If you’re willing to spend $1,000 on a vacuum cleaner, you’ve likely figured out that you get what you pay for, and that paradoxically, the cheaper ones aren’t often worth paying for. That said, you’re still going to want to get value for your money. In the luxury vacuum sphere, Miele is probably the biggest name around–they’re certainly the name we’ve turned to and come across the most over the years–and for good reason. The Complete C3 Brilliant and Marin, which we’ve reviewed here, are their flagship canisters and two of the absolute best vacuums on the market. However, Miele, as big as they are, aren’t the only name worth talking about. SEBO has also been making waves lately, and some of their canisters are beginning to offer serious competition to the Miele line. Today we’re going to take a look at the SEBO Airbelt D4 Vacuum with ET-1 Powerhead (black or white) and see how it stacks up compared to the Brilliant for every kind of cleaning–hardwood floors, low-pile, medium-, and high-pile carpeting, and of course, upholstery. If you can only buy one, we’d buy the SEBO, and you can buy it here in black and here in white.

Pros, Cons, and Key Features of the SEBO Airbelt D4 Vacuum

The SEBO Airbelt D4 comes out of the box with pretty much everything you need for a lifetime of vacuuming. While that might not sound particularly exciting, it’s built like a buy-it-for life machine and capable of handling delicate hardwood floors, high-pile carpeting, and everything in between. It includes the ET-1 Power head, which is an electric brush head, a Parquet brush (designed for bare flooring), a dusting brush, and nozzles for crevices and upholsteries. The ET-1 is a full 12-inches wide and has a 180 degree turn radius. The reach of the Airbelt D4 at 50 feet is particularly impressive; 40 of those feet come from the power cord that just goes on and on. Suction is adjustable through the ergonomic handle and naturally, HEPA filtering is included. SEBO calls it a full-size canister vacuum, and with a 1.5 gallon (6 quart) dust bag, we’d have to agree. Beyond HEPA filtering, it also includes a pre-motor filter and an S-class exhaust microfilter with 99.9% filtration at the .3 micron level.

This all sounds impressive, but it doesn’t mean much if the Airbelt D4 can’t clean. Fortunately, it can and it does. The length allows you to vacuum pretty much anywhere even in the largest rooms and halls, and the power is easily and smoothly adjustable from levels necessary to clean high-pile Berber and shag carpeting all the way down to antique hardwood floors without leaving a scratch. The D4 is quiet and easy to move despite its full size. The only area where we found it to struggle involved SmartStrand Frieze carpeting; this is carpeting we’ve seen many others struggle with when vacuuming with a variety of vacuums, and we’d recommend the Miele Complete C3 Soft Carpet (which we reviewed here) for this and other particularly difficult high pile carpets. Besides this, however, we found it very, very hard to complain about the SEBO.

Finally, the SEBO comes with a five year warranty on the motor, non-wear parts, and on labor charges. SEBO claims it can last with wonderful performance for more than 15 years, and more than makes up its value over time. It’s manufactured in Germany.

Pros, Cons, and Key Features of the Miele Complete C3 Brilliant Vacuum

The Miele Complete C3 Brilliant remains one of the best vacuums ever made, even if we prefer the Marin  to it for sheer value per dollar. Compared to the Airbelt D4, we’d have to say it met its match in many ways. First of all, both vacuums had about the same level of cleaning power on all surfaces, as the SEB 236 Electro Premium Powerbrush and the SBB300-3 Parquet Twister were equally matched by the electro brush and Parquet head supplied with the Airbelt D4.

Both featured HEPA filtration, a pre-motor filter, and the same overall accessories (e.g., the crevice and upholstery tools). However, the Airbelt D4 had a shockingly longer reach; while we couldn’t make it past 36 feet with the Brilliant (the same limit of every C3 canister), we were able to sail up to a glorious 50 feet of working space with the D4. Granted, if you don’t have any rooms or cleaning spaces more than 50 feet across, this isn’t going to make a difference for you, but in our line of work, the less time you spend unplugging and replugging your appliances, the more time you spend on the job, and the better a job you can do.

We did like the lights on the Miele’s electrobrush, but we can’t say that they were bright enough to overcome the other ways in which the SEBO outshone it (excuse the pun). The D4 won even in the bag sizes; the 6 quart dust bags blew away the 4.76 quart bags that ship with the Brilliant and every other C3 vacuum. The only Mieles that would even come close to the D4 are the Dynamic U1 and S7000 uprights, and people shopping for canisters rarely cross-shop with uprights, especially when Miele uprights have much poorer reputations than their canisters. The Brilliant couldn’t even claim the advantage of being made in Germany, because the D4 is too! The Brilliant did come with a stronger warranty (5 years on all parts and 10 years on the motor and casing), but both appeared to be equally reliable in the long term (providing proper care and maintenance, of course).

Which is the better deal or value, the C3 Brilliant or the Airbelt D4?

Between the Brilliant and the D4, we’d have to give the edge to the D4. It simply did as good of a job cleaning while offering more value–whether with the much greater reach, the much greater dust-holding capacity, the additional filtration, or the fact that it cost at least a hundred dollars less. The Brilliant is a great vacuum, but much as we judged the Marin superior for offering most of what it did for hundreds less, we have to give the nod to the D4 for beating the Brilliant at its own game. In either case, you’ll be happy with what you get; it’s just a question of which you prefer.

You can buy the SEBO Airbelt D4 here in black on Amazon or buy the D4 here in white. You can buy the Miele Complete C3 Brilliant here. Either is an excellent choice. To get most of the features of both (besides the length of the SEBO) while saving a few hundred dollars, get the Miele  C3 Marin instead.

Canadians can buy the SEBO Airbelt D4 here in black, red, or white. You can also buy the Miele C3 Brilliant here or the C3 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.