Review: Tineco Wet Dry Steam vac & mop: do you need power sanitization?

Erin Lawrence

Home & Lifestyle, Review, Smart Home
July 4, 2022
Updated On August 18, 2023

I’ve been on a roll the last few months, testing out probably about a dozen different vacuums, mops, and floor cleaners. I recently got the chance to test out a type of cleaner that was new to me— and upright wet dry vacuum-mop, but this one has some extra superpowers: Steam cleaning! Meet the Tineco S5 Steam.

Review: Tineco Wet Dry Steam vac & mop

In this review, I’ll tell you what this device is made to do, what it works well for and what it doesn’t, how well it cleans, if steam actually makes an improvement, and if I think it might be a valuable gadget for your home.

Tineco S5 Steam

Summary

Overall, I feel this device is best suited to use as a powerful mop, but it does also pick up dirt you’d otherwise need to vacuum first, so it is versatile, albeit for floors only.

I’m really happy with how this floor cleaner performs.

Pros

Handles both wet and dry messes
Steam sanitization is great
Cleans well
Great for homes with pets or kids
Easy to use

Cons

Internal debris filter is small
Not cordless
Cleans hard floors only

Get One from Amazon

What’s in the box?

Let’s take a quick look at what you get in the box. When you start unpacking, you’ll see you get some of the accessories first. There’s an instruction booklet, of course, and an extra roller, you’ll also get an extra filter as well.

There’s a couple of racks and holders where you can place the roller or the filter to air dry and a brush to scrub your device.

See my hands-on review

You get a large floor mat, where your Tineco S5 Steam can stay handy without wetting the floors with the damp roller. There’s a handle in the box which you’ll just click into place on the main portion of the vacuum unit in just a second.

The vacuum in here is well wrapped and packaged and has a long cord attached.

What’s different about Tineco Floor One S5 Steam?

Corded use

Like Tineco’s other floor cleaners, this is a wet-dry stick vacuum-mop combination with a single plush roller underneath that pulls in and sucks up dirt, debris and wet messes, and it will scrub the floor surface too. Unlike the original Floor One S5, this version is not cordless, you need to operate it plugged in since that power is necessary in order to generate the steam.

Steam power

And the steam is the other big selling feature of this unit. In less than a minute, it can convert water to hot steam so you’re not just washing your floors, you’re able to essentially sanitize them too. The other advantage of that steam is that it keeps the mop and the roller sanitized as well.

The mop and vacuum head has swivel steering and it’s pretty maneuverable plus, there’s a fairly comfortable rounded hand grip.

The S5 Steam has two separate containers. There’s one for clean water, and/or water and cleaning solution, and another for dirty wastewater.

To use this upright vac-mop, you’ll fill its small water tank with fresh water. The tank looks kind of tiny, but the truth is, this device isn’t using a lot of water and doesn’t need it.

The bonus of using only so much water is that the floor will drive faster too. The Tineco Floor One S5 Steam will clean with just water or water and a cleaning solution, and you only need about a bottle cap-full to boost your clean.

Using the Steam Cleaning

The device will start in auto mode by default, but you can switch to steam mode by pressing the button.

The steam will take just under a minute to generate and the voice on the device will tell you to watch the digital screen, since when it gets to 100, it’s ready and you’ll likely see steam escaping from the roller cover, through the little vent.

Powered motorized head

When you turn it on, you’ll notice the Tineco S5 Steam will pull; it’s powered and doesn’t take much work from you to clean deeply; just run it over your floors.

With most messes, a single pass of the steamy roller scrubbed up dirt including things like muddy dog paw prints. When it’s finished cleaning empty the dirty water tank; it’s actually a really good gauge of how dirty your floors are. The on-board strainer inside the dirty water tank is designed to make hair or debris removal quick and easy and so it doesn’t clog your plumbing and I thought it worked well.

Clean steam mop after each use: it also has self cleaning

Worth pointing out is that you really should empty the dirty water bin pretty much right away. If it sits in here for a while, it’s gonna start to smell pretty funky. The roller will also unclip from the top of the vacuum up and should be rinsed off as well with that cover removed. You can slide the roller brush out in rinse and remove any tangled hair or fibers.

It will automatically let you know when it needs a self cleaning cycle to keep dirt from building up inside, since it can auto-detect dirt and buildup; a voice prompt will tell you to begin a cleaning cycle by pressing the self-clean button (which has a water droplet on it). A full self-cleaning cycle takes about 2 minutes.

Tineco Smart cleaning with iLoop Sensor: Not my favourite

The Tineco Floor One S5 Steam uses something called an iLoop Smart Sensor that purports to detect where dirt and debris are on the floor. As you move the vacuum across your floor, it should show you where you need to concentrate your effort; if the LED light on the screen is red, it’s seeing more dirt, so you should make a few more passes, if it’s blue, it’s not so bad.

I didn’t find the iLoop sensor effective or helpful.

The Tineco S5 Steam will also automatically adjust water flow, giving more water and steam to clean bigger messes.I don’t love this feature, though I sure appreciate what Tineco is trying to do. The light to me comes on intermittently and even when I was cleaning dark or biog spills, for the most part the light doesn’t change to match.

So I don’t know how much it’s actually seeing dirt, but since it is really effective at cleaning floors, I wasn’t that fussed about it.

Using Tineco Floor One S5 Steam

I tried out the Tineco Floor One S5 Steam in various wet and dry, at-home situations.

I used the S5 Steam on tile, and hardwood and it did a great job on both. I didn’t find that it left the floors too damp or streaky either. I’d say this floor cleaner is best at wet messes and mixed wet-dry messes, and less made for dry vacuuming only.

I used it simply as a vacuum and on all my vacuums, I test them out on finer flour, spills rice or oats and other household debris. While the vacuum does pick it up in some cases, it does form kind of a wet mess inside, the dirty water tank, and that internal filter gets full quickly.

With that said, it does do a good job of keeping the debris of the water for the most part and overall it picked up. Everything I put in front of it, when it came to the floor, mopping capabilities. I was able to try it on muddy dog, paw prints and damp dirt, plus coffee, spills, and other airing created messes here, the Tineco S5, steam shines, unlike some mopping robots that simply drag a white across your floor.

This spinning brush underneath the S5, steam powers dried messes off the floor. It was really good at cleaning. Similarly, it was able to clean up small wet spills though. I do advise you to empty. The dirty water been right after and run a cleaning cycle. Particularly if you’re sucking up something like milk, for example, I used the S5 steam on tile and hardwood and I thought it did a great job on both.

I didn’t find that it left the floors too damp or too. Streaky either I’d say this floor cleaner though is best at wet messes and maybe what you could call mixed wet and dry messes and less made for dry vacuuming only.

Cord is long

The cord on this device, as I think I’ve mentioned already is plenty long: I’m definitely able to go all over my house without constant unplugging and replugging.

If there is one major downside to this device. It’s that it is made for floors. Only, There are no attachments hoses or conversions that would let you use this, for example, on countertops, shower walls, but clean your grout, for example, like something you might find on a missile steam.

Tineco Floor One S5 Steam is made for floors ONLY

If there is one major downside to this device it’s that it is made for floors only. There are no attachments, or conversions that would let you use this on countertops, shower walls, or to clean your grout for example (as you might find on something like a Bissell Steam Mop). This device is built in upright vacuum style which means the cleaner head stays down on the floor.

I mentioned Bissell’s steam mop which I have reviewed here, and in truth these are completely different devices so while you may be shopping and choosing between this type of device, they’re really in different leagues.

While Bissell uses steam also, it has a variety of different cleaning tools and heads… But one thing it will not do is pick up any dirt, debris, or liquids. That’s where the Tineco Floor One S5 Steam shines; it has the ability to not just power dirt away with steam, but to pick up associated debris and spilled liquids.

Overall review: Tineco Wet Dry Steam vac & mop

Overall, I feel this device is best suited to use as a powerful mop, but it does also pick up dirt you’d otherwise need to vacuum first, so it is versatile, albeit for floors only.

I’m really happy with how this floor cleaner performs. It powers dried on dirt from both my tile and hardwood floors, and

I love the versatility of the wet-dry performance here, since it means I don’t need to worry about vacuuming first, then mopping. The steam does add power—plus the bonus of sanitization with that hot steam: Your floors aren’t just clean, they’re sanitized to some extent too.

Downsides? the internal debris filter is small so it struggles to clean up bigger lumpier messes. It’s not cordless, and it’s made for floors only.

Even so it works very well and we like using it, since it gives the floors in our dual-pet home a good, thorough cleaning. I can definitely recommend the Tineco Floor One S5 Steam for your hard floors.

Tineco S5 Steam sells for about $449USD but I have not yet seen Canadian Availability or pricing yet. You can get it from Amazon.

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Erin Lawrence

I'm a journalist, tech blogger, writer, TV producer, silversmith& jewelry designer, foodie and world traveler. I blog, write for publications, and supply freelance writing services to Calgary, and the world.