Miele Complete C3 Powerline – Stairs

With a solid 7.5 m cord length and excellent hose and tube reach, the C3 Powerline has no trouble getting to an entire flight of stairs from the top or bottom. The main floor head and tubes are a little unwieldy but we found a combination of the upholstery tool connected directly to the hose handle to be very effective indeed.

With its nose mounted handle and flat back this cleaner sits on stairs very solidly making it ideal to carry upstairs with you, step-by-step. With the additional dusting and crevice tools on board, getting into tight corners, dusting the banisters or removing the odd cobweb are relatively easy to. For more stubborn dirt on carpeted stairs we definitely would have preferred a small turbo brush as the upholstery head can stick down to low-pile carpets like a vacuum limpet.

Miele Complete C3 Powerline – Pet Hair

Miele offers a spectacular range of cleaners many of which are geared up for pet hair – but the C3 Powerline isn’t one of them. The lack of rotating turbo brush was always going to hamper pet cleaning performance but the Allteq head’s stiff bristles do a spectacularly good job of entwining and retaining hairs rather than pulling them into the suction air flow. One nip around the kitchen floor tiles, where our Collie and Labrador seem to moult all year round, turned the floor head into something resembling a furry mop.

With the bristles retracted pet clearing performance on carpet was much improved as the extra suction power did a good job of pulling hairs and deep down dirt from the carpet. It still took a fair while to clear the mixed pet hairs from our 30cm test area of carpet though, so the C3 Powerline is clearly not the best choice for pet owners. That said, you can buy the Miele pet hair tool separately so you could always see how you get on with the C3 Powerline before dropping the £50 for the extra tool.

Related: Miele Compact C2 Cat and Dog Powerline review

Should I buy the Miele Complete C3 Powerline?

The C3 Powerline is an excellent all-rounder with high suction power, low noise, well thought out features and superb build, plus it has variable speed so can be adjust to suit a variety of vacuuming tasks.

However, its inconsistent hard floor cleaning, tendency to stick down on carpet when at full power and limited pet hair abilities all dent its appeal. Plus there’s the issues off the odd static dust attraction of the main head.

Verdict

Powerful and versatile with superb build quality, low noise and variable speed, the C3 Powerline certainly has a lot going for it but a few inconsistencies let it down.

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