Rainbow Vs Kirby Vacuum Cleaner - a Consumer's Review

The purchase of a vacuum cleaner is a very sore subject for me and one that I have regretted to have to do many, many times. It seems I spent more time shopping for vacuum cleaners in my life than I did for clothes or shoes. I even recall one year going through about three or four vacuums at the average cost of $150. I do believe for now I am finally happy, unfortunately it takes two machines to do it.

One day after I got home from work there was someone at the door. I begged my husband to never answer the door again because this was the doorbell from hell and what stood on the other side of the door was something so frightening and relentless in its pursuit.... it was a Kirby Vacuum salesman. Actually it was a Kirby Vacuum salesperson and she was too small and too cute to be lugging around this ridiculous box from door to door. My first problem with Kirby salespeople is they apparently cannot read the signs at our neighborhood entrance that clearly states "No Soliciting." My other problem is that they will not take no for an answer and can somehow work such magic on you that pretty soon you realize they've been in your house for hours.

We allowed this girl to pitch her spiel as we went on about most of our usual business. While one would listen and watch the other would go do some dishes. Eventually she became a little annoyed so we both gave her our attention, but not before giving her a shot of Tequila first. To make a long story short, after several shots of liquor in her system, I think we had finally gotten her to the point where she was going to give up. Not quite so fast. She ran out for reinforcements and returned with her "manager." We decided we weren't going there and got him out as quick as we could and continued to deal with her. I would say we were now into about four hours of being hounded, though politely, but this sweet young girl that, as she explained to us, was getting married and wanted to win the trip the company was offering for top salespeople for her and her fiancee. At this point it didn't really matter if it was true or not, we were, quite honestly, impressed with the vacuum. The funny thing is that I believe the cost of the Kirby started at somewhere around $2,000, but after some flat out "no ways" and hard negotiations we finally purchased the Kirby for $800. To me it was a ridiculous price to pay for a vacuum, but then again I had probably spent well over $2,000 for vacuums I had to replace every six months.

The bottom line on the Kirby is that I love it. It is the first vacuum we had where we could actually see the carpet being lifted up which to me meant great suction. The carpets were cleaner and the wet carpet cleaning system that came with the Kirby works great. We've now had our Kirby G6 for roughly eight years and it works as well as it did day one. The only down side is the expensive bags and the cleaning fluid for shampooing your carpet. However, with two dogs in the house, I'll gladly pay money so we can shampoo our own carpets anytime we want or need.

Then came the Rainbow people. We were not in the market for another vacuum as we were very happy with our Kirby, however it was a favor to my brother as he was helping the girl who was pitching this item win her trip. We went right into this sales pitch telling her there was no way, no chance and no how that we were going to be purchasing a vacuum from her, but she did her whole presentation and still didn't understand the word "no." Okay, so we were quite impressed with the Rainbow, though I think the only reason is that because the dirt in collected in a water filled container, it looks quite gross and you get the impression that it gets more dirt. I think people generally don't look inside the bags after every vacuum to see how much dirt they got up. This does not stop my husband from bringing me the Rainbow container every time he vacuums to show me the crud collection which looks like a pool of sewage. I think if we added water to the vacuum bags we'd get the same effect, right?

As I said, I was not going to purchase another vacuum since we already had our Kirby, but as luck would have it, my mother had purchased the Rainbow about a year prior to our sales pitch and she couldn't use it and offered it to us. It turned out to be a fantastic vacuum and I love the fact that you can add fragrances to the water which is released from the machine as you vacuum into the air. Believe me that's a lot nicer smelling than the odor you get from bags. Unfortunately, the shampooing system that came with the Rainbow did not work due to a broken motor. Since this was a gift from mom, our only option is to purchase a new shampoo unit. Since that is out of the question, we have come to a wonderful compromise and now use our Rainbow and our Kirby.

Both vacuums have their own features and I do like the Rainbow more for vacuuming but that is mainly due to the odor issue since there are no smelly bags to use. It also handles real easy to get under the lowest furniture. I don't have that ability with the Kirby G6. Since I do not know how well the Rainbow performs on shampooing carpets, I cannot give an opinion, though I would assume it works well. At this point we will continue to use our Kirby for shampooing as it still performs quite well and is real easy to use. I also like the fact that Kirby has a plan to refurbish your old Kirby to keep it looking like new and working even better. I certainly recommend with of these vacuums over any store bought vacuum. I will never spend another $250 or more on a machine from a store as I know I will probably have to replace it within the year. Whichever machine you decide to purchase, if either, remember to haggle, haggle and haggle with the salesperson, especially if it means getting a $2,000 vacuum for $800. The same night we bought our Kirby, other people in the neighborhood bought the same exact machine for the full price, while others haggled for a price higher than what we paid. I guess it was the Tequila.