Miele Complete C3 Alize Vacuum Review

This vacuum has excellent build quality. It has a sturdy plastic body, while its telescopic wand is made from stainless steel. The bottom of the head is aluminum, while its rubber-like wheels help it to move smoothly around your home. There are several thoughtful details in this vacuum's design. There's an LED light button on its handle to help you see in darker areas of your home. The on/off button, power adjustment buttons, and auto-cable winding button on the canister can all be pressed with your feet.

This vacuum is easy to assemble as most of its parts and tools clip to one another. However, you still need to connect the hose to the handle and wand before it's ready to use. You also need to insert 3 AAA batteries into the handle to use the LED light.

This vacuum is outstandingly easy to maintain and accessing various components is incredibly easy.

Pressing the top cover lid opens it. Inside is the dustbag, the pre-motor filter, and the HEPA filter. The dustbag mounting bracket pops up for easy removal as soon as the lid is opened so you'll need to make sure it's back in place before closing the lid. The pre-motor filter is located behind the dustbag and can be simply unclipped for removal. It should be replaced when you have filled four dustbags. The HEPA filter at the top back of the dirt compartment has a time strip that changes color to indicate when it needs to be changed.

Since the vacuum head doesn't have a brushroll, it's very easy to remove any hair caught in it.

This vacuum has fairly high recurring costs as three parts need to be replaced quite often. 

• Dustbag: The dustbag needs to be disposed of when full. There are replacements in four-packs and eight-packs, both of which come with basic pre- and post-motor filters.
• Pre-motor filter: These need to be replaced after four dustbags have been replaced. The dustbag sets come with appropriate numbers of pre-motor filters, which can't be purchased separately.
• Post-motor filter: This HEPA filter needs to be replaced when its time strip turns red, estimated at 50 hours of operation or about a year of normal use. The HEPA filter can be purchased from Miele and is available on its own or with dustbags.

Consider the SEBO Airbelt D4 Premium if you're looking for a high-end bagged canister vacuum that incurs significantly lower recurring costs, as it uses much larger dustbags and has filters with a much longer service life.

This vacuum has decent storage compatibilities. The tools can be stored in a compartment in the canister body, and the cable automatically retracts. The upright wand can be clipped to the left, right, or bottom of the canister to allow it to stand up, and the floorhead pivots up so it doesn't take up much space.

This vacuum has a great-sized dirt compartment. Although Miele advertises that this dustbag can hold 4.5L, we measured much less. There's also an indicator to tell you when the dirt compartment is full.

• Telescopic wand
• Suction hose with handle
• 1x GN AirClean 3D dustbag
• 1x HEPA AirClean filter
• 1x pre-motor filter
• Main head
• Crevice tool
• Upholstery tool
• Soft brush
• 3x AAA batteries (for handle LED light)
• Vacuum canister
• User guide

This vacuum has an alright range. Its cord length is a bit longer than the Miele Classic C1, but you still may have to change outlets if you're cleaning a big room. If you want a canister vacuum with an even longer range, check out the NaceCare HVR 200 Henry.

This vacuum has decent portability. It's quite heavy, but it feels lighter in your hands. There's also a carrying handle to help you bring it up and down stairs. The smoothly rolling caster wheels on the canister take most of the weight while pulling it across various surfaces.

This is a corded vacuum. It does use three AAA batteries, but these are for its LED handle light.

The Miele Complete C3 Alize has a suction power control feature that can be raised or lowered to seven different levels using the power adjustment buttons on the canister: min. (curtains), furniture, rugs, auto, quiet mode, carpet, and max. (bare floors). There's also an LED light on the handle, which can help you clean darker parts of your home. When the vacuum head is placed in the stored position, the vacuum automatically turns off, which is a nice touch. However, unlike the Miele Complete C3 Cat & Dog, this vacuum doesn't have a hose with an electric cable, meaning that it can't be used with powered floorheads such as the Miele SEB 228.

This vacuum comes with a soft bristle brush for cleaning more delicate objects, as well as a crevice tool and an upholstery tool. You can store all of them in the vacuum's body, which is convenient.

You can use this vacuum in a handheld mode by connecting a brush or tool to its handle, which is handy for cleaning inside your car or hard-to-reach places.

This vacuum's single-pass performance on hard floors is disappointing. While the C3 itself is plenty powerful and easily clears away finer debris, the bristles on its straight-suction SBD 285-3 floorhead are too closely spaced to allow it to pass over large and medium-sized debris, causing it to push around this type of material. When dealing with this kind of debris, you'll need to lift the vacuum head so that the vacuum can suck everything up. Alternatively, you could also consider purchasing Miele's Parquet Twister head, which has less closely packed bristles, allowing it to more easily pass over large material.

The Miele Complete C3 Alize has poor performance on high-pile carpets and struggles with its straight-suction SBD 285-3 floorhead. While its powerful suction motor enables it to easily clear away finer, lightweight debris, its floorhead simply isn't high enough to pass over medium and large debris. With no electric corded hoses available for the Alize model, you will not be able to add a powerhead that would be able to deal with this sort of debris more effectively, though an air-driven turbo head like the STB 305-3 would help.

As with its performance on high-pile carpets, this vacuum isn't well-suited to low-pile carpets when used with the SBD 285-3 floorhead. It's more than powerful enough to suck up fine debris worked into carpet fibers, but the straight-suction head simply pushes around larger debris instead of allowing the vacuum to pass over it; you'll need to lift the vacuum head to clear away this kind of debris.

This vacuum has a hard time dealing with pet hair worked into low-pile carpeting. Its straight-suction SBD 285-3 floorhead simply doesn't provide a sufficient level of surface agitation to deal with pet hair worked into carpet fibers. If you're a pet owner with a lot of low-pile carpeting, consider purchasing a C3 variant that comes bundled with a powerhead, like the Miele Complete C3 Cat & Dog, or attach an air-driven turbo head, like the STB 305-3 head.

The Miele C3 Alize has great suction power at its floorhead, making it easier to clear debris in cracks or stubborn messes. You can adjust its suction power using buttons on the canister body.

The Miele Complete C3 offers superb airflow performance. Its powerful 1200W motor and efficient filtration and bag system enable it to easily lift all kinds of heavy household debris.

The Miele Complete C3 Alize is pretty quiet. With the vacuum running in its 'Auto' power setting, you won't have much trouble hearing what people nearby are saying, even with the vacuum running in the same room. It is noticeably louder in its 'Max' suction mode, but this level of noise is still very bearable and won't be too disruptive for people nearby.

This vacuum has excellent maneuverability. Thanks to its rubber-like wheels, it rolls smoothly as it moves around the room. The LED light is pretty bright and can help you illuminate dark areas of your home, like under couches, as you clean. When using the extendable wand, its reach under furniture is very good. But when doing long reaches where the head is at wide angles, the head can pull itself backward as if it's being stored, which causes it to not lay completely flat on the floor. It's easy to clean around electrical cords, though, and while it can suck up rug tassels, the vacuum head mostly moves around it.

This vacuum does a fantastic job of dealing with pet hair on upholstered furniture when used with its upholstery tool. It easily clears away both long and short strands of hair within one or two passes. It's also very easy to maneuver on this surface.

The Miele Complete C3 is very effective at sealing in fine allergens, thanks to its three-stage filtration system. The post-motor HEPA filter keeps fine particles and allergens inside the dirt compartment and out of the air.

The Miele Complete C3 Alize is exceptional at cleaning debris from cracks. When using its floorhead, it easily cleans debris in shallow, medium, and full-depth cracks, with only a very small amount left behind in very deep crevices. If you want an even more thorough clean, you can always detach its wand and use its crevice tool.

The Miele Complete C3 Alize does a terrible job of removing stains, though it isn't designed for this purpose.

This vacuum isn't designed to deal with liquid spills.