Panasonic Eco-Max Light MC-UL710 review

The MC-UL710 is Panasonic’s most compact upright vacuum, at a little over than a metre tall, with a 303x280mm footprint and weighing just 5.7kg when empty. It’s an easy to store cleaner that could be ideal for anyone with a small amount of space to keep clean, but with limited storage for a bigger model.

Unsurprisingly for a compact cleaner, there’s not a lot of room for bin capacity. As it holds the cylinder, there’s only room for 0.9L of dust before you’ll have to empty the bin, although it releases from the vacuum quickly and opens at the push of a latch. A small cleaning brush is attached to the bin should you need to dislodge some stubborn dust when emptying.

The UL710 only comes with a dusting brush accessory, but also has a quick draw nozzle fitted with a non-removable extendable crevice nozzle that slots inside other accessories. The hose, which itself doesn’t have an extension tube, releases at the push of a button, giving you 7m of reach when the 6.5m cable is fully extended. The cable itself must be wrapped up by hand, as there’s no auto-rewind.

Panasonic rates the UL710 for 1000W of power, which translates to 21kPa of actual suction when the bin is completely empty. This didn’t drop at all when we half-filled the bin, but dropped to 19kPa when the bin was full. This is a low score, even for a compact vacuum, but by no means the worst we’ve seen to date. One saving grace is that the low energy consumption will mean lower electricity bills.

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The rotating beater brush sent the cat litter that comprised our practical tests flying across the room, on both hard floors and carpets; if you knock over a plant and need to clean up the soil, you’ll definitely want to turn this off to avoid creating more mess.

Even after eight back and forth sweeps, the UL710 still left noticeable amount of dirt on our carpet, which is somewhat disappointing even given the low suction rating.

The UL710 was at least very manoeuvrable. It locks in an upright position, but pressing the foot pedal unlocks the brush head and rear wheels to let you turn quickly without having to pick up the entire cleaner.

Although the price is low, we weren’t that happy with the performance and the low bin capacity means you’ll need to empty this model more often. If you’re looking for a good upright vacuum cleaner, the Panasonic MC-UL426 Eco Max is only slightly more expensive, but did better in our tests.