well, let's put it this way: i have name my robot "catalina", and i love her very much.

obviously i can't speak to durability, but it really does an excellent job of cleaning and is very, very easy to use and clean. it does exactly what i had hoped it would do, and i've packed away my old vacuum hose and put the kreepy on ebay.

the only negative so far is that two little plastic knobs that hold the bottom cover on are kind of cheap and tend to come loose during use so that i have to be careful that it doesn't pop open and drop the filter bag in the water when removing it. this is a small price to pay given that the unit is at least $300 cheaper than anything comparable.

i'll keep reporting as i learn more about the unit. thanks for your interest everyone!