With the rise in popularity of hard flooring this past decade comes the rise of the wet-dry vacuum cleaner. I have tried a lot of wet-dry vacuum cleaners over the years, most of which I haven’t been impressed by. So, I was a little hesitant when I first approached the Tineco Floor One S9 Artist Steam. That all changed once I actually started using it.
This is the first wet-dry floor cleaner I’ve tried that I’ve actually loved. But, is it worth the huge $1,499 price tag?
Table of contents
- First impressions
- Specifications and price
- Performance
- Tile steam cleaning
- Hardwood flooring cleaning
- Bin emptying experience
- Who is the Tineco Floor One S9 Artist Steam for?
First impressions
This is a sleek and premium-looking appliance. It has the aesthetic of a robot from a 1960s TV show.
Moving the water tank from the body to the head of the device has changed the way the machine is weighted compared to previous models, making it easier to manoeuvre while adding extra downward force to remove tough stains. Despite it being heavy, it almost feels weightless when I glide it around, thanks to the motorised wheels on the base.
The setup process was nice and easy, and overall it took me about 15 minutes to go from a taped-up box to a clean kitchen floor, and it doesn’t get much better than that.
Tineco Floor One S9 Artist Steam specifications and price
| Steam temperature | 140°C |
| Clean water tank capacity | 880mL |
| Dirty water tank capacity | 750mL |
| Operation noise | 78dB(A) |
| Battery runtime | 75 minutes |
| Charging time | 3.5 hours |
| Price (RRP) | $1,499 |
| Manufacturer’s warranty | Two years (in addition to your Australian consumer law rights) |
| Official website | Tineco Australia |
Overall, there’s a lot to love there. Other good features not listed in the specs are that it can lie flat, and it has a smart sensor to sense how dirty the floor is (and adjust power based on that information). Because the rollers take up so much of the base, it’s able to get pretty close to walls on three sides. It also has an LED screen, which to me feels like overkill (there could just be little lights indicating which modes it’s in), but looks very pretty and premium.
It also, and this is a very important feature, cleans itself. You press a button, and then it washes and dries the roller. You then have to physically (and somewhat grossly) empty the dirty water tank. But you’ll almost never have to touch the roller, unlike on some other brands.
To me, this is worth the extra money, because I do not want to touch the roller. I know how gross my floor is, and I want no part of that nonsense.
Performance
My old testing methods used to include wiping assorted foods on the ground, and strategically dropping flour and other debris and then testing how efficient the cleaner was at picking those things up.
I have since levelled up my testing by having a toddler, which really increases the difficulty level on multiple fronts.
Tile steam cleaning
My kitchen floor should be cleaner than it normally is. I know this, and you know this. The toddler who occupies most of my waking non-work hours does not care about this. So, I value any device that is able to be more thorough than our Roborock robot vacuum cleaner, very quickly.
My previous device (the Tineco S7 One) just didn’t have the lifting power this disaster zone requires. The Artist Series S9 Steam’s hotter steam and heavier cleaner head massively increases the lifting power, making it able to clean off the encrusted porridge, and splashes from last night’s pasta sauce. A bit of sprinkled flour was nothing to the S9 Steam.
I did have to go over a couple of dried-on sauce splashes four or five times, but I didn’t have to put in any elbow grease, and it doesn’t take long to go back and forth a few times. It’s certainly a lot faster than a traditional mop.
It didn’t leave behind any streaks; the floor was merely moist in the wake of the S9, rather than wet.
While I still think my manual steam mop cleans slightly better, that’s only with the addition of putting my back into it and using the heft of my body weight. Meanwhile, I could comfortably and calmly push around the beautifully balanced S9 in a half-asleep daze and still have it come out looking excellent.
Being able to lie the cleaner flat to go under the kitchen island with minimal suction loss sounds like a really good idea. But because the body is so thick (or “thicc“, as the kids would say), I couldn’t get it too far under any of my furniture. Still, the distance it can get under is more than the previous model, and is better than the complete nothing I did previously.
Hardwood flooring cleaning
This is the test that I pulled out the big guns for. I fed my daughter porridge and chia pudding for breakfast. If you’ve never seen a 13-month-old eat porridge and chia pudding, then you’re missing out. I think it’s roughly akin to the sight of Jackson Pollock creating a masterpiece, but with more joyful abandon.
Porridge, when dried, is reminiscent of papier-mâché glue. Dried chia pudding could be used in place of super glue, and the seeds are the glitter of the toddler food world — they are everywhere, and you will be finding them for decades to come.
I also gave her some avocado, because why not throw caution to the wind?
We have sealed French oak hardwood floors I absolutely love and am constantly afraid of damaging. Wooden floors should never get too wet, let alone hot and steamy. So, I’m always nervous about using wet-dry devices on it, as well as traditional mops, because you never know what will happen.
All of that is to say that I gave the Tineco Floor One Artist Series S9 Steam one hell of a challenge. According to Tineco, the auto mode on the Floor One Artist Series S9 Steam is designed to be gentle enough to use on sealed wood floors.
I’m pleased to report that it did an excellent job on these dried breakfast foods. I did have to rub a couple of the crusty stains with my socked foot to loosen them after it had been moistened by the S9, but the appliance was then easily able to lift them after that.
With the S7 model, I used to have to get down on hands and knees with a cloth after the machine had done some of the work. Being able to push it with a toe and then allow the T9 to do its job was a huge step up.
This was all done in auto mode, with no damage done to the floor after a week of use. It’s the cleanest this floor has looked in 13 months.
Bin emptying experience
This is the bit I was most nervous about. I think I have PTSD from the time I forgot to empty the S7’s dirty water tank for a couple of weeks. The contents had started a new civilisation.
Cleaning the Tineco Floor One Artist Series S9 Steam’s dirty water tank is still a deeply, deeply gross experience, don’t get me wrong. But it is now a less gross experience that’s less likely to clog up your plumbing, and that’s nice.
The dirty water tank grabs the chunks (for want of a better term) and holds them in the lid, and then the gross liquid goes to the bottom of the tank. I found that there were still chunks in the water, and I am vaguely concerned for my plumbing, though less concerned than I was previously. Tineco recommends flushing the dirty water tank down the toilet instead of pouring it down the sink, but the pipes are still the same.
It’s then easy to bash the chunks out of the lid into the household bin, without having to touch any of them. This is the way it should be.
Despite my concern about the remaining chunks in the plumbing, this is the best bin-emptying experience I’ve ever had on a wet-dry floor cleaner. So, while it’s not perfect, I’m pretty sure it’s among the best currently available. Sometimes that’s enough.
Who is the Tineco Floor One S9 Artist Steam for?
This is the wet-dry floor steam cleaner you get when you want your floor clean at any price. It’s perfect for toddler parents, lazy people, people who love to cook, and anyone with hard floors and a large budget.
Price aside, this is the best wet-dry floor cleaner I’ve ever used, and I’ve used a lot over the years.
The post Tineco Floor One S9 Artist Steam review: So fresh and so clean appeared first on GadgetGuy.
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