Verdict

Packed with features that you wouldn’t normally expect at this price, such as a display that shows remaining battery life in minutes, the Ultenic U12 Vesla looks and feels more expensive than it is. It’s lightweight and easy to use, but I found that it didn’t clean tough messes as well as the competition did, making it better as a companion cordless cleaner, rather than a model that I’d use for whole-home cleaning.

Introduction

Although considerably cheaper than much of the competition, the Ultenic U12 Vesla has a wide range of neat features and is solidly built.

I didn’t find that it collected dust as well as the competition, but as a secondary vacuum cleaner for lighter jobs, it could be a good choice.

Design and features

• Extendable wand
• Slightly confusing controls
• Dual light system

Although priced as a mid-range vacuum cleaner, the Ultenic U12 Vesla has some neat touches that elevate it beyond this. That starts with the height-adjustable wand, which makes it easy to adjust the vacuum cleaner to be comfortable to use regardless of how tall you are.

While the Ultenic U12 Vesla may look like a regular cordless cleaner, the display has been designed to look like a car dashboard. I’m not exactly sure why, but I can say that it looks pretty cool.

The display shows the current power mode and the runtime left in minutes, which is good to see on such a low-cost vacuum cleaner.

Rather than using standard power mode names (eco, standard, etc), the display shows power modes in terms of thousands of revolutions per minute (rpm) of the motor: 30, 60, 90, 120 and 150 (also marked as Auto).

Modes are changed using the simple buttons on the back of the vacuum cleaner, with a single power button to turn the cleaner on or off, and a button to select a mode, plus a button to toggle the vacuum cleaner’s lights.

So far, so good; only the 150 (Auto) mode is not actually selectable, which is odd. Checking through the manual, I found that this mode is only available when the vacuum cleaner is blocked. To try and overcome the issue, the Ultenic U12 Vesla will ramp up to maximum power for a short burst, trying to clear its blockage. That’s a little confusing, and I’d have preferred it if this mode was either selectable or unavailable.

There’s a simple wall dock in the box, so that the Ultenic U12 Vesla can hang up when not in use. As well as taking the main vacuum cleaner, this dock has an attachment holder for the crevice tool and the dusting brush.

There’s also a floor head with a motorised brush, which is designed for all surfaces but doesn’t have an anti-tangle design. If you’ve got pets (or other people with long hair), you may want to choose a cleaner with an anti-tangle head, such as the Hoover HF910P.

This head has a set of green LEDs to light up the area in front. It looks similar to the system used on the Dyson Gen5detect, but it’s wildly different: Dyson uses a laser that more accurately detects dust.

I do like the switchable LED on the vacuum cleaner’s body, which can be turned on when using handheld tools to highlight what you’re cleaning.

At just 1.95kg, the Ultenic U12 Vesla is light and nicely balanced. I found it easy to move around, and using it in handheld mode, I could easily lift it for a bit of high-level cleaning.

Dust goes into the 0.95-litre bin (a good size for a cordless), which is emptied by opening the flap underneath. I could empty the bin while it was attached to the vacuum cleaner, but the entire assembly lifts out for cleaning and to get access to the washable filter.

Although there’s only one battery in the box, this is removable, and you can charge it either in situ or separately, depending on preference and where your power sockets are located.

Performance

• Mid-range levels of suction
• Struggled with the toughest spills
• Good hard floor performance

I measured the Ultenic U12 Vesla’s raw power in AirWatts, which gives a good idea of available suction power. On its lowest setting, the vacuum cleaner registered 25AW, which is no good for anything but basic dusting. Moving to the 90 power setting, suction improved to 49AW, which is better but still a little behind the competition’s mid-level settings.

On the highest user-selectable level, I measured the Ultenic U12 Vesla at 129AW. That’s powerful but a long way behind the competition: the Shark IZ420UKT produced a staggering 219AW in the same test.

What this means in practice is that there’s less suction available than with the competition, which is noticeable in my crevice tool suction test. With this, I line up a row of rice grains, and then measure how far away from the end of the crevice tool the vacuum cleaner can suck. As you can see from the images below, the Ultenic U12 Vesla can pick up items from 1.5cm away; a more powerful vacuum cleaner will manage 2cm or more.

In real-world usage it means that the Ultenic U12 Vesla is a little slower for handheld pick-up jobs and the tools need to be placed closer to the mess.

Moving on to my real-world tests, I started by sprinkling 20g of flour on my test carpet. I then used the 90-power setting to give the Ultenic U12 Vesla a forwards and backwards pass through the mess. As you can see from the image, there’s quite a lot of mess left towards the edges of the floor head, and some dust left in the middle.

Using the low setting on the top, a lot of mess was left behind; on the highest setting, the vacuum cleaner did a better job.

Even so, measuring the bin at the end of the clean, I found that this cleaner only collected 73.6% of the dust at the end, which is quite a low result.

Next, I moved to my tough edge test, adding 10g of flour right up to the skirting board. I found that the cleaner struggled on these floor tiles, leaving a lot of mess behind, which I had to tackle with the crevice tool. This allowed me to collect 85.7% of the dust, which isn’t bad, although I really had to work for this result.

On my hard floor, I dropped 20g of rice. Here, I found that the cleaner picked up everything, but one rice grain dropped out at the end, which left me with a 99.95% collection.

I combed cat hair into the carpet, and then used the floor head to collect the mess. The Ultenic U12 Vesla managed to get everything.

Battery life varies, but in my tests I found that on the lowest setting, the battery lasted for 47m 6s with the floor head. Moving to the 90 power setting, battery life was a reasonable 30m 13s, while the maximum power setting saw the battery last for 14m 32s.

That’s good in terms of battery life, but results should be taken into account: the Shark IZ420UKT has less battery life per charge, but it’s more powerful, so it can clean further.

I measured this vacuum cleaner at between 62.8dB and 74.1dB, making it one of the quieter cordless cleaners that I’ve used.

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