explanation so keep on reading. |
Technical
 Just like it does not look like anything it was from the top it is totally different on the bottom as well.
Bottom plate covering brush roller and the belt is latched onto the nozzle in 4 places and then it is locked by a small plastic dial near the right wheel. Wheels covered with rubber or rubber-like material making them safe on hard surface floors. In the front of the nozzle you see round edge brushes on each side and YES they are spinning and brushing towards the center of the nozzle while you are vacuuming.
Screws in the center of the edge brushes are only screws used in whole assembly. It is well thought through and very easy to take apart and put back together.
Brush roll bristles stick out a bit to agitate the rugs and carpets when vacuuming.
There are no front wheels anymore but the edge brushes and brush roll bristles keep the bottom of the nozzle above the hard surface floors so it is safe using it hardwood floor as the plastic bottom would not touch it.
When nozzle is dropped onto the carpet bristles would sink into the rug a bit bringing the suction intake closer to the surface of a rug. |
 Belt is 3/16 of an inch wider than regular Rainbow belt but seems to be the same diameter and made out of the same material. It may be wider because with side edge brushes it needs a bit more torques and it may result in need to replace regular belts more often than the new wider belt.
Bristles on the both sides of roller are positioned at different angle. This may be done to reduce nozzle jumping over a carpet. |
 no more switching tools in order to get edges of the rug vacuumed. Rotating brushes reaching the surface all the way to the edge of the nozzle . They get momentum from the worm-gear on each end of the wood brush roller spinning gear with attached to it circular edge brush. Worm-gears have opposing threads so both edge bristles are spinning opposite direction brushing towards the center of the nozzle. |
 Circuit board with 9 LED micro lights . Power to the motor is supplied through the board but this is probably to just to eliminate the need for extra harness, plugs and terminals. Nozzle motor is still using the same power as in your house electrical outlets . |
 ONLY part that remains the same as in prior model Rainbow vacuum nozzle. Still the same part number R12918 (this is for 120 volt so 240 volt motors may be under different number). Only that it says"Revision 4" on the motor label. Only difference we could see from Revision 2 is that motor cooling fan is plastic while revision 2 had metal fan.
Noise dampening - as you see there are 2 rubber rings that go on around the motor and one rubber boot that is placed in the front of the motor when installing in the nozzle. This will reduce the vibration passed onto the nozzle assembly so nozzle will be less noisy. |
 Pivot arm, wand release, harness and intake tube:
Pivot arm - it has built in swivel that swivels 180 degrees. Old style had nozzle pipe / wand turning within pivot arm so fitting had to be a bit loose and allowed some loss of suction through the place where pipe was inserted into the pivot arm. Built in wand release (light gray part in the picture) - you do not have to bend down to release the wand from the pivot. All you have to do now id press the pedal with your foot and it will release the wand so you can pull it out
Harness - Receptacle on the harness is positioned so that when you plug Rainbow wand into the pivot it aligns with the connector on the wand and there is nothing else to be done to supply power to the nozzle. Harness plugs directly into the LED circuit board supplying power to the lights and the motor.
Intake tube (short piece of the hose) - For decades Rainbow nozzles were made with seal between pivot and housing far from perfect. It was functioning more or less ok when new but felt strips would wear out pretty quickly and a lot of suction were lost through the gap. Once dirt and sand gets in between the pivot and housing there will be some wear but considering large area where pivot touches the housing this probably will not become the reason to have it serviced.
Intake tube - this was the original design when first Rainbow nozzle was made. Back then about 30 years ago materials were far from what they are today so tubes were one of the most vulnerable part in the construction of the nozzle. Today materials are much more durable and flexible and this is not likely to be going back 30 years but rather a major improvement. This piece of hose connecting pivot with nozzle intake compartment will not loose any suction to waste.
Pivot arm will accept long old style pipe just we need to figure out the way how to get hose and nozzle connected with a cord. Please come back for solution and new style nozzle availability. |
 And last but not least - bottom cover portion that forms the intake compartment housing the bush roller goes 1/4 of an inch into the main housing making sealing it off. There plenty of space for dust bunnies to go through so it is very unlikely to clog. |
| HOSE and ATTACHMENTS |
Hose
 Color changed to black to match the vacuum and coupling has light gray latches to resonate with accents on the canister dolly and nozzle. Just like hose design before this one it is insulated well enough to pick up water with. Still do not immerse handle in the water. It is built to pick up water but not to work under the water. No more attachment hose in the set so this is ONLY hose you get when buying new Rainbow vacuum. But keep in mind that non-electrified attachment hoses are still available for purchase and they will fit your new E2 BLACK Rainbow sweeper model, |
 Suction relief valve is built in in the front of the handle assembly |
 On/Off trigger lock. you can lock the trigger either on ON or OFF position. |
 Only 2 stainless steel wands are in the set now. Connect them together or insert them into the nozzle and electrical connection is made automatically They can be used with the floor tool |
 Other than wands and the hose standard attachment set remains unchanged. Color of attachments now is black and "R" logo is not there anymore |
| CERTIFICATES |
Disclaimer - while looking for some information and reviewing certificates that new Rainbow vacuum cleaner black E2 model we expressed our - NOT EDUCATED opinion. We ate not scientists or medical doctors so keep this in mind when reading the review. Also keep in mind that vacuum cleaner testing is complicated procedure and when it gets to filtration there are a lot of variables to consider (see our article on testing HERE ). So even given the information that testing organizations have not provided or we just failed to find it may not be that easy to decide what parameter is more important for you personally.
 AHAM Clean Air Delivery Rate certificate:
AHAM stands for Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers Association of home appliance manufacturers (home page HERE) has developed testing standard and registered it with ANSI (American National Standard Institute). All this registration with ANSI means that if another company wants to do the test to get CADR numbers they have to follow the standard testing procedure.
The definition of the CADR of an appliance as standard description is "the rate of contaminant reduction in the test chamber when the unit is turned on, minus the rate of natural decay when the unit is not running, multiplied by the volume of the test chamber as measured in cubic feet."
PARAMETERS - After about 20 minute research we could not identify in what units exactly is the the rating provided. In the appliance directory it says "The higher the numbers, the faster the unit filters the pollutants out of the air." So this is probably a ratio of some parameters. We tried to find the testing procedure to get more information but American National Standard Institute SELLS the testing procedure description for $100.00 ( test number AC-1 ) and this is not investment that we want to make. Why there is recommended room size we are not sure. We would speculate that this is the air volume that an appliance circulates in 1 hour. We draw this conclusion based on AHAM room size calculation description that mentions 1 hour but does not specifically state that this is the parameter that is used in the deriving numbers.
So we have done exactly what AHAM suggested and used numbers for comparison with other air filters:
|
Brand |
Model |
Dust
CADR |
Tobacco Smoke
CADR |
Pollen
CADR |
Room Size
Square Feet |
Price in USD
(as of May 2011) |
| Rainbow |
E2 |
61 |
55 |
67 |
90 |
Set by dealer |
| Honeywell |
HHT-011C |
55 |
55 |
65 |
85 |
$45.00 - $55.00 |
| Honeywell |
HTT-022 |
54 |
63 |
62 |
99 |
$70.00 - $99.00 |
| Filtrete |
FAP01 |
86 |
72 |
97 |
110 |
$90.00 - $110.00 |
In our opinion the AHAM certificate is the most straightforward and clear certificate that Rainbow vacuum cleaner has. We do not know the meaning of numbers but they still can serve as a tool to make a comparison between appliances tested using the same method.
|
 CRI "Silver" certificate
CRI stands for Carpet and Rug Institute. Tests that are done:
Soil Removal
Dust Containment
Surface Appearance Change
Carpet and Rug Institute offers full description of testing procedures but they get very technical. It makes sense as the same testing procedures must be followed in order to compare cleaning systems. However CRI failed to put the test results and explanation how they make a decision to give Gold, Silver or Bronze seals to vacuum cleaner models. Why Rainbow scored the "SILVER" level comparing to the other vacuums we just could not understand.
We feel that CRI should explain in more detail what certification means exactly so if someone decides to use CRI testing results to make purchasing decision. Explanation may be posted somewhere on their website but it should be very easy to find just like someone who spends 30 minutes on our website should be able to find how to buy a vacuum cleaner.
|
 Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America certification:
We wanted to give you a bit more info on this certification but we just could not find it. Website mentioned on the label AAFA.org took us to another website Asthmaandallergyfriendly.com.
On that website it states:
Regular vacuuming with a Certified vacuum is important to minimize the total allergen burden of a room. The asthma & allergy friendly™ Certification Mark is awarded to vacuums that can be scientifically shown to remove allergens, while minimizing the exposure to the user. In order to be certified a vacuum cleaner must be scientifically tested to prove:
It removes a specified and significant amount of allergen from carpeting.
Allergen that is removed is retained within the vacuum cleaner.
The vacuum cleaner does not experience a reduction in allergen pick-up in the presence of a partly filled bag (or receptacle).
The operator is not excessively exposed to allergen upon bag (or receptacle).
The said above really makes sense but we wanted to have a bit more information so if allergies is an important factor you do not have to make about 2000 dollar decision based on terms such as "significant", "excessively". So we went to AAFA partner international research organization Allergy Standards Limited (ASL) website allergystandards.com. The website does not explain procedures for testing or any more detailed information either. We dug even deeper and found that they are using several partner laboratories and ASL says that one of them is testing vacuums. This is a laboratory located in the same state as Rainbow vacuum manufacturer called IBR Laboratories. They do have some more info on parameters they test but if this criteria is used for ASP:03:03 test nothing said about that.
So we went different direction and started looking for standard number "ASP:03:03". This is the number mentioned on the label on the Rainbow sweeper. All we found was a brief description on "What is a vacuum cleaner certification standard?" and HERE is the link to the file. Then on the bottom of the page it says "The asthma & allergy friendly™ Vacuum Cleaner Certification Standard ASP:03:01 has been approved and adopted by The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America." (still does not mention ASP:03:03 but looks like we are going right direction. When you think about it it does make sense - AAFA employs Allergy Standards Ltd to develop the testing procedures and then tests vacuums. Also next to above mentioned phrase it says "Please note the certification algorithms developed by Allergy Standards Ltd are subject to patent protection". My not educated guess would be that this algorithm is patented so only AAFA or ASL can do the testing and issue seals of approval and make money off of that. If so I think we still are entitled to know a little bit more about the test results so customer who feels capable of digesting the test data could make the purchasing decision on what he/she personally thinks. Now the label seems to imply that a team of educated in the field people are making a "recommendation" to purchase this product if you have asthma and/or allergies but this is an opinion that customer has no data to question. |
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