I think the fluid issues have been solved on those, the Kinetic is also a nice unit. The fluid units get kind of hot, but they are quiet. The better ones have a heavier flywheel and more stable base. I like my Tacx flow unit, you might want to consider on of those if you are interested in trying wattage based training, they are also a very nice smooth riding trainer.

If you get a decent fluid or mag unit with a flywheel, you should be fine. The larger question is what you plan to do with it. if you use a trainer thoughtfully as part of the yearly plan, you can really improve your power on the bike. I think a lot of triathletes tend to just piddle around on trainers, so some drills and throw in some random intervals and wonder why they get the same old results. I really believe you can improve a lot with a trainer.

I think that's a perfect plan. It's nice to do a block of strength builing, depending on your goals and fitness at some point early in the winter. Doing a cycle of say 6 weeks of weights might be a good build up to this phase, then a cycle of about 6 weeks using once a week of large gear, low rpm work, once longer intervals of say 10 minutes and a tempo workout. Everything is still below your anaerobic level.

From there, you drop off the low rpm work and shoten up the work interval, while increasin the intensity, but just a little bit. You continue to do your once a week tempo workout, adding duration until you get up over an hour, then add some resistence and drop to 20-30 mins and build back up. These are hard workouts because they are uncomfortable and long, a good movie helps.

A plan like that for 3 days a week indoors for the three big winter months can really help, hpefully you get out once or twice for a ride or run outside.

I hear a lot of people really like the spinervals dvd's, I'm not familiar w/ them.

I found having the numeric feedback from a trainer like the Flow was very helpful in adding structure, it's like what people do w/ the powertap, but cheaper. If you get serious about going this route, shoot me an email and I can send you some workouts to try.