What is the Miele C3 Total Solution?
Miele’s C3 vacuum cleaner
range comprises seven individual bagged cylinder models, ranging from
£200 to £600, with each offering a specific unique feature. To give this
model its full title, this is the (takes deep breath) Miele Complete C3
Total Solution Allergy Powerline, and is designed for mixed floor types
and users sensitive to dust and other airborne allergens. The latter is
achieved through a specially designed floorhead, which claims to pick
up 10% more dust than standard heads, and an 11-stage filtration process
designed to retain up to 99.999% of dust and pollen from the air.
The
Powerline tag indicates this is a 1200W machine and it comes with a
selection of floorheads, including a Turbobrush and Miele’s AirTeQ
floorhead, which claims to give the same performance as a traditional
floorhead on a (now banned by the EU) 2000W machine. It’s light,
comfortable to use, offers telescopic tubes and foot controls for
convenience. Complete with the self-sealing HyClean GN dustbags, the C3
Total Solution Allergy Powerline is a cleaner not to be sneezed at.
SEE ALSO: Best Vacuum Cleaners Round-up
Miele Complete C3 Total Solution – Accessories
The
Miele Complete C3 Total Solution Alle… Let’s just call it the C3
Total Solution, shall we? The C3 Total Solution has a basic three-piece
accessory set on-board, including an upholstery nozzle, dusting brush
and crevice tool concealed beneath the top cover. The separate
Turbobrush floorhead is a good size and solidly built, with a passive
(air-powered) beater brush, a high/low speed control on the brush and a
removable cover plate for cleaning access to the brush. Miele’s ‘parquet
twister’ is a dedicated hard floor head with an innovative pivoting
joint that keeps it flat to the ground no matter what angle you hold the
tube. It’s exceptionally light for low effort cleaning, too. The
final tool in the C3 Total Solution’s arsenal is the new AirTeQ
floorhead with its claims of smoother, more efficient airflow.
Its large wheels and short flexi-hose make it exceptionally
easy to manoeuvre and its hard floor/carpet switch is on both sides for
right- or left-footed users. Solidly made steel tubes are telescopic for
easy reach adjustment at the touch of a button, and there’s a clip on
the body of the cleaner to hold the tube upright between vacuuming
manoeuvres.
While not strictly accessories, this model comes
supplied with Miele’s new HyClean GN self-closing dust bags that are
designed to hold 20% more dust than previous HyClean bags.
SEE ALSO: Best Leaf Blowers and Garden Vacs
Miele Complete C3 Total Solution – On carpets and hard floors
We
mounted the Parquet Twister head to the C3 Total Solution and began by
tackling a hard parquet floor. The head design is outstanding for ease
of use, with its pivoting and light weight, and ensures solid suction
performance.
For a light amounts of pet hair we found the lowest
power setting adequate, while on full power it was a breeze to clean up
grit and dried mud. We generally prefer motor-powered Turboheads rather
than those that use fans in the airflow like this Miele model, but once
again the performance was exceptional on all but very deep-pile
carpets, where the brush would get a bit bogged down.
For this
we switched to the AirTeQ head, which was highly effective and designed
not to stick itself down to the floor. It definitely maximises the air
flow for very good performance, but we think Miele’s claim that it is as
effective as an older-style head on a 2000W cleaner is rather wishful
thinking.
It did, however, clean our test powder on carpet well,
with very good edge cleaning. This head was also quieter than the
Turbohead, and the C3 Total Solution tipped our noise meter at just 79dB
– or about the same as light street traffic passing by.
Test Carpet before (above) and after (below)
Miele Complete C3 Total Solution – On stairs
Weighing
in at under 6kg with a convenient, chunky handle, the C3 Total Solution
is relatively easy to carry up and down stairs. It will sit upright on a
standard step, but care is needed to ensure the hose or cable don’t
topple it over.
Thanks to the telescopic tubes and good hose
reach, we could get halfway up and/or down our stairs with the machine
at the top or bottom, though a longer cable would be welcome. The
7.5-metre cable is decent enough, but a couple more metres would give a
better range – the Numatic Henry HVR200-A2 has a 10-metre cable.
The
upholstery tool was probably the easiest to use on stairs – our usually
preferred Turbohead and the AirTeq heads were more effective, but also
heavier and not as easy to get into narrow parts of turning steps. While
asking for another tool would mean half a cupboard full of accessories,
a smaller Turbohead for stairs and upholstery would have made this
Miele the perfect package.
Miele Complete C3 Total Solution – Pet hair
We
went straight for the Turbohead where outfall from our furry friends
was concerned. Spun up to full speed, the Miele C3 Total Solution
cleaned the 30cm area with mixed-length Collie and Labrador hair in 12
seconds – a great result. For pet hairs on deeper-pile carpets the
Turbohead did slow down under load, reducing the efficiency of its
de-furring abilities a little.
Repeating the test with the AirTeQ
head, it took quite a while longer without the added action of the beater
brush, but cleaned completely with a few more sweeps of the area. It got
a fair bit of hair tangled around the stiff brush edges, but proved
easy to clean.
SEE ALSO: Best Washing Machines Round-up
Should I buy the Miele Complete C3 Total Solution Allergy Powerline?
Miele’s
C3 Total Solution is a great all-round cylinder cleaner, offering a
great choice of tools, impressive suction power and class-leading dust
filtration standards. We like features such as the variable power on a foot
switch, the tubes feel solid to use, and the AirTeq and Parquet
floorheads are outstandingly effective. OK, we would’ve liked a smaller Turbohead and a slightly
longer cable, but it otherwise offers superb all-round
performance.
