Verdict

Pros

• Fairly lightweight
• Good on-board tool storage
• Excellent HyClean bags
• Good edge cleaning

Cons

• Floorhead sticks down on full power
• Poor pickup on lower power settings
• Poor pet hair carpet cleaning
• Short cable and hose limits reach
• Wheels struggle on deep carpet
• Poor energy rating

What is the Miele Classic C1 Junior PowerLine?

Packing a mighty punch with a 1,400W motor in a compact cylinder cleaner body, Miele’s Classic C1 PowerLine Junior promises tough cleaning across a variety of surfaces. Its HyClean 3D bags and multi-stage filtration system capture dust and allergens efficiently, scoring an excellent B on the energy label for dust re-emission.

Priced at around £100, this relatively affordable model from Miele boasts a 9m operating radius and telescopic tubes to get to those hard-to-reach places. It cleans pretty well, too, but a litany of irritating niggles let it down.

Miele Classic C1 Junior PowerLine – Design & Accessories

Understandably, given the price, the C1 Junior comes with a basic set of tools. The main floor head is a standard design suitable for carpets and – with the flick of its single foot switch dropping down brushes – hard floors as well. This connects to a pair of metal tubes that are either telescopic (SBAD1) or simply push together (SBAD0), depending on which model you buy. Both attach to a curved plastic handle with simple suction release switch.

The hose, while not incredibly lengthy, is strong and flexible and offers an accessory holder for the crevice tool, upholstery tool and dusting brush. It retracts automatically into the body at the press of a foot switch. The claim of a 9m operating radius is a little ambitious considering the cable is only 5.5m long.

A rotary dial on the main body allows you to adjust power up in six steps to the full 1,400W, plus there’s a foot-operated on/off switch.

Related: Best Vacuum Cleaners

This bagged cleaner uses the same Miele HyClean 3D Efficiency bags of the company’s more upmarket cleaners. These are made from a random spun-bag material and benefit from nine layers of filtration. Miele claims these bags allow vacuuming for up to 20% longer than a comparably sized normal bag before they need to be replaced.

The bags are available in a pack of four with two air-clean filters for around £12.

Miele Classic C1 Junior PowerLine – Carpet Cleaning

Despite its high 1,400W power motor, the C1 Junior is relatively quiet in use at just 80dB. The cleaner moves around easily on its three small casters, although these did tend to get bogged down in deep-pile carpets. The rotary power adjustment is handy for improving your vacuuming energy efficiency, since at 1,400W the C1 Junior scores a rather grim F rating on the energy label.

This cleaner puts all that power to good use however, with excellent suction on the higher power levels and a basic floor head well designed to get close to the edges of your skirting boards.

Related: 5 Best Cordless Vacuum Cleaners
Before
After

On carpet, however, the level of suction results in the head sticking down, making it quite difficult to manoeuvre. To counter this you can reduce the power a little, but this noticeably reduces the cleaner’s performance at lifting dirt from the carpet. You’ll have to strike a fine balance between suction power and manoeuvrability.

This makes the excellent results from the cleaning tests somewhat misleading. Although the C1 cleans well at maximum power, you won’t want to use it like that most of the time.

The lower power settings are ideal for use with the accessories on the likes of curtains and soft furnishings, although none of the tools are very large. Deep crevices won’t be bothered by this crevice tool.

Miele Classic C1 Junior PowerLine – Hard Floor Cleaning

Switch the floor head into hard floor mode and it scoots around on parquet and laminates, although we found the brush design tended to catch deeper tile gaps and grooves in floorboards.

Before

After

With all that power on tap, the cleaner is able to suck up dust and larger debris such as stones from hard floors with ease. However, somewhere in the telescopic tubes or hose our bits of test porridge oats became stuck. As soon as we turned off the power they fell back down the tube and onto the floor, as can be seen in the  image above.

Miele Classic C1 Junior PowerLine – Stair Cleaning

Weighing well under 5kg for the body-only and less than 1.5 kg for the hose, tubes and main floor head, carrying the C1 Junior up and down stairs isn’t troublesome. This is just as well, since its short cable and relatively compact hose mean that the C1’s reach is rather limited – there’s little chance of cleaning your stairs from the safety of the ground floor or landing.

The main floor head is rather large and bulky for stair use too, although we found the upholstery brush best for use on our stair carpets. It worked well and was able to get right into the corners of stairs with tight turns.

Despite its flat rear end, the C1 isn’t great at balancing on stairs; the short hose means you’re highly likely to knock over the cleaner. However, the front-mounted handle does make it easy to hang onto the vacuum while you clean with the other – assuming you’re strong enough to do this.

Overall, the C1 Junior wasn’t at its best on stairs and would become frustrating fairly quickly in houses with multiple levels.

Miele Classic C1 Junior PowerLine – Pet Hair Cleaning

Miele has an excellent reputation for its vacuum cleaners for pet hair – but the C1 PowerLine Junior isn’t one of them. The main floor head simply pushes pet hair around, rolling it into balls and actually tangling it into the carpet.

Push up the power control to the highest 1,400W setting to pick those up, and you’ll find that – as already mentioned – the floor head will simply stick down on the carpet with super-glue strength, making it very difficult to manoeuvre.

Our 30cm test patch of combined Collie and Labrador hair, ground into the carpet pile for good measure – the hair, not the dogs themselves – caused a real issue for this cleaner. Following 20 seconds of trying, after which the area resembled a dog’s bed with numerous hairballs, we declared it a fail.

It took more than 45 seconds to make the area even passably clean. If you have pets then you’d be better off looking at one of Miele’s Cat and Dog model cleaners.

Should I buy the Miele Classic C1 Junior PowerLine?

Miele has many excellent vacuum cleaners, but this isn’t one of them. It may be cheap but it’s plagued by problems normally associated with vacuums from yesteryear.

If you’re after a genuinely cheap vacuum cleaner, the Numatic Henry or Bosch GL30 are better options, while the excellent Miele Complete C3 Cat & Dog is only marginally pricier and perform better in all respects.

Verdict

The Miele Classic C1 Junior PowerLine fails to impress at even a basic level as a result of too many niggling issues. Spending a little more will make all the difference.

Trusted Score