Also, according to Consumer Reports, the difference between the $150 "cheapie" and the $300 "cheapie" is minute. The only problem is that you can only get the $150 at WalMart.

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Now accepting suggestions for a new sigline

And replace all your lights with tanning bulbs, nothing like UV rays to kill pests and sterilize the environment.

I'm skeptical of any product that uses its Europeanness as a central selling point.

On a cleaning lady. Not only will the money cover two years of cleaning and supplies, you won't have to lift a finger to do any of it, and best of all, you can refer to "your cleaning lady" in conversation, proving to all and any that you are a well-to-do lady about town.

And congratulations on the whole frog change-up. Now, if you could just get a third cat, to be named "Deep fryer cat", you could streamline the whole operation, and just give the cleaning lady a couple extra bucks to bring some veggies and wine.

My own experience is that if

a) you have carpet and fallen hair
b) you have borderling OCD about cleanliness

then a Dyson-style (i.e. built using similar principles) vacuum is a good thing...

If however your carpets aren't exposed to large amounts of cruft or you aren't tormented by the thought of dirt around your house then you'll get more happiness through a cheap vaccuum + crate of champagne or whatever...

"Just as there are no atheists in foxholes, there are no libertarians in financial crises." -Krugman

woof.

"Eppur si muove." -- Galileo Galilei
"Nevertheless, it moves." ‮

Here's a relevant part about Dyson:

Within six years of purchase 29% of upright Dyson vacuum cleaners and 22% of their cylinder vacuums needed repairing. The Dyson repair rate is also getting worse. A 2002 survey found that 21% of the company's upright vacuums needed repairing within six years, and a 2001 survey revealed that 14% of its cylinder vacuums broke down.

I really love the quote from the marketdroid faining ignorance:

Dyson said it was "puzzled" by the findings. "We closely monitor the reliability of Dyson machines and our best-selling machine, DC14, has a reliability rate of 98% - the 2% of failures are missing manuals or tools," a spokeswoman said

So, she's saying they have a 100% reliability rate when you ignore mis-packaged vacuums?  Please, what BS.

Top rated for performance + reliability was Bosch, although something about that name gets my dander up.

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Metus amatores matrum compescit, non clementia.

So far I've had two scam responses. On one of them, the person obviously didn't fill in all the required variables in their spamming program since it still had things like "insert amount of cost here" in it. They also wanted to buy my MOTOCYCLE

That is the least rock and roll thing, ever.  I don't know when I lost my rock and roll, but fretting over vinyl siding was a sure sign.

You, dear, are pushing it.  More motorcycle pictures!
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So far, I love it.  It definitely picks up everything - I have two cats and a dog, so I need something that gets pet hair.  It maneuvers better than most uprights and the attachments work get.  And it works pretty well on hard surfaces.  But I have only had it for nine months, so I can't speak to long term reliability.

Have I mentioned that I was thinking of getting a grill? My accented friend likes to grill steaks, and since there's no way in hell I'm going to his house for grilled steak... if I purchase it, the steak will come...

If ripping out all the goddamn carpet and having hardwoods isn't an option, I say get a kirby.  I have the one my parents got as a wedding present in 1955.  Still going strong.  Doesn't do the super-duper hepa filtration thingy, but by god will it suck up the dirt.

The position of the dirtbag.

he DC14 Complete, available only at Sears, performed similarly to Dyson's DC07, an upright rated very good in our latest report on vacuum cleaners. It cleaned bare floors superbly and had good airflow, which is important in cleaning with tools. As with the DC07, however, it was middling on medium-pile carpet. The vacuum's floating head--intended to adjust automatically to carpet height--was a bit sticky on some test samples, so the brushes didn't always make complete contact with the carpet.

...

We can point you toward less expensive upright models that worked better overall than the DC14. They include the Hoover WindTunnel Self Propelled Ultra U6439-900, $300; Eureka Boss Smart Vac Ultra 4870, $140, a CR Best Buy; and Kenmore (Sears) Progressive with Direct Drive 34922, $300. The Hoover WindTunnel Bagless U5753-900, $200, is also a very good performer.

So, there you have it, there are a good number of vacuums that cost a good deal less that perform better than the Dyson. I'm personally most partial to Kenmore and Hoover brands. I've never had a Eureka vac that lasted more than 1 month longer than the warranty. My last vac was a Kenmore that lasted over four years. My current vac is a Hoover and I've yet to have any troubles with it.