Five years ago, Chris Evans made a viral humorous tweet bemoaning the inclusion of “smart” functionality into pretty much every new piece of technology. “You’re a major pain in all of our asses,” he quipped. As someone who similarly doesn’t care about smart features at all, it summed up my thoughts quite well. (Honestly, it was the most I will ever be able to relate to a buff millionaire.)
But the Tineco Floor One S5 2-in-1 vacuum and mop is one of the few “smart” products that I’ve really enjoyed. Using Tineco’s proprietary ‘iLoop Smart Sensor Technology,’ the device is capable of adjusting suction power, roller speed and water flow. This results in a remarkably seamless cleaning experience in which the only thing you have to worry about in the moment is rolling the product back and forth.
Now, before we go further, I should confess that I initially went into this review process a bit ignorant, as the only high-end vacuum I’ve used before was an iRobot. Therefore, I was under the assumption that you could switch between vacuum and mop functionalities at will, but instead, the Floor One S5 does both simultaneously. This means it wasn’t 100 percent useful in three flights of carpeted stairs, but ultimately, that’s my own fault for not doing more research.
It’s a worthwhile trade-off, though, since it can’t be understated how handy it is to have the dual vacuum-mop functionality going at once. On top of being pretty light to pick up and satisfyingly smooth to roll along the ground, it does a bang-up job of cleaning. In particular, I was impressed by its streak-free mopping, which Tineco says comes from its special brush head design. On the vacuum side of things, my mum felt the Floor One S5 was especially good in areas of high dust concentration, such as under her bed. (In the few instances where it didn’t immediately suck up every dust bunny, a second rollover would successfully finish the job.)
And back to the aforementioned smart technology, the vacuum has an ‘iLoop’ full-colour LED display ring to provide real-time information to you. Here, you’ll find the battery life, as well as what cleaning mode you’re in (‘Auto’ for basic cleaning, ‘Max’ for tougher messes and ‘Suction’ mode for vacuuming liquids and other wet messes without mopping). In general, though, the Floor One S5 is efficient enough to clean on Auto; I never needed to switch to Max.
But the best part of this display is that it uses an increasingly red-coloured loop to denote especially dirty areas. It’s a clever way to show you where certain parts of your house might be especially prone to getting messy. I can see this being even more useful for people with kids or pets who leave all kinds of spillage on the ground. You can also download the free companion Tineco Life app on Android and iOS for weekly cleaning reports, volume adjustment and, mercifully, a ‘Silent’ option for the admittedly (and sometimes annoyingly) talkative automated voice.
Maintenance is also really simple. Said automated voice will tell you when you need to return it to the base to self-clean, and from there, you only need to empty out the dirty water tank. The noise that it makes when self-cleaning is also graciously not that loud, versus the iRobot that I used, which sounded like a jet engine when emptying its dirt bag. Removing and reattaching this tank, as well as the one on the rear for clean water and/or Tineco’s cleaning solution, is also painless.
My only real issue with the Floor One S5 is its battery life. With up to 35 minutes of cordless use, it gets through most, but not all, of my 1,700 sq. foot townhouse, and that’s removing the carpeted stairs on which I can’t use it. By the last of the four floors, we had to return it to the charging stand. For context, a full charge takes about four to five hours, although we didn’t need to wait that long, of course, to get enough juice to finish the house. Plus, the short battery usage is also more reasonable when you consider that it’s handling both vacuuming and mopping, so it still saves you time in the long run with its efficiency.
On the whole, my experience with the Floor One S5 has been delightful. Being able to vacuum and mop at the same time is extremely convenient, and all of the “smart” features that enable it to go back and forth between these functionalities are most welcome. While I do wish the battery life was just a tad longer, it’s a fair trade-off for a device that makes something I normally don’t enjoy doing — cleaning — that much more smooth and efficient.
You can order the Tineco Floor One S5 from Tineco’s website for $649. A special $250 discount is also available until Monday, August 19th.
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