Miele Complete C3 Cat & Dog Powerline Review
As a pet owner, you probably know how bad pet hair and odors can get. A specialized and powerful vacuum is needed to get rid of unwanted messes left behind by our furry friends.
Miele is one of those German-engineering brands that show the rest of the world how to do it. They are expensive but have a quality I can often hardly believe. For example, a friend of mine owns a Miele washing machine that has lasted for 22 years and counting. That is the kind of quality you can expect from this permium level pet hair vacuum. In fact, Miele has invented pet hair vacuums in the first place!
Our Rating
Pros
- Powerful with 6 suction levels
- Effective pet hair cleaning
- AirTeQ head great on hard floors
- Quieter than rivals
Cons
- Premium price
- Short cable
- TurboHead too large for stairs
For well over a decade, Miele’s Cat & Dog vacuums have been removing pet hair from households all over the world. And thanks to the EU’s power efficiency laws, the Miele C3 runs on efficiently used 1200-Watts of power. It features a rotating Turbo Brush and a new AirTeQ high-airflow floor-head to pick up pet hairs effectively.
The C3 Cat & Dog unit comes with Miele’s AirClean filters that are made for absorbing pet related odors and emit a light perfumed smell. It also has a color strip, which shows you when it’s time to change the filters. The C3 uses HyClean bags that are self-sealing (love it!) and comes with a great array of accessories, features easy-to-use electronic controls, and has an impressive 36-foot cleaning radius.
Accessories
Thanks to the EU’s energy regulations, Miele designed the AirTeQ head to provide the most efficient airflow and the same suction that an old 2000W Watt head would have. Not only is the C3 just as powerful as older units, but it is also flexible and lightweight. Its neck pivots all around and its hard floor brush makes it very effective on a variety of surfaces.
All of the smaller tools and floorheads included easily attach (with a click) to the metal tube and sit tight. The cord length is about 25 feet (average for most vacuums) but adding the flexible hose and the telescopic tube gives you a total of 36 feet range. The electronic speed controls offer six varieties of cleaning power from low (good for curtains) to high (good for hard floors and carpets).
Carpets & Hard Floors
With an easy flip of the switch, the AirTeQ floor-head lowers its brushes to really clean your hard floors. Tiny cut-outs in the brushes allow for airflow to prevent the head from sticking to the floor due to suction. The AirTeQ head easily glides on hard floors and easily sucks up debris, hair, and dust.
The suction of this machine is so powerful that using the high pile setting and using on short pile surfaces, the Miele Complete C3 Cat & Dog Powerline requires a firm grip. But a quick fix for that is simply to reduce the power and use the vent on the handle that reduces suction.
The AirTeQ head might have an amazing suction but remember the C3 Cat & Dog unit comes with two heads, and the TurboHead simply works better on carpets. It spins rapidly enough to loosen all dirt from your carpets. When using on rugs or other similar surfaces, you might set the suction too strong and pull the rug up, so be sure to use the vent I mentioned to loosen it.
Since the brush is powered by air, thick carpets can slow it down. In our test, that is not significant enough to reduce its efficiency. The TurboHead moves easily on carpets and its noise level is 79dB. The AirTeQ is a little quieter at 77dB.
Since you get both heads with the C3 Cat & Dog, I suggest using the AirTeQ for cleaning hard floors while the TurboHead does best on carpets.
Cleaning Stairs
The C3 Cat & Dog weighs about 12 pounds, so we had no trouble carrying up the stairs. If your steps are not particularly slim, the vacuum fits well on them so long as you don’t pull the cord or hose too much to tip the poor thing over. Because of the long hose and tube, we could get about halfway up the stairs without having to move the vacuum onto a step.
I used the TurboHead to clean my carpeted stairs. Its size did pose a problem when I was trying to get into tight corners. I ended up using the upholstery tool for that. After all, it is designed to get into tight areas, though it is not meant to clean pet hair.
Cleaning Pet Hair
Not surprisingly, the C3 Cat & Dog is amazing at cleaning pet hair and still holds the #2 spot on our pet hair vacuum top 10 list. While some hair does get stuck on the brush, the powerful suction keeps them from returning to the floor and pulls them in if you lift the vacuum up slightly.
The TurboBrush is the best head for pet hair removal. It lifts hair off upholstery, rugs, and carpets like a champ. In our test, it removed fur from the couch, rug and pet beds very quickly. Plus, the C3 Cat & Dog line of vacuums emit a faint perfumed odor to keep your home smelling fresh. Of course, this is optional, in case you are allergic to perfume.
Is the Miele Complete C3 Cat & Dog Powerline worth it?
If you want the king of pet hair vacuums and if the premium budget is no issue, this is the right model for you. Speaking from experience with other Miele products, this vacuum is likely going to outlive several cheaper alternatives. In the sum of buying multiple vacuums over the years, this makes the C3 likely cheaper as a whole (remember the 22-year-old, still-alive Miele washing machine I mentioned in the beginning?).
Other vacuums have turbo heads as well, but none do quite as good of a job at collecting fur and getting rid of odor as the Miele Complete C3 Cat & Dog does. It is designed to last for a long time, comes with wonderful accessories, and does an amazing job at cleaning hard floors and carpets. Plus, it has an ample 0.4-gallon (4.5 liters) capacity. With Miele, you can generally never go wrong.
- Bundles Includes - Miele's AH50 GN Performance Pack - Comes With 16 Genuine Miele GN Airclean FilterBags, 1 Genuine Miele HEPA Air Clean Filter AH-50 and 4 Pre-Motor Protection Filters
- Lightweight, Quiet and Powerful Thanks to Miele's Amazing 1200-Watt Vortex Motor / Made In Germany and Made To Last, The Miele Marin has a 20-Year Average Life-Span
- AirClean Sealed System Construction - Perfect for any Allergy or Asthma Sufferer - Comes with Active Air Clean Filter which helps reduce Odors and Pet Smells while Filtering the Air!
- Comes with Miele SEB-228 Powerhead - Great For deep cleaning and restoring crushed carpet nap on all types of carpeting. Also perfect for picking up large amounts of pet hair from carpet.
- Comes with Miele SBB300-3 Parquet Floor Brush - Designed to go flat under baseboards, low under furniture, tight up against kick jams and around chair legs. With a 90 degree twisting rotation there not many places this floor brush can't go! + Comes with STB101 Mini Turbo Brush - Perfect for Cleaning Upholstery and Carpeted Stairs
Last update on 2023-09-28 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Last update on 2023-09-28 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Last update on 2023-09-27 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API