Being that this is a pet vacuum lets start with the important things by those standards. I have three dogs, which automatically means 3x the hair. But one of my guys is a Chow Chow German Shepherd mix...yes, lets give that amount of hair and shedding some time to sink in. On top of that, half of our house is carpeted and we already own a Dyson. When I tell you this can hold its own! I love that it illuminates! It makes those hard to see corners where all the hair gathers super easy to make sure its all gone. It works great both on my tile and my carpeted areas. Also, my entire house hold had allergies of some sort - including all three of the dogs. You ever walk into a room after vacuuming and dusting and the whole 9, and it just FEELS clean? Yeah.... Depending on the amount of vacuuming you need to do, I find that the cannister is on the small side but in no way should be a deal breaker.