I really wasn’t sure about this one when it came through, but a smart vacuum and mop has actually been a very interesting experience. I say that for a few reasons, primarily that I’ve not used a stick style vacuum more than once or twice before, and because I’ve never used a mop of this type before.
On top of interesting, it’s been enjoyable too, having the quick access to the Tineco meant that little spills and messes were easier and faster to clean. But in honesty, I think the person in my house who has enjoyed it most has been my wife; purely because I did the floors for a couple of weeks, giving her some of her precious time back.
What is it?
The Tineco Floor One Switch S6 is a stick-style mop and vacuum all in one device. It comes with everything you need to keep your floors (hard or soft) clean throughout your house including multiple attachment heads for vacuuming, the mopping head and tank, and a convenient; but a little disconcerting — more on this shortly — docking station.
On the surface, I had some hesitance about the capacity of the Switch S6 to handle a house — particularly the mix of flooring we have, including slate and step down between rooms — vs an apartment or flat; but I’ll address that shortly too…
Setup, features and daily use
The honest truth is that setup was pretty easy, simply by following the diagram on the front of the box. That is a very good thing, because the written instructions aren’t great. Even to the point that (I can’t see it affecting any performance) I’ve got a spare bit — it’s a cover of some sort — left over and I can’t figure out where it goes…
Once setup and having the unit on the dock, the first hurdle got in the way. It looks like the dock is built to have the mop head released while in the dock, but that’s not the case; you’ll need to lock it otherwise you won’t get a contact for charging to start. This puts the unit on an interesting angle that, I feel may leave it vulnerable to stress fractures and damage over time.
Taking a look at the hardware, as mentioned, there are multiple attachments if you’re using this as a vacuum only; then there’s the mopping setup. This is where I offer my first tip of the hat to Tineco for simplistic design, there is one motor unit that handles everything, and is very easily changed between the mopping and vacuuming attachments. Be a bit wary though, if you don’t get the attachment just right, it can — only happened to me once, possibly user error — come out during use; leaving you with a screaming motor in your hand and a vacuum attachment laying lifeless and unloved on the floor.
Probably the biggest issue that I (well, Jo) found with design is that when you’re using the mopping attachment, you’re unable to tilt it beyond 142 degrees from a vertical plane; otherwise you’re going to get wet feet. While it’s not as pronounced of an issue for vacuuming, the height of the unit made it far more useful to myself as a 6 foot tall man than my wife who found it slightly too tall, making it awkward to use. Some basic telescopic ability on the neck, would make this far more versatile for users of varying heights as well as in areas where space is limited.
One facet that — in my eyes at least — overcame some of this awkwardness, was the compact and cordless nature of the unit, meaning it was easy to take outside to clean the car. It was lightweight, manoeuvrable, and with the options for attachments; very easy to use.
Mopping takes a bit of setup
Understandably, the mopping function takes a little bit of setup time and clean up afterwards. This isn’t any different from using an old school mop and bucket, but once you’re set up it is a lot easier. The power head has a drive motor that steadily pulls the machine alone at a pace suitable to efficient cleaning. This leaves the user putting in minimal effort, for maximum outcome and in my eyes that’s a big win.
The combination of portability and combining vacuuming and mopping into a single function was a definite time saver.
It was surprising how much discolouration of the water occurred, particularly as the floors had only been cleaned a few days earlier. I was happy with the cleaning results as a whole, and felt like I’d barely put any effort into the process.
The only functional issue I found with this feature is that when you stop mopping, and stand the unit upright, you’ll get a line about 3 cm x 25 cm of water (not a puddle, just slightly more water than the recently mopped areas) left on the floor. This isn’t a big deal, but it meant that I had a piece of kitchen towel in my pocket to prevent my son (who is blind) from running around the house and having preventable slips.
There were a couple of spots that the mop function struggled a little; in fairness, it’s not really designed for slate floors, so with that considered, it did a great job.
Battery Life – It’s enough to do a house… just!
If you’re just doing a vacuum through a standard 3 bedroom house, you’ll have enough battery to do the job reasonably comfortably. The problem with battery will come into play if you’re slow at getting the around, or if you have hard floors through your house and want to do a mop through; it’ll have to be done in two stages. Covering just our kitchen, dining area and hallways with mopping got the battery down to 23% and I still had a further three rooms to do – So a top-up charge was required before I ventured into that.
The downside: It’s compact but not space saving
Like a robot vacuum setup, you’ll need a power plug near the charging station. If you’ve got this in a laundry or common area, you’ll also need a bit of clearance around it for accessing the unit. The dock itself is reasonably compact at 600 x 400 mm, but the mop attachment stands 1200 mm high making it something you’ll probably end up having “on display” in your home.
The other feedback I had from my wife when she did the floors — vacuum only — was that the weight balance feels very strange. It’s all in your hand, with the balance being high makes directing the head an interesting and, somewhat challenging experience at first. After some adjustment, it was easier but still not what you’re “used to” if you use a normal vacuum. It was also interesting to see how quickly the catcher filled up, but not really surprising given I live with a couple of long-haired humans. If you run the vac around a couple of times a week, you should only need to empty this once per cycle.
It’s good, but is it worth investing in?
There were some differing opinions in the Tann household on this point. Jo was a fairly firm no, she’d prefer to stick with the older style vacuum that you drag behind you, it’s got better suction power, reach and general capabilities for vacuuming. Where my thoughts were more around keeping the living space clean, vs cleaning on a schedule. I felt like this was something that could be well utilised at the end of the day to give your kitchen or living space a quick spruce up.
There are plenty of factors to consider before buying including the accessible space needed, the functionality and the cost. At $999.00 from the Tineco official Amazon store it’s not going to be for everyone, but the broad functionality means it will suit most living arrangements to get the job done.
If you’re using the mop function regularly, I’d recommend figuring out a schedule to split the workload across a couple of days to make sure the battery lasts; but that’s easy enough to do. Despite a few relatively minor grumbles, I’m impressed and I’d be happy with using this as a primary cleaning mechanism for my house.
Ultimately the Floor One Switch S6 is a really solid option that will do a great job across multiple floor types in any home. It’s easy to set up, the app (Tineco Life – not mentioned until now as it really isn’t of great importance to the capabilities) isn’t of huge benefit other than silencing the voice prompts if you want to , but it has potential to evolve and will undoubtedly do so in the future for other units with greater autonomy.
