If you’re looking for a buy-it-for-life vacuum, we’re typically going to recommend canisters over uprights due to the flexibility they offer with interchangeable cleaning heads. Of the canisters, the German-made Mieles are the best of the bunch. We’re pretty sure of this at this point, having reviewed dozens of them. In our books, the best overall Miele is still the Complete C3 Cat & Dog. However, we have to agree with many of our Canadian readers that it and other great Mieles cost a pretty penny in Canada compared to how much they cost a few hours to the south.
Fortunately, Miele took our concerns seriously some years ago, and began rolling out several canisters solid only in Canada. We’ve finally gotten around to reviewing a number of them, and we won’t stop until we’re done.
The other day we reviewed the Canada-exclusive Compact C2 Cat & Dog and several months ago we reviewed the US/Canada marketed Compact C2 Electro+. Today we’ll compare both to the Miele Compact C2 Total Care, Navy Blue, and see which offers the most for the Canadian dollar. Our thoughts in ten seconds are to buy the Total Care if you don’t need to clean anything higher than medium-pile carpets, the Cat & Dog for the same capacity but the ability to upgrade electric heads later, and the Electro+ if you also want to be able to clean high-pile and soft carpets. Our full review is below, and you can buy the C2 Total Care here.
Pros, cons, and key features of the Miele Compact C2 Total Care
The Compact C2 Total Care is one of more than a dozen canisters Miele has released in the last few years that are only available in Canada. As with their US/Canada models, Mieles exclusive to Canada are arranged in C-Categories. At the Compact C1 level, you’ll find the recently-reviewed C1 Celebration. Alternatively, you can consider the Classic C1 Cat & Dog. Among the Compact C2 models, Canadian-only Mieles include the Cat and Dog, the Total Care we’ll review today, and the Hard Floor. At the Complete C3 level, there’s the HomeCare, Total Care, Power Plus, and Limited Edition. And in the Blizzard Cx1 line, which is completely unavailable in the US market, there’s the Cat and Dog Cleaner, the Hard Floor Cleaner, and the Total Care Cleaner. If your head’s spinning with all these names, don’t worry; we’ve neatly arranged reviews of all of them here.
Key features of the Compact C2 Total Care include Miele’s standard 1,200 watt Vortex motor and a 33 foot operating radius. The generous range comes from a 21 foot power cord with a one touch cable rewind, a 7 foot crush-proof hose, and a telescopic stainless steel wand. The canister is easy to move at 10.6 pounds (4.8 kg) and features the standard six power settings, including Miele’s famed quiet power setting that lets you vacuum next to sleeping babies. Although the vacuum only has a 5 year warranty (7 years on the motor, 5 years on the canister), we have no doubt it’ll last for decades longer; Miele rates the expected lifespans of their canisters as at least 20 years, and from what we’ve seen of other Mieles, that might be an underestimate.
Which accessories and cleaning heads ship with the Compact C2 Total Care?
The Compact C2 Total Care includes the standard three Miele accessories: a crevice nozzle tool, an upholstery tool, and a dusting brush; all three can be stored to the hose where it screws into the canister. Whether in Canada or in the US, Miele sorts their canisters by the effectiveness of their cleaning heads. The Compact C2 Total Care falls in the middle of the Miele pack, and is designed to clean best in homes with bare floors and low- to medium-pile carpets and area rugs.
To clean bare floors, you’ll make use of the SBB 300-3 Parquet brush twister, and it’ll easily deal with hardwood, engineered wood, vinyl, laminate, ceramic tiles, marble, bamboo, concrete, brick, and similar surfaces. It’s our standard recommendation for cleaning bare floors, with hardwood floors in particular, due to its tendency to polish floors while effectively sucking up dirt, pet hair, and the like instead of simply blowing them around the way combination floor heads tend to.
Aside from it, you’ll also get the Turbobrush STB 205-3 and mini turbobrush STB 101. The STB 205-3 is an air powered brush head capable of dealing with r low- and medium-pile carpets (e.g., typical Saxonies, berbers,and cut and loops) and area rugs, but not high-pile carpets, friezes, or soft carpets. It’s roughly equivalent in strength to the SEB 217-3 electrobrush that ships with Mieles like the C2 Cat & Dog. The mini turbobrush is designed to help you make quick work of pet hair on upholstery and bedding.
What’s the difference between the Miele Compact C2 Total Care, Cat & Dog, and Electro+?
The Compact C2 Total Care and Compact C2 Cat & Dog are more alike than different; the canisters are identical aside from color. The main differences are in the cleaning heads; instead of the Parquet twister in the Total Care, you get the SBB 235-3 smooth floor tool that does pretty much the same thing. Instead of the SEB 205-3 Turbobrush in the Total Care, you get the SEB 217-3 electrobrush with the Cat & Dog, which cleans just as well. However, the electric brush head means you also get an electric telescoping wand, which means you can upgrade the SEB 217-3 to the SEB 228 electrobrush later if you want, giving you access to high-pile and soft carpets. Because the Total Care doesn’t ship with an electric brush, you can’t add one later because it doesn’t include the necessary connectors. Aside from these differences, you also get a mini turbobrush, the STB 101, with the Total Care, which does make it easier to clean fur, dirt, and grime from your sofas, couches, and bedding. Due to the electric cleaning head and the upgradeabiility it offers, you’ll pay slightly more for the Cat & Dog than you will for the Total Care.
The Compact C2 Electro+ looks and performs otherwise identically to the Total Care with two crucial differences: First, it adds a HEPA air filter to the Air Clean filtration system present in the Total Care. Second, it includes the aforementioned SEB 228 electrobrush, giving it the power to clean any pile and style of carpet on the market. As a result, it does cost more than the Total Care.
Why buy the Compact C2 Total Care?
We’d recommend the Compact C2 Total Care if you’re tired of buying disposable vacuums. It’s a buy-it-for-life machine that will handle bare floors, low-pile carpets, and medium-pile carpets; as long as you don’t plan to own or clean high-pile or soft carpets in the future, it’s the only Miele you need. Our main suggestion would be to upgrade to the Compact C2 Cat & Dog if you want the potential to upgrade to an electric brush head later or to upgrade to the Electro+ if you know you want the SEB 228 from the start but don’t need the larger canister and reach of the C3 Cat & Dog.
Canadians can buy the Miele Compact C2 Total care here or the Compact C2 Cat & Dog here. For access to high-pile and soft carpets, get the Compact C2 Electro+ here or upgrade to the best all-around Miele canister, the Complete C3 Cat & Dog, 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.