Well, I ended up buying the Blue Diamond locally today. I was sold after talking to the guys at the pool store. They were very candid, and even showed me a BD that was in for service and explained how they cover shipping costs to NJ for any repairs, if necessary. So, got it home and started it up. My pool was EXTREMELY dirty, from 2+ weeks of no cleaning, and fallout from huricane Fay with high winds. Here are some of my observations of the BD:

- The actual unit seems to be fairly well made. None of the parts felt particularly vulnerable to breakage with normal use. The openings on the bottom that suck stuff up seemed a little small to me though. Two skinny rectangles is all. I don't think large clusters of twigs/leaves would be sucked thru it, but it actually did pick up some leaf/twig clusters.

- It seems to only suck up things directly in it's path. It would not suck up anything right next to it or under it's track. Also, though I only had one pine needle on the bottom, it took about 3 passes before it actually sucked it up. Maybe the shape of the needle challenges those small openings?

- The filter bag is a pretty good size, at least twice the size of my Polaris, and it seems to be made well and will hopefully be durable. I found it relatively easy to clean afterward and reinstall. Boy that thing was REALLY dirty after its 90 minute run. I just fill a 5-gal bucket part way w/ pool water; rinse the bag in it; dump the dirty water & refill. I repeated that process about 5 times before the bag was totally clean. I was surprised by the level of tiny dirt particles that were captured.

- I watched the cycle for the first 30 minutes or so. It makes no sound at all and doesn't shoot water in the air like my Polaris did (always soaking my sunroom windows). At first it seemed to zig-zag across almost the same straight line across the width of the pool several times, but soon after it became quite randomized. It actually seemed to head straight for the piles of debris on the bottom, to my surprise. Now here comes my main disappointment, but perhaps someone on this forum has suggestions to address it. It seems that it doesn't like to climb the pool walls, which is a main reason I bought it. When it decides to go all the way up, it does so with no problem. However, it only decides to climb about 1 in 8 attempts. The other times, just as it reaches the gentle curve up the wall and then stops and reverses. I don't get that. Perhaps there's an adjustment somewhere to make it climb more? I had the handle tilted using the second-to-last holes on each side, as they recommend and made sure the power cord wasn't restricting it. I sure hope that can be remedied. Also, I noticed a few times, mostly in the deep end, it would do wheelies and not pick up the debris in its path. It didn't happen all the time, but happened enough that I noticed it repeatedly while watching for 30 minutes.

- It can't seem to climb my steps to clean them, but then again, neither could my Polaris, so no big deal. I just sweep it to the bottom before the cycle. I noticed it does NOT get stuck on anything in the pool. Did not get stuck in the ladder (maybe it didn't hit it, not sure), didn't get stuck on my main drain, light, or returns. It seems if it hits an obstacle it just reverses in about 15 seconds or so. So that is good.

- Bottom line, in 90 minutes when it shut itself off, it had cleaned the entire pool bottom, but I'm sure it missed a lot of the walls, and did not get the steps. It caught many small particles of dirt that I didn't even know were in the pool. So bascially, it did a good job cleaning. That amount of dirt would've taken my Polais 5-6 hours on the booster pump to pick up, assuming I unstuck it from the ladder right away whenever it got stuck (which it did many times in its long cycle). So, basically I'm quite happy with the purchase, and feel very good about the service I will get if I have any problems in the future. Now if I can just get it to climb the walls consistently and stop it from making wheelies I'll be happy. On a side note: It has a 4 year warranty, but it's only 2yr "bumper to bumper" and 4yr on the motor they said, plus it's limited to 400 cycles (there's a built in timer that counts up every time you power it on). I keep my pool open all season, but don't have to clean much in the winter, so I figure if I average 2 cleans per week for the year, that would pretty much carry me for 4 years, so not a big deal on the counter thing.

One final note -- I put the caddy together for the unit but I don't really get how to store it on there. It doesn't seem to fit in it really.....just kind of rests on top precariously. So when I wheel it over rough surfaces it wants to fall off. I'm not sure what the secret to that is. Also, I don't see a spot to store the transformer on the cart. Am I missing something? Surely there's got to be a way to securely attach it to the caddy. Maybe tomorrow I'll take a closer look at those things. Didn't spend much time today trying to figure it out. Hope this info is useful to those of you thinking to purchase a BD soon.