We do wash the Dyson parts, that's what customer service told us to do. It is a pain in the butt -- they need to be washed all the time, and we have had to replace a couple of parts. It also completely destroyed our wool rugs because without the beater bar they don't get clean, but the beater bar just tears them all to hell.

It is a neat machine and we completely loved it at first. It's about three years old now and we have no idea what to do, but we will probably replace it this year with something else.