If you’re lucky enough to own a Miele Complete C3 Soft Carpet, you probably know you own one of the most capable canisters on the market, and easily the best vacuum out there for handling rugs and carpets that cost more than most people’s cars. Today we’re going to look at how to get the most use out of it and keep both it and your carpets in good running condition for the next 20 years or more. We’ll cover the basics like which filters and dust bags to use, but also more specialized topics like how to care for a variety of carpets and how the Soft Carpet compares to a range of high-end Mieles, including the Marin, Cat & Dog, and Kona.

Which dust bags and filters do I need for the Soft Carpet, when do they need to replaced, and where can I buy them?

Like every Miele canister, eventually you’re going to need to replace the dust bag, motor filter, and HEPA filter (or charcoal filter in the case of the Cat & Dog). To replace the dust bags and motor filters, you’ll want the Miele GN Airclean 3D Efficiency Dust Bag. Each box contains four bags and a pair of filters (although you only use the motor filter if you’re also buying HEPA filters). We always recommend picking up several boxes at once so you aren’t scrambling to order more online or looking for a brick-and-mortar that stocks them when you’re on your last ones. The replacement schedule for the bags is simple: change them when they’re full. For the filters, just change the motor filter with every fourth bag change. The HEPA filter Miele recommends is the Miele HEPA AirClean SF-HA 50. It only needs to be changed after every 50 hours of vacuuming or 12 months of typical home use. You can buy all of these supplies from the links above.

Do you need to buy a bag and filter before you can use the Soft Carpet, or are they already included and installed?

The Miele Soft Carpet arrives with a dust bag, motor filter, and HEPA filter pre-installed and ready to use. As noted above, the bag will last you until it’s full, which will naturally depend on how often you vacuum and what you’re cleaning; homes with pets or kids (or both. Especially both.) will need more frequent vacuuming (and will pick up more) than homes without.

What exactly is a “soft” carpet, and why does this Miele work best with them?

There’s no consistent definition of what exactly makes a carpet a soft one, but Miele considers a soft carpet any carpet with very soft fibers. These carpets tend to be very dense and most vacuums struggle to push through them. Examples include shag, caress, tigress, silk strand, smart strand, and more. The Soft Carpet is particularly suited to them because it allows for very precise adjustments in suction power and height to make any soft carpet not just manageable, but highly cleanable.

Soft carpets have become far more popular in recent years with improvements in manufacturing technology. The fibers are typically very fine and woven tightly into carpet strands, and with the nearly solid backing, vacuuming can be very difficult with any vacuum not specifically designed to handle them. Mohawk, one of the biggest names in soft carpeting today, has repeatedly endorsed the C3 Soft Carpet as a safe, efficient, and effective choice for their carpeting.

Can the Soft Carpet handle shag and other plush carpets?

Yes; as noted in our review,the Soft Carpet is specifically designed to handle low-pile, medium-pile, and high-pile carpets, and it will clean your shags and plush carpets very well. You can turn down the suction and also adjust the height of the revolving brush to provide just the right amount of cleaning power. You can even turn off the revolving brush for more delicate jobs and clean simply with suction. The flexibility you get with the Soft Carpet is what sets it just a bit apart from the other C3 canisters, and with the built-in HEPA filter, it’ll help with removing allergens from carpets and rugs of varying piles in a way other C3 canisters can’t–even the ones that include HEPA filters.

Is the Soft Carpet capable of cleaning wool carpets, and are there special settings I’ll need?

The Soft Carpet will handle wool carpets with ease. Depending on how deep the pile is, you might end up either raising or lowering your carpet head height. It’s best to experiment with the height and suction settings to figure out which works best on your unique carpet, as we’ve seen the same carpets from the same manufacturers respond completely differently to the same vacuum a number of times.

How well can the Soft Carpet clean compared to the Kona and Cat & Dog, particularly with pets, upholstery, and rugs?

Let’s get one thing out of the way first: the cleaning power across all three vacuums is top notch. However, each is designed for slightly different tasks, which means the “best” one will vary with your specific needs. The Soft Carpet includes motor settings and height adjustments to tackle soft carpeting better than virtually any other option on the market, including the Kona and Cat & Dog.

The Cat & Dog, in contrast, is designed to keep up with pet-friendly and shed-heavy homes, and includes goodies like a turbo nozzle to suck hair out of furniture and upholstery as well as a charcoal filter to knock out pet odors. As we noted in its FAQ, the Cat & Dog, unlike the Soft Carpet, doesn’t include a HEPA filter, although you can buy one separately (see above). The Kona will clean as well as the Soft Carpet on low pile area rugs and shorter carpet in general, but it will struggle in comparison to the Soft Carpet once you get into longer, deep pile carpeting. Ultimately, your needs will determine which is the best fit for your home, family, and lifestyle.

You can buy the Miele Complete C3 Soft Carpet here on Amazon. The Cat & Dog is available here and the Marin is available here. You can pick up the Kona here. Any of these vacuums is durable enough to last for a lifetime; it’s just a question of which you want most.

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