Help deciding on suction, pressure, or robotic cleaner

[laff66]

I currently have a Hayward Navigator suction cleaner that works pretty well, but is a HUGE pain for me. I was pretty much set on going to a pressure cleaner, but have a few reservations. One is that our main drain does not work, so the suction cleaner running water through the filter is a huge plus. Another problem is that we only have one skimmer in a 29000 gallon pool, so I hate to take power away from it to run the cleaner.
Lately it struck me that a little extra money might be well worth it to go with a robotic, but I know absolutely nothing about them. Can anyone tell me how they handle the following:

-removing silt/dirt
-cleaning corners in a pool with lots of 90 degree corners
-capacity (how often it will need emptying with a dirty pool)

I'm sure all these things vary with the brand and model, and I really don't want to $2000, but I would consider some of the $700-$1200 models. I would especially appreciate suggestions from those who have used suction and then changed to other methods for comparison.

 

[kirbinster]

Check out the Blue Pearl - it is at the lower end of your price range and does a great job in my pool. I used to have a Polaris 380 and this thing is so much better its unbelievable.

 

[laff66]

Wow that sounds pretty good, and I saw it on one website for $799. I'm almost going to spend that much converting to pressure side cleaning! How often do you have to empty the filter bag and how easy is it to do?
Plus, I'd get to keep my suction fitting which is in the middle of the pool to manually vacuum from, if I needed to!