Miele Complete C3 Cat & Dog Pro PowerLine review: the best vacuum cleaner for disgruntled pet owners

As this Miele Complete C3 Cat & Dog review will demonstrate, when it comes to cleaning pet hair, human hair and also things that are not like hair, Miele has served up one of the best vacuum cleaners available to man, woman, dog and cat. 

Granted, Miele’s renowned reliability isn’t that much of a factor in the realm of vacuum cleaners because practically all modern electric motors run for years without any hiccups. Although the same can't always be said of the best cordless vacuum cleaners – one reason why corded models like this remain available, even though most punters are buying cordless nowadays.

However, even without figuring in reliability and longevity, this bagged vac still trounces most of the opposition for suction power, design features and the quality of its tough, crack-resistant resin-based plastics. For a Miele, it isn’t too expensive either, though it is a most premium item.

Miele Complete C3 Cat & Dog Pro PowerLine review: Design and features

Miele just knows how to build stuff and build it well. Like this high-end corded vac, for instance. The Complete C3 Cat & Dog Pro PowerLine is of the bagged cylinder variety so you will need to pull it around with you. Nevertheless, at 7kgs, it’s not that much of a hindrance and besides, its little articulated front wheel and rear casters make it a breeze to drag around even on medium-pile carpet.

The great thing about Miele vacs is the quality of the materials used. In this instance it’s a large swath of impact-proof resin-based plastic that can withstand a lot of battering against skirting boards (it has a rubber band for this very purpose), even a fall down the stairs. If you’re looking for a corded vac that will give even the industrially tough Henry a good run for its money then this is that vac.

The Complete C3 Cat & Dog comes with two main floor brushes, an upholstery nozzle, dusting brush with synthetic bristles and the obligatory but undeniably useful crevice nozzle; you know, the handy one that deals with slim cracks, the back of the sofa and other tight spaces. Open the lid at the back of the main unit and there’s space for all three accessory attachments.

Having the accessories always to hand is a major bonus in my opinion because I can’t stand it when a vacuum cleaner arrives for review and I’m faced with a cluster of silly little plastic tools that need to be stored somewhere that I will inevitably forget about. So, hats off to Miele for making one’s first world life that little bit easier.

Another great thing about this vac is that its dust bag has an impressive capacity of 4.5 litres and that means fewer trips to the dustbin (I’m a lazy bastard, even at the best of times). The ultra long 8.5-metre cable is another energy-saving bonus, especially for smaller properties because you could feasibly vacuum two or three rooms from one mains source.  And when you’re done cleaning, a simple tap of the foot on the rear plate automatically retracts the entire cable with the speed of a black mamba. The cats don’t like that part but I do, so that’s all that matters.

Miele Complete C3 Cat & Dog Pro PowerLine review: Performance

As you might have gathered by the two animal-based words in the title, this model is especially useful for pet owners since its powered Turbobrush is a dab hand at collecting the huge amount of hair that all cats and most dogs shed on a continual basis. This is the brush you’ll use most of the time and especially on carpets. The Turbobrush’s revolving bristles not only collect everything bar the kitchen sink, they also make the head easier to push and pull when used on thick pile carpets.

If you only have hard floors, then consider using the standard stiff-bristled universal head instead – it’s not as easy to push around on carpets but it excels on hard floors.

The Miele Complete C3 offers six easy-to-select levels of suction – from curtain loving gentleness to limpet levels of suction that literally lifts the carpet off the floor. Really, this vac’s 890-watt brushless motor produces so much suction power that you will almost certainly never use it at full bore. Aside from the six speed buttons on top, further suction reduction is available via two adjustable valves, one on the handle – which ups the noise level considerably – and another twist valve on the floor head.

In our test, this suction master collected absolutely everything in its path, from dried mud and rice to popcorn pieces and pet hair – more pet hair than I care to mention, big clumps of the stuff all jammed tightly into the Miele’s disposable 4.5 litre bag. At no time did I detect any whiff of that wretched post-vacuum carpet smell, nor did I have the desire to sneeze, and I can only put this down to Miele’s Active AirClean filter which clearly does what it's designed to do.

Miele Complete C3 Cat & Dog Pro PowerLine review: Verdict

If you prefer the good old fashioned method of tethering your vac to a mains plug, then this corded, bagged cylinder vacuum cleaner is about as good as it gets. Yes, you will need to keep unplugging it between rooms, but the sensational results of its cleaning prowess are not open to question.