A name that is becoming more and more popular with all sorts of vacuum cleaners and related products is Tineco. Beyond their cordless vacuums, one of their most popular product lines is what they call wet/dry vacuums.
We would call them hard floor cleaners, and we’ve also seen them referred to as cordless electric mops, too. Regardless, Tineco has several of them, and the first we bought to test was the Tineco Floor One S3 Smart Wet Dry Vacuum Cleaner.
We’re impressed with the Tineco Floor One S3 vacuum/mop in many ways. We think it’s really best for homes with mostly or all hard flooring. As a vacuum, the Floor One S3 does really well with debris pickup on all kinds of hard flooring but we would only use it on carpeting in very limited doses. While it can cleanup spills and messes of any size, we think its best suited for minor spills as bigger messes lead to more involved cleaning of the vacuum itself.
- Cordless
- LED display for alerts and power levels
- App compatibility for maintenance reminders
- Excels in cleaning large and small debris
- Automated water dispensing
- Effective automated cleaning cycles
- Auto mode sensor lacks sensitivity
- Messy to clean if collecting lots of dry material
- Water flow not adjustable
We’ve tested a lot of these hard floor cleaners over the past few years and have never really been that big of a fan. But after putting the Tineco Floor One S3 through all kinds of tests over the period of a week, we think we’ve finally figured out why these cleaners are so popular. We have Tineco to thank for that as they’ve solved some of the problems we’ve noticed in the past with similar machines.
About the Tineco Floor One S3
The Floor One S3 sits in the middle of a growing number of Tineco hard floor cleaners. It was preceded by the iFLOOR and iFLOOR 3. The iFLOOR 3 is quite similar in specification but has a small battery, a shorter run time and lacks the more technologically oriented features of the S3. After the S3’s introduction Tineco released a handful of S5 variants and more recently an S7. As we review those models we’ll provide links to them.
Specs
| Vacuum Type | Hard Floor Washer |
| Corded/Cordless | Cordless |
| Max Runtime | 35 minutes |
| Dirt Sensor | Yes |
| Clean Water Tank | 0.6L |
| Dirty Water Tank | 0.5L |
| Self-cleaning | Yes |
| Stands On Its Own | Yes |
Hard Floor Cleaners
When we say hard floor cleaners, we’re speaking of these upright machines that have soft brush rollers. You fill their water tanks with water, and in this case, just a capful of the included solution. You press a button which starts the brush spinning, and in this case, it automatically dispenses water. It can pick up everything from big nasty wet spills to larger dry debris.
RELATED: See how Tineco’s newer Floor One S5 Pro 2 and S7 Pro compare head-to-head!
Cordless
The Tineco Floor One S3 is cordless, and a lot of companies are putting out cordless versions of these because it is such a natural fit. Not only because it gives you more freedom without the cord but also because these machines don’t need a large motor and thus don’t need a lot of power. So, they can do the job just as well without the cord and still give you a lot of battery life.
If you have mostly hard floors in your house with maybe a few rugs here and there, and you’re really just looking for a way to vacuum and mop your floors at the same time but are not really interested in this for mopping big messy spills, the Tineco S3 is amazing.
LED Screen
The S3 has a few unique features as well. For example, it has the Tineco All-in-One LED display which displays alerts and power level information. It also alerts you to when the brushroll is tangled, how much dirt and debris the S3 is currently encountering and the status of both the clean and dirty water tanks.
But, most importantly for us is the real-time battery life display, where you can tell exactly how long you have left before you need to recharge. The same screen is used on several Tineco products including the Tineco S15 cordless vacuum (review) and some Tineco carpet cleaners.
App
It has something we haven’t seen before, which is app compatibility for performance monitoring and maintenance reminders. Probably not terribly useful, but it is unique.
Related: We compare the Bissell CrossWave Pet Pro vs Shark HydroVac XL!
Testing the Tineco Floor One S3
Most of the other stuff that’s unique or interesting about the S3 can be covered as we talk about the various performance tests we did. We conducted most of the following tests alongside the S3’s most obvious competitor, the Bissell CrossWave Cordless Max.
Cleaning spills and stains
We tested them with all kinds of spills, stains and debris on a number of different surfaces and found that the Tineco S3 was as good or better than others. For example, with the dried-on stains, it and the CrossWave were virtually identical, cleaning the stains in just one pass. The same thing with the wet liquid test: both the Tineco and the CrossWave picked up the spills with no trouble at all. It was as good as you would want them to be in that regard.
Cleaning larger messes
Where we started to notice a difference was with the bigger messes. This was mostly because of the Bissell CrossWave having a lower profile in the front, so the Tineco was able to pick up larger spills better. It also tended not to get as messy for the same reason.
Power and brushroll speed
Another difference was that the Tineco has a sensor integrated with the LED display, and when it’s in auto mode, the sensor automatically increases the brushroll speed and the suction power if it senses you’re vacuuming larger messes. It will show the increase in power using the dirt monitoring loop. This is contrasted with the CrossWave, which has just one power setting.
Suction
Speaking of power, we tested their suction power in a couple of different ways, and the Tineco S3 did have more suction power than the CrossWave in both tests. But we have to say, it wasn’t something we really noticed in the pickup tests. As we said, they seemed really similar.
We suppose the higher suction power on the Tineco could affect drying times, which is something that Tineco advertises as being good with the S3. While we didn’t do a scientific test, floors cleaned with the S3 did seem to dry very quickly. But, we didn’t really have a chance to test or compare that thoroughly.
Battery Life
Another important thing is the battery life. The Floor One S3 has a pretty large battery compared to their previous offerings, and they claim it can get 35 minutes of run time. Of course, actual run time will vary depending on how much the auto mode decides to increase the suction. For comparison, Tineco puts the iFLOOR and iFLOOR 3 at up-to 22 and 25 minutes max running time respectively.
We tested it by seeing how many times we could clean our 182-square-foot room in auto mode, and we were able to clean the room 12 times in 20 minutes until it got to 50% power. We stopped at that 50% mark because we were tired that day. Sorry, science!
But, if the second half was the same as the first, it would mean that we could clean the room 24 times in 40 minutes, which works out to a whopping 4,368 square feet per charge! We also would have used about two tanks of clean water.
Who is this for?
So, all that’s really good, but there were two main things this week that convinced us to change our minds about these hard floor cleaners. The first is that we finally figured out where these things fit in the vacuum cleaner world and which type of customer would most benefit from them.
If you have mostly hard floors in your house with maybe a few rugs here and there, and you’re really just looking for a way to vacuum and mop your floors at the same time but are not really interested in this for mopping big messy spills, the Tineco S3 is amazing.
Tineco water vs cleaning solution
The Floor One S3 can be used with water or with Tineco cleaning solution. To switch between water and cleaning solution mode, press and hold the Auto|Max button for 3 seconds.
The big thing is that it’s a hard floor vacuum at the same time, and because of that soft roller, it’s a particularly good hard floor vacuum. So, you can vacuum and mop your floors at the same time, which means you cut your floor cleaning time in half.
Most of the super positive reviews we’ve read about this were people using it just this way, as a vacuum mop combo for homes with mostly hard floors. It makes sense. Why do two things when you can just do one thing and have it be just as good if not better than both?
Clean up process
The other thing that changed our minds about these vacuum and mop combos is the cleanup process. The reason we’ve not really liked these types of floor cleaners in the past is because when you mop up big spills, it takes longer to clean the machine afterwards than it would have just to pick up the spill by other means. There’s just a lot of nooks and crannies in the machine that you need to pay attention to and clean, and that’s important, especially if you’re vacuuming up SpaghettiOs or something.
Integrated bases with cleaning cycle
Recently though, manufacturers have been getting better with the cleaning cycles in the software. Basically, you set it on its base, make sure there’s water in the tank, and push a button. It then goes through a process to clean its brush and, to a certain extent, other areas of the machine.
The Tineco Floor One S3, in addition to cleaning the brush and the area behind the brush well, also included a mode to flush the internal plumbing, which it did twice. We took before and after shots after the really messy pickup test and after the light-duty cleaning of our house.
Long story short, the S3’s automated system was the best we’ve seen yet, and while we still would double-check it and wipe it down a little if we were cleaning up Spaghettios just to be safe, if you’re just using it to mop your house without big spills, the cleaning cycle should be all that you have to do. That takes away the last barrier we had with recommending these machines.
Cons
As for the negative things that we noticed regarding the Tineco Floor One S3, the first thing would be the auto mode with the sensor that adjusts the suction. It just wasn’t very sensitive. So, it took a pretty chunky mess for it to really kick in and increase the suction.
But, on the other hand, we didn’t really mind it that much. We prefer it not to be overly sensitive, because we don’t really see much of a benefit in more suction power anyway, and because we would prefer the longer battery life.
The dirty water tank is mostly easy to empty as long as you’re using it in regular ways. It has a little strainer for larger debris and hair, but if you pick up a lot of dry material, it gets really messy, and you’ll have to run water over it to get it clean.
We liked that the water was automatically dispensed, but because you can’t control the water flow, it’s not recommended for rugs. You can still quickly get a thing or two from rugs, but only if you don’t mind the rug getting slightly damp. We did vacuum rugs a little with no issues, but it probably wouldn’t be something to make a habit of.
Verdict
If you have mostly hard floors in your house, we think the Tineco Floor One S3 is a really good value. It’s like getting a top-notch cordless vacuum that mops at the same time. We think it will save you time and be an overall upgrade to your floor cleaning routine.
