My answer is a little bit in jest.......I had one for 12 years.  I didn't abuse it but wore it out.  After 5 years of feeding frustrations we removed the front knife on each row.  That helped a lot but we still had issues with fluff and too much going into the head.  Since it was worn out the answer for me was to move on to something else.  I have one year on a Maya and am very happy.