Sometimes the best place to be in life isn’t at the top or bottom of the pecking order, but somewhere in the middle. The Miele Complete C3 Calima isn’t the most expensive Miele canister you can buy–that’s the Brilliant–but it’s not the cheapest either. What it is is one of the two best deals in a line of stellar vacuums that clean circles around most other machines on the market. In fact, the only other Miele we see that offers as much value as the Calima is the Alize, as we’ve noted in our review comparing the two. Today we’re going to cover frequently asked questions regarding setup and maintenance, as well as compare it to some of the higher end Mieles, including the Marin, the Soft Carpet and Cat & Dog.

Which replacement dust bags and filters does the Calima require, and when do they need to be changed?

The Calima, like nearly every C3 Miele canister, includes replaceable dust bags, motor filters, and HEPA filters. The dust bags and motor filters are sold as the Miele GN Airclean 3D Efficiency Dust Bag; each box contains four bags and two filters (one motor, one air). You’ll want to buy multiple boxes and store them so you won’t be caught flat-footed several weeks or months down the line (or days, if you use your vacuum in a bed-and-breakfast or have teenagers). You simply change the bags when they’re full and change the motor filter with every fourth bag. In terms of the HEPA filter, you’ll want the Miele HEPA AirClean SF-HA 50; change it after every 50 hours of vacuuming or after every 12 months of normal domestic use. There’s also a color indicator on the filter letting you know when it’s due for a change (when it goes from green to white). All of these bags and filters are available through the links above.

How does the Calima compare to the Cat & Dog for cleaning homes with pets–is the C&D that much better?

Even though the Cat & Dog is clearly designed for homes with pets, the Calima puts up a good fight. To be honest, the vacuums are almost exactly the same; the main differences are that the Cat & Dog comes with a few pet-particular accessories and cleaning heads and uses a charcoal filter to clear out pet odors instead of the HEPA filter in the Calima, which is more suited toward removing dust and allergens for families with allergies or health issues. The vacuums have the same levels of suction power on hardwood floors and low-pile carpets and both are incredibly capable machines. The Cat & Dog does include a motorized power head, as we note in our review, which gives it more power for pulling pretty much anything out of medium- to high-pile carpeting. So to put it bluntly, it really depends on whether you have a.) pets and b.) lots of carpet. If you answer yes to both questions, get the Cat & Dog. If not, save your money and get the Calima.

Can the Calima cope with medium- and high-pile carpeting the way the Soft Carpet does?

As noted above, if you’re dealing with low-pile carpeting or hardwood flooring, the Calima can hold its own against any vacuum on the market, even the Mieles that cost twice as much (hello Brilliant!). However, if you have any kind of thick or plush carpeting, or even medium-pile carpeting, you’re going to need something more specialized to keep it in good condition, and that’s where the Soft Carpet comes in. It costs a bit more than the Calima, but it’s a graceful and highly effective solution for pretty much any type of carpeting, including the kinds that will give all the other Mieles trouble. So even though we’d like to say the Calima does pretty much everything well, the truth is that it’s not going to be a match for medium or high-pile carpets, although it will do a lovely job with tiles, wood floors, and low-pile rugs and carpets. Save yourself a lot of frustration and just get the Soft Carpet if it’s what you’re going to need down the line.

Can you upgrade the Calima’s brush heads to the SEB 236, 228, or 217-3 Electro premium powerbrushes, or any powered brush?

Unfortunately not. There was a time (i.e., in the previous generation of Mieles) where you could connect the old S8 Calima to an electric powerbrush via a powered port on the canister, but the C3 Calima is a straight suction vacuum and doesn’t include inputs for connecting electric hoses, wands, or any other powered accessories. If you need a powered brush head, you’re going to want to upgrade directly to the Cat & Dog, the Kona, or the Soft Carpet, all of which are the cheapest C3 canisters that both ship with powered brush heads and have the capacity of powering them.

Where is the Calima made, how long is its warranty, and how long will it typically last?

The C3 Calima, like all of the C3 Mieles, continues to be made in Germany. The cheaper Miele canisters (e.g., the C1 and C2 lines) are now made in China. It’s unclear if this will change in the future, but we hope it doesn’t, as we see it as important to support manufacturing processes that provide living wages to employees. Of course, we’d also be happy to see Miele’s employees in China paid substantially more, and we hope to see this someday.

The warranty coverage on the Calima is identical to that of all C3 Mieles; you get one year of full coverage of parts and labor and 7 years of coverage on the motor. Practically speaking, this is a vacuum you can expect to last for multiple decades if you keep up with bag and filter changes; the quality in the engineering is evident over every inch of the machine and we’ve come across a small army of satisfied owners.

You can buy the Miele Complete C3 Calima here on Amazon. The next best alternative to it is the Alize, which you can buy here. You can pick up the Cat & Dog here and buy the Soft Carpet here. If you’ve got a larger budget or simply have to have the best, you can buy the Marin here or go all the way up and buy the Brilliant here. Any of the C3s will give you buy-it-for-life quality; it’s just a question of which best meets your needs.

Canadians can buy the Alize here, the Calima here, the Cat & Dog 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.