Tineco Floor One S7 Stretch Steam reviewed: effortless

Few people really love cleaning. It’s a chore. But what if the chore was so easy, even your kids loved doing it? Enter the Tineco S7 Stretch Steam, a gadget that makes that possible.

Technology can change every category it touches, even the ones you don’t expect it to. AI in toothbrushes, ovens that with cameras that can monitor your food, and all sorts of unusual and unexpected improvements are examples of the way tech is changing ideas around us, and the same is true for cleaning the home.

Even though science fiction has taught us to expect robots to do our bidding in the future, we’re still a long way off from that, so we need to do things ourselves. Fortunately, tech can still help, even if robo-maids are off in the distance.

One of the latest additions to tech in the home sees vacuums getting a splash of mop functionality, evident from the sheer number of robotic vacuums that can also work hard to mop your floor.

But with Tineco’s latest, the Floor One S7 Stretch Steam, the company is finding ways to make cleaning a cinch with technology at the fore.

There’s no app or Bluetooth connectivity, either. This is just an appliance that aims to make cleaning easy and absolutely effortless. Does it succeed?

What is the Tineco S7 Stretch Steam?

You may not think a mop can be a gadget, but Tineco could just change how you see that, and the world.

A combination between vacuum and mop, the Tineco Floor One S7 Stretch Steam sits in a category called “Wet Dry Vacuums”, in that they suck up the debris and gunk on your floor, and then allow you to wipe it down using hot water and steam.

That’s one step better than simply vacuuming, using boiling water pressed against the floor to turn it to steam and, well, steam clean your floor after vacuuming it.

This technology isn’t tremendously new, but the Floor One S7 ups the ante with a voice system that tells you what mode it’s on and when you should clean it, a three-part waste chamber, and a self-cleaning mode that heats and cleans the hardware at 85 degrees Celsius.

The “Steam” part of the name is pretty clear, heating water up to 140º Celsius and then keeping it hot so it can turn into steam.

Meanwhile, the “Stretch” in the name is for how far the vacuum stretches, lying flat and allowing you to clean under furniture thanks to a maximum height of 13cm, or just under it. It means you can lie it down, push it forward, and both vacuum and mop those hard-to-reach areas.

Beyond this, the vacuum supports washing and vacuuming at the same time, trapping the debris in a spot distinct to the dirty water, and using a specialty head and roller that can deal with tangles of hair and such.

Think of it as the combo vacuum and mop you didn’t know you needed, or existed. We certainly did.

What does it do?

As you might well expect from a mop or a vacuum cleaner, or even a gadget that does double as both, the Tineco Floor One S7 Stretch Steam will clean your floor, and rather easily, too.

There’s a chamber for dirty water and debris, and you’ll need to clean it out after every wash lest you want it to smell.

Take that hint, too; we didn’t clean it out for a week to see whether the advice was true, and it definitely is. You need to clean out the waste water bin, not just letting the system run its own cleaning cycle. It’ll do that if you dock it, but it still needs you to clean the tank.

Does it do the job?

As a cleaner around the house, the Tineco S7 Stretch Steam is bit of a dream, simply working and even guiding you around as it works. It’s kind of surreal, actually.

The moment you unlatch the S7 Steam from its vertical position and start moving, the hardware whirs to life and almost guides you around. While the hardware is surprisingly hefty, a piece of technology called “SmoothDrive” helps move you around the room effortlessly.

It’s actually so easy to move the S7 Stretch Steam that a child can do it. Literally. In fact, this reviewer’s child has become so enamoured with the appliance, that she is using it for fun to clean the house.

That’a a new one: an appliance encouraging kids to do chores. We’ll take it.

Running the S7, you’d almost swear SmoothDrive has been based on robotic vacuums, watching the system creep ahead by itself and begin to clean the floor. It doesn’t take no for an answer, and just gets stuck in, cleaning all the same through one of a few approaches.

It’s your choice how to run the system: vacuum only with suction, mopping the floor, or letting the system warm and apply some pressure and steam.

You have choices, though the last two need you to fill up the 0.8 litre tank that sits at the bottom of the unit. Refilling is easy, though you will likely leave a few drops of water somewhere as you replace the hardware.

The vacuum mop can run for up to 80 minutes depending on what you do, but we found that within 35 to 50 minutes, we had finished the run entirely. Vacuuming is basically the longer length, while steaming covers up to 30 minutes, likely thanks to the system needing to heat everything up.

You’ll be able to see what you’re doing all too easily, though, thanks to a neat little circular LED screen which not only shows you the mode, but also the level of heat your steam mop has reached. Curiously, it even speaks.

Once that’s done, however, you merely need to make it work. Apply the steam and the pressure, and the Tineco S7 Stretch Steam

By then, we needed to run a clean cycle, which isn’t whisper quiet in the speedy five minute “Flash” mode, though there is a much longer silent mode you can switch on which will see the clean cycle run for 40 minutes.

Whichever you choose, the cleaning modes allow the system to run water and heat, and get the Stretch S7 Steam clean. And then after that, it’s your turn for a little more manual labour to empty the water and gunk, and wash things out.

Much like other mopping appliances, cleaning out the mop isn’t fun. Rather, it’s just a requirement of owning an electric mop, as is recharging it, which happens at the base station.

What does it need?

The S7 Stretch Steam does a solid job of cleaning the floor, resulting in what is basically an effortless clean. But it’s not a whole-home wonder, and more a tool just for the floor.

That’s a problem, because it’s priced like it should be for the entirety of the home, rather than simply being focused on the floors. We’d say it needs a way to be that little bit more versatile overall, because you still might need another vacuum for hard to reach areas. The Floor One S7 Stretch Steam is great for floors — it’s there in the name — but it could be great for everything.

A hose port with a few accessories would have given the S7 a little more to work with. It could make the Tineco S7 that little more capable for the entirety of the home, not just the ground you walk on.

Is it worth your money?

And that affects the price, which can come off as a touch excessive.

For a little over a thousand, the $1199 Tineco Stretch S7 Steam comes off as a pricey mop and vacuum, and feels like it needs a little more from the vacuum side of things.

It is, after all, made to be a versatile addition to the home, but yet it comes off as nowhere near as flexible or versatile as a Dyson with all the fix-in accessories, or even Roborock’s H60 Hub Ultra. Sure, you can roll on over an area, suck up the hair and dust and other bits and bobs, and then clean it easily, but you miss the accessories that make the competition worthwhile.

This isn’t an isolated issue, mind you; the Ryobi One+ Wet Dry Hard Floor Cleaner came covered the exact same approach, making it a wet vac of sorts, but missing out on the extra accessories and going without steam.

Neither model really focuses on the entire home, but at least Tineco’s approach comes with steam to help you lift stains and other dried on gunk, while also coming with that clever drive system.

It makes the Tineco S7 Stretch Steam a cut above other wet dry vacuums, even if it still needs that little bit more.

Yay or nay?

Cleaning machines could well be the new coffee machines, as gadget makers find ways to make us care about tech for the home. Not just tech in the home, gadgets destined to help you clean the home are kind of exciting, giving you a way to clean up without wasting time.

That could be the best way to describe what the Tineco Floor One S7 Stretch Steam does, because it can give you time back with its simple approach to cleaning. You simply use it and it works, delivering an effortless clean.

This journalist didn’t think it was possible to care so much about a vacuum mop, but he’s impressed, and close to a total convert. The S7 Stretch Steam just makes so much sense, and makes cleaning a dream. Recommended.