Most every household has a vacuum — many have more than one.

Our main vacuum is a Dyson DC07 I bought refurbished in 2008. That upright vacuum has been the mainstay in our house and it still performs flawlessly.

My job reviewing gadgets has brought more than a few other vacuums into our home. Not many earn a permanent spot in the hall closet.

A few years ago, our DC07 was another Dyson, the V15 Detect Absolute, which is a cordless model. It has fantastic suction, but battery life isn’t stellar.

The last few weeks I’ve been testing another cordless — the Ultenic U18 PowerPro, which is currently on sale for $139.99 from ultenic.com.

The Dyson V15 currently sells for $849. Can a sub-$150 vacuum compete? Let’s take a look.

Specs

The U18 is a canister vacuum, which means the dirt is held in a collection chamber and not a bag. This makes emptying the U18 very easy.

Vacuums without bags need extra help filtering the dust out of the exhaust that is expelled back into the room. The U18 has a six-stage filtration system that includes a replaceable HEPA filter.

The U18 has a 600-watt three-speed motor, with a runtime of up to 80 minutes, at the lowest speed (good for hard floors). Runtime drops to 45 minutes at the middle speed (carpet), and 25 minutes in turbo mode — the highest speed.

The Ultenic comes with four cleaning attachments, including a foldable tube with a motorized floor brush, a 2-in-1 brush head, a wide upholstery tool and a crevice tool.

It ships with a wall-mountable charging station that can hold the vacuum and its attachments, although the battery can be removed for recharging if you don’t have a place to mount the charging station.

Recharging takes 4 to 5 hours.

The U18 has a round LED display on top of the motor that gives you operating information like the current motor speed and the time left on the battery. You’ll also be shown any alerts like blockages or when it’s time to change the filter.

In use

The U18 PowerPro is an easy vacuum to assemble and get up and running.

The trigger is an on/off switch. You don’t need to hold it down to use it.

The first pull of the trigger starts you out in hard floor mode, which is surprisingly quiet at 65dB. Pull the trigger again for carpet mode and again for turbo mode. You pull it again when you’re finished, but you’ll hear the motor spin up loudly for about three seconds to make sure the dirt is sucked up the tube and gets into the canister instead of spilling out onto the floor.

We have 100 percent hard floors in my house, so we spent most of our time using the foldable tube with the rotating floor brush.

The rotating floor brush is equipped with a line of very bright green LED lights that is usually found on more expensive models.

The lights shine out from just above the floor level, which really lights up the dust and dirt on your floor. The green light makes the floor debris look white. It also makes it incredibly easy to see where you’ve vacuumed and where you missed. Every vacuum could benefit from this kind of light.

The rotating floor brush works nicely with the foldable tube that lets you make quick work of going over the floors, but the tube has a hinge in the middle that lets you reach under furniture without having to get on your knees.

One of the best features of the U18’s foldable tube is its ability to stand up on its own when it’s not in use. My Dyson can’t do that.

The three other attachments all work ask you’d expect. They can be used with or without the foldable tube. The crevice tool worked especially well on the floor mats in my car.

The verdict

So, how does the much-cheaper Ultenic U18 compare to the more-expensive Dyson?

I think it stacks up very well.

Battery life, ease of use, noise level and attachments are all pretty much a wash.

The Dyson does have better suction, but the Ultenic can hold its own, especially at lower speeds and noise levels.

My carpet testing was limited to area rugs, but the carpet and turbo modes will do the job to get the pet hair out of your carpets.

The fact I could buy six U18s for the price of one Dyson earns the Ultenic my recommendation.

©2026 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.