Ultenic U16 Flex review: Easier cleaning under your couch

Price When Reviewed

$159.99

Best Prices Today: Ultenic U16 Flex Cordless Vacuum

The Ultenic U16 Flex is a cordless vacuum that will literally bend to your will, fitting right under your couch and cabinets for a proper cleaning job. It’s powerful, affordable, and quite versatile.

With an MSRP of $200 but usually available with a hefty discount (it’s only $160 at the time of writing), this stick vacuum is a great pick for anyone looking for an easy-to-use option for daily messes without paying a premium.

Design

Gabriela Vatu

Gabriela Vatu

Gabriela Vatu

The Ultenic U16 Flex brings a sleek and modern design to the table with a relatively lightweight build. With all the accessories you need for cleaning plus the battery, it’s about 5 pounds overall, making it easy to handle, even when you’re hunting all the dust bunnies for extended periods of time.

The package includes the vacuum with a sizeable dust compartment, the pipe (non-telescopic), an anti-tangle floor brush, a crevice tool, a cleaning tool, the battery, the charger, an extra filter, and the bracket for wall-mounted storage. The wall mount is handy since it keeps the vacuum out of view while also allowing you to charge it. Plus, it enables you to store the crevice tool and the brush if you want.  

Now for the cool part. That non-telescopic pipe I just mentioned boasts a feature that puts the “flex” in “U16 Flex”: the ability to bend at 90 degrees. The stick folds at the push of a button, allowing you to clean under furniture as needed, and pops back into place with a quick snap.

Features

This vacuum boasts a massive 35,000 Pa maximum suction power, which should be enough to tackle any type of dirt, debris, dust, and pet hair on your hard floors and carpets.

The main roller brush is built to be tangle-free and anti-static. There’s also an integrated green light that’s so effective, you’ll feel like you haven’t vacuumed in years. The second that light turns on, all the dust and hair that was hiding in plain sight will pop up in stark relief.

Gabriela Vatu

Gabriela Vatu

Gabriela Vatu

The vacuum features three cleaning modes: Normal, Turbo, and Eco. Swapping between cleaning modes is as easy as tapping the button on the screen of the vacuum.

The same screen will display the percentage of leftover power, as well as any necessary alerts regarding battery levels, potential brush problems, or clogged ducts.

Performance

The Ultenic U16 Flex did a great job on most surfaces I tested it on. On hard floors, the vacuum managed to pick up all traces of dust, hair, and crumbs in a single swipe. (I know, because that unforgiving green light didn’t spot anything when I made a second pass.) It also easily sucked up all the rice grains and coffee grounds we tested it with.

The U16 Flex did well on carpets too, but only when the Turbo mode was on. With Turbo enabled, the vac picked up all the pet hair trapped in my cat’s favorite carpet.

The vacuum also performed well with the crevice tool, sucking up everything caught between the couch pillows, as well as all the spiders nestled in the corner of the ceiling.

Gabriela Vatu

Gabriela Vatu

Gabriela Vatu

What I wasn’t particularly thrilled with was the vacuum’s performance without any attachments. Technically, you can slide a tiny brush over the main vacuum bit and use that to clean out your desk, couch, or car. But doing so required one too many passes before cleaning out the sand in our car after a beach trip, while barely lifting the tiny pet hairs off the couch cushions.

Ultenic offers an extra “anti-mite” brush head that would likely do a better job of focusing the vacuum’s suction power; sadly, it’s not included with the vacuum and you’ll have to cough up an extra $34 to snag it. Admittedly, the Ultenic U16 Flex is a fairly affordable vacuum, so getting the extra accessory won’t break the bank.

What impressed me the most about the Ultenic U19 Flex is its ease of use. When I wanted to clean under the couch, I just pressed a button, and the tube bent easily, so I didn’t have to do any gymnastics. When I was done, I’d just snap the tube back into place with an effortless move. The swiveling main brush head also helped reach areas that would usually require a lot of maneuvering with my regular vacuum.

Also, because some other stick vacuums I’ve tried required this (looking at you, Dyson): You don’t have to hold the power button while cleaning. Just press the trigger to power it up and press it again to power it off.

Maintenance and charging

The Ultenic vacuum features a six-layer filtration system that filters out microscopic particles and pet dander, which is usually the cause of allergies. The HEPA filter can be run through water, although the cleaning brush will also help remove any dust. You need to be careful to allow the filter to dry fully before putting it back in, or you’ll have a tough time removing the dust on subsequent cleanings.

The brush can also be removed and washed in the same manner, while the cleaning tool can help cut through any hair tangles. However, you may very well not need to use the tool. In the time I’ve tested this vacuum, I’ve never once found one tangled hair–and this is a household with three pets, including one long-haired one that’s always shedding, plus yours truly. I specifically made sure to clean out my hairbrush and dump the contents on the floor to see how the vacuum would do, and it handled the mess flawlessly.

Emptying the dustbin is straightforward. You have to push the buttons on the side of the stick to release the dust bucket and then press one button on the bin itself to open up the lid and empty the contents. If there’s any hair or debris caught up on the side of the filter, you can just pull the whole filter out.

The vacuum features a 2,200-mAh battery that will last you for about an hour if you use the Eco cleaning mode, but it will deplete a lot faster when the Turbo mode is activated. Ultenic rounds it up to about 40 minutes of cleaning in Standard mode and 20 minutes in Turbo mode. Thankfully, the vacuum is efficient enough on the first go, so it won’t take you forever to clean the whole house.

It will also only take a few hours for the battery to charge fully. If you use the wall bracket to store the vacuum, you’ll never have to worry about low battery because you can just have it plugged in at all times.

Should you buy the Ultenic U16 Flex?

The Ultenic U16 Flex is a terrific budget-friendly cordless vacuum, offering spectacularly strong suction, some great attachments, as well as a cool and sturdy design.

The bending tube, the non-tangle brush, and the green light that highlights the debris on your floors make this vacuum well worth the price (even without discounts).

Overall, the Ultenic U16 Flex is a great choice for everyday messes, taking down cobwebs, and making sure your floors are dust and hair-free, but it may not replace the big bin vacuum for high-pile carpets.