Review: Tineco FLOOR ONE S7 Steam — cleans even the most stubborn stains from your floor with ease

Tineco announced the availability of their wet and dry vacuum series late last year, and they sent the all-in-one FLOOR ONE S7 Steam over for us to check out.

The FLOOR ONE S7 Steam is a relatively lightweight, self-propelled floor washer that offers the flexibility to clean any hard surface effortlessly.  It includes steam cleaning with 140-degree steam, smart sensor technology that automatically detects debris and adjusts suction power as needed. It also features not just continuous brush cleaning, but a multi-step cleaning process once it is docked.

I’ve been using the FLOOR ONE S7 Steam for the past few weeks, and here’s how it went.

Setup, design and what’s in the box

As with most of this type of upright vacuum and mopping system, the FLOOR ONE S7 Steam arrives in the box in numerous pieces, which you’ll of course have to build into a vacuum before you can begin using it.

It is fairly simple to put together, but there is a decision of which way you need to insert the handle – pay attention to the instructions in the manual and you won’t have any issues.

Inside the box, you’ll find not just all the S7 Steam pieces, but also a spare filter, holder, and roller brush.

Once you have pieced it all together and charged it up, you’ll need to fill the water tank, which is easy to do using the handle.  The clean water, refillable tank is at the rear of the floor cleaner and the dirty water tank is at the front – don’t fill the wrong tank.

Once you take the S7 Steam off the charger and turn it on using the power button on the handle, the iLoop colour display will light up.  It will start up in auto mode where it detects the debris in front of it and adjusts the power of the vacuum as required.   

To change out of auto mode, simply press the mode button located above the power button on the handle. The vacuum will also speak to you and tell you which mode you have selected.  The volume of the voice can be changed (and muted) within the app.  

There is also a water suction mode to clean up spills, but that can only be selected from within the app, which is a strange choice and I cannot imagine why Tineco has done this.  

The S7 Steam looks like so many other of these floor cleaners, but includes nice highlights and the white colours add some style to it.

Charging and battery life

The battery life is not great with the FLOOR ONE S7 Steam, although 40 minutes of standard cleaning should be enough to do most floors, when combined with not just your own power but also the self-propulsion of the cleaner itself.

If you select the Steam and Boost Steam mode, the battery life will be cut down to just 20 minutes so you should only use this sparingly if you want to use the device for an extended period of time.

Once you run out of battery on the S7 Steam, you’ll have to put it back on its dock.  At this time, I hope you’ve finished cleaning because charging is relatively slow, taking somewhere between four and five hours to charge from empty to full.  

Using it myself, I didn’t have any issues because 40 minutes of standard steam cleaning was enough to clean my floor.

Cleaning?

Cleaning is simple thanks to the self-propulsion system of the S7 Steam.  I used the S7 Steam mostly in auto and Steam modes but tested out the Boost mode on occasion. 

For stubborn spills that have been allowed to sit for a while Boost Steam mode makes cleaning a breeze.  For sticky or thicker spills, such as Vegemite, Boost Mode can get in and clean the floor well.  Normal steam mode will also get the floor clean, it will just take longer.

The various steam mode settings change the number of open steam holes.  The standard steam mode opens six holes for an even steam spray onto the floor but Boost Steam mode closes all but two of these, allowing for a higher intensity of steam to be projected out of them.

Set the S7 Steam on Auto mode and it will function like a standard vacuum mop and clean the floor.  Steam mode obviously switches the steam on for a slightly deeper clean – with the steam, you do the germ-killing properties so it can definitely be an advantage to use that.

When you select Steam mode, you will need to wait for the S7 Steam to prepare and reach the desired temperature.  It didn’t seem to tell me when it was ready, but there was steam coming out of the front of it, which was a giveaway for me.  

A big advantage of the S7 Steam is its cleaning system, which uses an internal brush to continually wash and rinse the roller with clean water while mopping.  This means that the water you use to clean the floor will always be clean, fresh water.

There are no cleaning solutions or detergents required for the S7 Steam, as the steam kills germs instead of relying on a detergent of any sort.

Edge cleaning is excellent with the S7 Steam, able to get as close as 5mm to your skirting boards, resulting in a thorough finish.  Not many mops will get closer than that – use a wet rag if you need to get in closer than that.

Once you’re finished cleaning the floor, stick the S7 Steam back on the charging dock.  You will need to empty the dirty water tank to prevent it from getting too smelly – it will already be somewhat stinky, so be cautious if you are sensitive to smells.  Depending on how long you ran the cleaner for, you may need to refill the clean water tank too.  

App

The FLOOR ONE S7 Steam is not an overly technical product, but it comes with an app that has Bluetooth connectivity to the vacuum.  The app is incredibly basic, although it does tell you how full the clean and dirty water tanks are, as well as how clean the roller is.  

As mentioned above, you can select the cleaning modes for the S7 Steam directly within the app – it’s actually the only place where you can choose the water suction mode.  The settings of the app is where you will be able to mute or change the volume of the voice on the vacuum.

Final thoughts

The Tineco FLOOR ONE S7 Steam offers more than a basic vac/mop. Its hypersteam technology allows even the thickest and most stubborn stains and spills to be cleaned with ease. It includes Tineco’s iLoop Smart Technology to detect the debris on the floor and automatically adjust the cleaning power and water flow to optimise cleaning.

The S7 Steam offers the ability to clean your floors relatively quickly thanks to its self-propulsion technology allowing you to get a spotless hard floor with a minimum of fuss. If you need a vacuum/mop solution that will not just clean your floors but sterilise then thanks to the included steam technology, then this is the cleaning device for you.

The Tineco Floor One S7 Steam is available now at JB Hi-Fi and other Australian retailers for an RRP of $1,199.