That same friend of mine does a pet sitting business in her home, so hair is a huge issue. She has a robotic vacuum which she loves but it’s only for touchup after she has gotten the bulk of the hair up with a regular vacuum. Otherwise it fills up in minutes. The part she loves is that your home just feels notably cleaner with that thing on the job.That's a very good question. We've had a number of cheap vacuum cleaners in the last ten years -- maybe five. But a couple were given to us and I don't think we've spend more than $30 on any of them since my wife is a master of the garage and thrift store sales. But with the pet hair problem, they were always clogging. So my wife got fed up and decided that it was worth it if an expensive vacuum cleaner got rid of that aggravation -- and I would have agreed with her had she asked me beforehand. I think she paid $300 for it and it is specifically advertised as being for houses with shedding animals. I'm far from convinced that the aggravation factor has been reduced much at all. Although the Dyson clogs just as quickly, it IS easier to take apart (without tools) to unclog. With a couple of the others it was quite a task to disassemble them enough to clear the clog and it was also evident that they were not intended to be disassemble that way very often since they used self-tapping screws into plastic in some places. They Dyson is also quite a bit lighter than the others and is cordless. So, IF it lasts long enough, it was probably still worth it.