Sometimes manufacturers don’t seem to know how the value of the things they sell. The Miele Complete C3 Alize is a good example. It includes a number of features only found on Mieles that cost twice as much (e.g., the Brilliant and the Marin), but it’s also enough of an all-around machine to be the only vacuum you ever need if you don’t have carpets. While it’s not as flexible as much as the Calima, neither will require you to take out a second mortgage to maintain it. Today we’re going to look at how to keep your Alize in tip top shape, as well as how it compares to the Calima and higher-priced Mieles and under which scenarios you might want to pay more for them.

Do you get bags and filters when you buy the Alize? Also, where do you buy replacements and extras?

First of all, we’d hope any manufacturer selling $600 vacuums would include at least enough in the box for you to use them upon arrival. That said, yes, the Alize includes a starter dust bag, a pre-motor filter, and a HEPA filter. However, it’s a good idea to buy extras either with the Alize or once you’ve unboxed it and confirmed what a wonderful piece of technology it is, as you’ll inevitably need more.

The dust bags and motor filters are sold as the Miele GN Airclean 3D Efficiency Dust Bag and each box holds four bags and two filters (one for the motor, and a non-HEPA air filter); replace the bags whenever they fill up and the motor filter with every fourth bag change. A typical home will probably run through 2-4 boxes each year, depending on how often you vacuum and who or what you’re cleaning up after (e.g., toddlers, teenagers, several shedding golden retrievers and cats…). You’ll also want to buy extra HEPA filters; Miele recommends the Miele HEPA AirClean SF-HA 50; it can be changed after every 50 hours spent vacuuming or every 12 months of normal home use. It also includes a color indicator that changes from green to white as the filter becomes less efficient. You can buy all of these goodies from the links above.

I’ve got a house full of pets (or carpets). Will the Alize work well or should I consider the Calima or Cat & Dog?

It partially depends on how messy your pets are in terms of shedding, dander, and odors, but it primarily depends on the degree to which you have carpeting. We know many people who make the Alize work well with cats, labradors, and even collies. However, the truth is that you’re going to have an easier time with the Calima or Cat & Dog if you’ve got a pet-heavy house, and particularly if you have any kind of carpeting or rugs.

As a way of compromising for giving the Alize a number of high-end features, it’s saddled with a basic combination brush (the SBD650-3 AirTeq) instead of a Turbo brush or the Parquet brush. As a result, while it’s capable of cleaning well–very well–on hardwood and tile flooring, it’s not going to be happy cleaning anything, pet-related or not, on low-pile carpeting, and it’ll be ineffective on medium-pile and high-pile carpeting. If you buy a Turbo Brush, it’ll handle low- and medium-pile carpeting like the Calima. However, the Calima already comes with a Turbo Brush out of the box, making it a better deal if you have low- to medium-pile carpeting.

The Cat & Dog, at the other extreme, comes with an electric powered brush, making it capable of cleaning anything pet-related on low-, medium-, and high-pile carpeting and rugs in a way that neither the Alize nor Calima can hope to match, since neither comes with powered brushes nor the ability to use one. So to sum it up, although you can be happy with the Alize in a house full of pets as long as you’re tolerant of messes and smells, we’d really recommend choosing the Calima if you have any carpet whatsoever and the Cat & Dog if you have high-pile carpeting.

Can you buy a power brush attachment for the Alize to make it equal the Cat & Dog, Kona, Soft Carpet, Marin, or Brilliant?

Unfortunately, this is no longer an option. In the last version of the Alize, the S8, Miele included an outlet on the canister to let you plug in an electric brush head. However, they must have realized that too many people were buying the Alize at half the price of the high-end Mieles and simply adding a $200 brush head and still coming out ahead financially. Now, if you want to use an electric brush head, which is, frankly, a necessity for any vacuuming involving high-pile carpeting, you’ll need to buy either the Cat & Dog, the Kona, or the Soft Carpet; these are the cheapest C3 canisters that both include powered brush heads out of the box and are capable of powering them.

How do I choose between the C3 Alize and the C3 Calima? Which is a better all-around vacuum for a home with hardwood floors and carpeting?

This is ultimately the comparison we see posed most frequently. While we address it in detail in our review, here is the summary: the Alize has a number of features you’re only going to see on the Marin and Brilliant, but it’s hobbled by a lack of good brush heads. It works best out of the box with hardwood floors, although you’ll be able to use it with low-to medium-pile carpeting if you buy the Turbo brush and it’ll do a better job on hardwood floors if you also buy the Parquet brush. The Calima, in contrast, doesn’t include the fancy features of the Alize, but it does include both the turbo and Parquet brushes out of the box, meaning it’s the better all-around choice for most families and the best vacuum on the market at the $700 and under price point.

That said, you can still vacuum berber, shag, or any other kind of carpeting with an Alize if you’re patient enough. It’s really about the kind of ease you want for the life of the vacuum.

You can buy the Miele Complete C3 Alize here on Amazon. For a more flexible, jack-of-all-trades choice in the same price range, we’d recommend the Calima. If you want a powered brush head, your cheapest options are the the Cat & Dog, the Kona, or the Soft Carpet. If you’re rolling in the dough and want all the high end features, you’ll want to buy the Marin here or go all the way and buy the Brilliant here.

Canadians can buy the Alize here, the Calima here, the Cat & Dog here, the Kona here, the Soft Carpet here, the Marin here, or the Brilliant here.

If you find our research on PMC helpful, you can follow our efforts to keep maniacally reviewing home cleaning tools by shopping through our links above. We promise to keep fighting the good fight against every horror children, animals, and grown, yet messy humans can inflict upon a clean home.