There's a bad guy on General Hospital that I can never take seriously, because he SOUNDS just like James Dyson, so I always think "Why is the vacuum cleaner guy so mean?"

We broke down and bought one earlier this year too and I love it. Later this week we're ripping out the carpet down here in the daycare and replacing it with commercial vinyl tiles so it won't get as much use down here.

Yeah, the robots really don't like the hay so much. However, ours does a wonderful job on pet hair, kitty litter, bird food, etc. The only catch - it has to be emptied daily, and the brushes cleaned every other day. But, we've had great luck with ours for months now, and it saves us a LOT of labor (cleaning brushes for 5 minutes is a lot better than an hour of vacuuming our entire joint). As for the hay, we just pick that up with our dust-buster in the morning before the Roomba makes its rounds. That sucks that it didn't work out for you though. :(

We also have an upright Dyson, and I completely echo the sentiments about it. It's well worth the cost.

How foes the Animal do with long human hair? That seems to be the bane fo just about every vacuum cleaner we have ever owned.

Moreso with the rotating brush.

As someone with long human hair married to someone else with long human hair, I can state that it does very well -- but you do have to take the roller out every once in a while to cut the accumulated hair off. No more than two or three times a year.

Sure beats two or three times per vacuuming session.

My Dyson is what I consider a great choice for keeping up with the cats and Beagle hair. SnowFlake is right!

They bought a Dyson slim over the weekend and love it. Apparently it sucked up enough cat hair to make a few more cats.