Tineco S5 Wet Dry Vacuum | What to Love or Hate

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Learn what has the Tineco S5 Wet/Dry Cordless Vacuum ranking as one of the best cordless stick vacuums and one of the best hard floor cleaners, as well as one of the overall best cordless vacuums for its class.

Tineco-S5-Unboxing-Cleaning-Review-1 — *Tineco S5*

In this post…

All about the Tineco S5
Who It’s Good For
Who It Might Not Be Good For
How-to guides
Product information and specs
FAQs
Pros and Cons
Where to buy
Alternative options
Final thoughts
Neat-ish Rating

Skip to conclusion

About the Floor One S5 Cordless Wet Dry Vacuum

The Tineco Floor ONE S5 Cordless Wet Dry Vacuum is one of the best and most popular wet-dry hard floor cleaning vacuums available on the market to date.

Much of its popularity is thanks to its impressive construction and sophisticated yet minimalistic features, such as self-cleaning capabilities and simplistic Auto and Max cleaning modes.

It also features a user-friendly app, easy-to-clean components, and more that we cover for this in-depth, hands-on Tineco S5 cordless wet-dry vacuum review.

Might Be Ideal For:

Small to medium-sized households
People who hate mopping
Those who want to cut down on their cleaning time significantly
The overall motivationally challenged
Folks with a lot of hard floors to cover
Pet owners
People with kids and/or messy partners
Households that need or want to vacuum and mop daily
Allergy suffers

Might Not Be Ideal For:

Extra-large households
Households prone to sticky or stuck-on floor stains
Those who want to lean area rugs and doormats
Super-deep grout lines
All-carpet households
Homes with a lot of low-lying furniture that’s difficult to move
Carpet, doormats, and area rugs

See Product Listing for details

Differences, Specs, What’s In the Box, FAQs

In this section, we’ve provided specifications, what’s in the box, FAQs, and differences between the S5 wet-dry vacuum and other Tineco wet-dry mop vacuums within the series to help you find the best wet-dry floor-cleaning option.

Jump to Pros and Cons

What’s In The Box

Below are the items included in the Tineco S5 Wet Dry Vacuum and a few pictures from our last-minute unboxing.

Items Included:

1 wet/dry vacuum unit
1 clean water tank; 0.8L
1 dirty water tank; 0.7L
2 washable HEPA dry filters
1 brush cleaning tool
2 roller cleaning brushes
1 bottle of cleaning solution
1 charging/docking station
Power adapter
Instruction manual
2 removable compartments for dry brushes and filters

Specifications

This section includes basic specifications for the Tineco Floor One S5 Smart Cordless Vacuum and Wash.

Tineco S5 Specs

Suction Power: 30W
Battery Capacity: 4000mAh
Screen Type: LED
Weight: 9.9 pounds
Height: 43 inches (approx.)
Footprint (base width): 10 5/8 inches (approx.)
Floor Type: Hard floor cleaner
Carpet/Rug Cleaning: No
Vacuum Type: Upright vacuum / Cordless stick vacuum / Wet-dry Vacuum
Power Source: Rechargeable lithium-ion battery (cordless)
Average Runtime: 35 minutes (on Auto/varying modes)
Warranty: 24-month limited warranty
Country of Origin: China

For further details, please refer to the manufacturer’s product listing.

Differences Between the Tineco S5 and S5 Pro

Tineco S5	Tineco S5 Pro 2
LED Display (non-animated)	LCD display w/ animations
– Auto Mode	– Auto Mode
– Max Mode	– Max Mode
– Self-cleaning Mode	– Self-cleaning Mode
– No Suction-only Mode	– Suction-only Mode/Vacuum Only
$399-$499 (approx.)	$530-$599 (approx.)
Get the S5	Get the S5 Pro 2

Tineco S5 PRO 2 Product Video

Differences Between the Tineco S5 vs S5 Combo

Tineco S5	Tineco S5 Combo
LED Display (non-animated)	LED Display (non-animated)
Clean water tank (0.7L)	Clean water tank (.45L)
Dirty water tank (0.7L)	Dirty water tank (.45L)
Auto Mode	Auto Mode
Max Mode	Max Mode
Self-cleaning Mode	Self-cleaning Mode
No Suction-only Mode	No Suction-only Mode*
n/a	Handheld Vacuum Mode
35-minute runtime	22-minute runtime
Enhanced edge and corner cleaning	Enhanced edge and corner cleaning
9.9 lbs.	8.4 lbs.
Accessories: – 2 soft brush rollers – Cleaning solution – Dock charging station – Cleaning wand brush – 2 dry HEPA filters – 2 accessory bins	Accessories: – 2 soft brush rollers – Cleaning solution Dock charging station – 2 dry HEPA filters – Accessory bins – Handvac accessories bin — Vac dust bin — Vacuum wand — Vacuum brush
$399-$499 (approx.)	$449 (approx.)
Get the S5	Get the S5 Combo

**when fully assembled vs handheld

Tineco S5 Combo Product Video

Differences Between the Tineco S5 vs S5 Steam

Tineco S5	Tineco S5 Steam
LED screen (non-animated)	LED screen (non-animated)
Auto Mode	Auto Mode
Max Mode	Max Mode
Self-Cleaning Mode	Self-Cleaning Mode with steam
n/a**	Steam Mode
Clean water tank (0.7L)	Clean water tank (0.75L)
Dirty water tank (0.7L)	Dirty water tank (0.75L)
Cordless	Corded (26 feet)
Accessories: – 2 soft brush rollers – Cleaning solution – Dock charging station – Cleaning wand brush – 2 dry HEPA filters – 2 accessory bins	Accessories: – 2 soft brush rollers – Dock charging station – Cleaning wand brush – 2 dry HEPA filters – 2 accessory bins
$399-$499 (approx.)	$419-$449 (approx.)
Get the S5	Get the S5 Steam

**Steam option doesn’t use a solution

Tineco S5 Steam Product Video

How to Use the Tineco S5

Below are some basic instructions for using the Tineco S5 Cordless Wet-Dry Vacuum.

We’ve also included Tineco’s own product videos for operating and maintaining the S5 and S5 PRO units.

How to Use the Tineco S5

Instructions (Click to Open)

Make sure that the dirty tank is emptied and the clean water tank is filled accordingly before running the S5 unit, before or after each use.
- Don’t use boiling or super-hot water above 140°F (60°C)in order to avoid internal pipe damage, per the manufacturer’s instructions.
- Neat-ish Tip: While Tineco recommends using an entire capful of their solution, we find it more efficient (and cost-effective) to fill it up to about 1/4 to 1/3 of the cap, depending on how dirty your floors are. This is because too much soap residue can typically attract more dirt later on.
Press the Power button to turn the unit on using the bottom-most button located at the front of the handle.
- To toggle between Auto Mode and Max Mode, use the top, front-facing button just above the Power button.
Move the unit just as you would a regular vacuum cleaner.
- If Auto Mode is selected, the unit will dispense water according to the amount of debris detected. This will be indicated on the iLoop display, ranging from blue (clean-ish) to red (dirty).
- Neat-ish Tip: You can move the unit more slowly for a deeper clean, similar to a carpet-cleaning machine; however, this may require multiple clean water refills.
Once finished, place the unit onto the docking base and press the Self-Clean button, located at the very top of the unit’s handle. Allow the machine to run on its own until the cycle is finished (approx. 1-2 minutes).
- Neat-ish Tip: We recommend checking that the clean water tank has enough water and that the dirty water tank is emptied or has adequate space left before starting the self-cleaning process.
Empty and rinse the dirty water tank and use the cleaning brush as needed. It’s generally best to dry the dirty water tank parts before replacing them on the unit.
- Optional: Refill the clean water tank with soap and water so that it’s ready to use the next time.

How to Maintain the Tineco S5

We found that it’s absolutely necessary to maintain and clean your Tineco S5 on a consistent basis to avoid odor and mold issues.

However, we found this super-easy to do since it has its own self-cleaning mode and easy-to-clean parts.

Click here for information on the Tineco Life App for the Tineco Floor One S5 Smart Cordless Vacuum and Wash.

FAQs

Below are some of the Internet’s most frequently asked questions regarding the Tineco S5 Wet Dry Cordless Vacuum.

1. Is the LED/LCD on the Tineco ONE S5 and Tineco ONE S5 PRO a touchscreen?

The Tineco S5 comes with a non-animated LED screen; whereas, the Tineco S5 Pro features an animated LCD screen.

2. Is the Tineco S5 Cordless Wet Dry Vacuum good on pet hair?

Yes, we found that the Tineco Floor One S5 does, in fact, work well on trapping and collecting pet hair during our review testing.

Much of this is thanks to the dirty water tank’s filter, which helps trap much of the debris and makes for easy cleanup. The soft, tangle-free roller brush does tend to collect a bit of fur; however, the fur is easy to remove and clean up as needed.

As a surprise bonus, the dry HEPA filter and the actual use of water in the dirty tank both help to trap fur, dander, and other pet-related allergens and debris.

3. Can you just vacuum with the Tineco S5 Hard Floor Cleaner?

The Tineco S5 hard floor cleaner only operates with suction and water flow simultaneously; however, the Tineco S5 PRO comes with a suction-only mode as one of its upgraded features. The less expensive S5 Combo is another alternative, which comes with a detachable handheld vacuum.

4. How much does the Tineco S5 vacuum weigh?

The Tineco Floor One S5 weighs approximately 9.9 lbs.

5. Is the Tineco S5 Wet Dry Vacuum a good stick vac?

We feel that the Tineco Floor One S5 makes for an excellent stick vacuum; however, it may not be suitable if you have a lot of carpet or super-deep grout lines. It also has a difficult time fitting under low-lying furniture, which may require another vacuum or broom for cleanup.

6. What’s the battery charge time for the Tineco S5 Wet Dry Floor Vac?

According to the manufacturer, the average charge time for the Tineco One S5 is approximately 4-5 hours.

7. Can you use the Tineco S5 Hard Floor Cleaner on carpet?

The Tineco Floor One S5 vacuum does not work on rugs or carpeting. An alternative hard floor vacuum cleaner that also works on low-pile rugs would be the Bissell Crosswave.

Side Note: We tried the S5 on a small rug-style doormat and found that it did perform very mild cleanup without damage; however, we don’t recommend using the vacuum for this purpose since the unit doesn’t come with a hard-bristled brush roller to agitate dirt and carpet fibers properly.

8. What kind of WiFi connection is needed for the Tineco S5?

The S5 Tineco vacuum requires a 2.4GHz connection.

9. Is the S5 vacuum handle adjustable?

The handle on the Tineco One S5 is nonadjustable.

10. Are the brushes for the Tineco S5 Hard Floor Cleaner abrasive?

The non-abrasive brushes for the Tineco Floor One S5 Smart Cordless Vacuum and Wash are soft, easy to remove, easy to replace, and scratch-free.

11. How long does the Tineco S5 last or run?

The Tineco S5 lasts for approximately 35 minutes in Auto Mode.

12. Why does my Tineco have an odor or smell bad?

We found that the Tineco may develop an odor when dirty water is left in the dirty water tank overnight or when it isn’t put on self-clean often enough. Our solution was to add a small amount of white distilled vinegar into the clean water tank and run it on self-cleaning mode.

What to Like About the Tineco S5 (Pros)

The Pros for the Tineco S5 Wet-Dry Cordless Vacuum far exceeded any Cons. Here are some of our favorite likes while testing out the device for our cleaning product review

Favorite S5 Features

Quick & Easy: The S5 unit is quick, easy, and efficient to use.
Easy On the Eyes: It has a futuristic, well-thought-out, and sleek-looking design that’s appealing yet also practical and minimalist.
Sturdy Construction: We love how well-built and maneuverable the unit feels. Parts snap together well and are intuitively placed. There have been very few issues cropping up in terms of the occasional malfunction, most of which involved the tanks needing to be emptied, filled, or de-clogged of pet hair, which was blissfully easy to do.
Just Roll With It: The soft roller brush is easy to clean, a snap to remove, is nearly effortless to put back in place, and is tangle-free. It’s, so far, the easiest vacuum brush we’ve dealt with to date.
Gettin’ Edgy: We love the enhanced edge cleaning, which is great for getting along baseboards. While it’s not quite as efficient as some of Shark’s vacuums with edge cleaning, it still does an adequate job.
Nearly Effortless Upkeep: The easy cleanup and maintenance of the Tineco Cordless Wet Dry Vacuum are likely some of our more-favorite features on the S5, largely due to the following:
- Filling the clean water tank and cleaning out the dirty tank is easy and quick to do.
The well-designed, self-cleaning function pretty much takes on all of the hard work and mess for you, often with far less to do once it’s finished when compared to other units.
Noise Factor: Extremely quiet for a vacuum, especially when compared to many traditional, robotic, and stick-style vacuums, running at approximately 78 dB(A). We were able to have a normal-sounding conversation while using it on both Auto and Max modes.
Allergen Snifful Reduction Technology: Thanks to the Tineco S5’s dirty water tank trapping most of the debris, we found that there’s far less dust, fewer dust bunnies, and fewer issues with allergies when compared to regular vacuuming. Eat that, Zyrtec…
Fur Herding Capabilities: We absolutely love the fur-trapping filter in the dirty water tank, which makes it super-easy to remove prior to emptying.

Other Tineco S5 Vacuum Pros

Lightweight
Self-propelled
Nice LED display
Long battery life
Intuitively placed buttons without being overkill in numbers
Quick setup, minus charging time
Easy-to-read instructions
Stands upright on its own
The minimalistic app is easy to use, allowing you to run self-cleaning, see battery life, update firmware, refer to the user’s manual, and check for errors.
2-year warranty when purchased from authorized retailers.
- Original defects in materials and craftsmanship
- Motorized accessories and battery bought separately, 1-year warranty
- Refer to the manufacturer’s website for further details (link below)

Check Out the Complete Tineco S5 Series

Find the other Tineco S5 models here or through the images above.

See more images in the Conclusion.

What’s to Dislike About the Tineco S5 (Cons)

Here are several cons, or dislikes, about the Tineco Floor One S5 Wet-Dry Vacuum. We also provided several alternative options for the Tineco Wet Dry S5 Vac for those who might still be sitting on the fence.

Return to Pros Section

Tineco S5 Wet Dry Vacuum Cons

Lack of secondary bristle brush, such as what you’d find with the Bissell Crosswave.
The vacuum doesn’t lean back all the way, making it hard to get under furniture.
Hair and fur need to be cleaned out ever so often from the roller brush compartment.
Self-cleaning mode runs a little long (approx. 1-2 minutes).
Self-cleaning mode is a little louder than Max Mode but certainly quieter than most self-cleaning devices we’ve used (i.e.; Roomba i3).
It may not have enough battery for extra-large households where there are a lot of hard floors to clean.
Tineco’s floor cleaner soap is overpriced, especially when compared to other products.
Unit leans forward while docked, which may affect the space it’s in (e.g.; walk-in closet, bathroom).
Occasionally touchy Wi-Fi connection, which isn’t a huge necessity but rather an annoyance when wanting to use the App or connect the machine.

Other Points About the Tineco S5

Here are a few more dislikes, cons, or issues that came up for us during our review and testing of the Tineco Cordless Wet-Dry Vacuum S5.

Metal parts on the water tank may need to be toweled and/or air dried l dried to avoid rust stains.
Not great for deep grout lines.
Display is somewhat hard to understand when in regards to warning icons.
Struggles with some sticky or stuck-on stains and messes.
Plastic body can be a slight dust magnet.
Wheels may attract debris.
4 to 5 hour charging time from 0 percent.
Unable to clean area rugs and doormats.
Somewhat expensive but still competitively priced.
Dirty and clean water tanks are a little on the small side.
Only seems to be two modes: Auto and Max.
A musty or mildewy odor can sometimes develop if not self-cleaned and emptied after each use. See our tips below for our solution to the problem.

Tip

We were able to get rid of moldy/mildewy residue from our unit that built up over time by adding a small amount of distilled white vinegar to the clean water tank and running it on self-cleaning mode a few times.

NOTE: Tineco’s manufacturer instructions warn against the use of vinegar, so use it at your own risk and try to keep it to a minimum.

Alternative Options for the Tineco S5

If you’re unsure about the Tineco S5 Wet-Dry Vacuum, here are a few other popular and best-selling cordless wet-dry vacuum options to consider.

Conclusion

Is the Tineco S5 Worth It? All in all, we completely fell in love with the Tineco Floor One S5 vacuum cleaner and continue to use it as our main floor-cleaning device.

We love how efficient and easy it is to use, and the pros we found with the S5’s features and functionality far outweighed the very few cons we discovered.

The Tineco S5 not only speeds up our cleaning routines and helps us ensure that our floors are always clean, looking great, and with hardly any effort involved.

Main Likes

It allows us to mop and vacuum at the same time, virtually cutting our average cleaning time for both from 30 minutes on one floor down to 3 to 5 minutes, max.
It increased the number of times our floor gets mopped, going from once during weekly cleaning chores to almost daily.
We also love how quiet the S5 hard floor cleaner is and the overall convenience of the self-cleaning feature.
The easy-to-remove roller brush was another surprise bonus for us, along with the nearly effortless maintenance and allergy/fur-busting capabilities.

Main Dislikes

Our main dislike for the S5 was not being able to get underneath certain types of furniture, such as couches, chairs, and low-lying tables. This was mainly due to it not leaning back far enough.
Touchy WiFi connectivity at times, although this isn’t required to run the vacuum.

Solution: We decided to let our Roomba i3 vacuum every few weeks and mop as needed with an O’cedar spin mop, which we covered in a previous O-Cedar Spin Mop review (new tab).

Neat-ish Rating: 4.7

Get the S5

Performance	★★★★★ 5 stars
Ease of Use	★★★★★ 5 stars
Construction/Durability	★★★★★ 5 stars
Maintenance Ease	★★★★★ 5 stars
Cleaning Effectiveness (Mopping)	★★★★★ 4.5 stars
Cleaning Effectiveness (Vacuuming)	★★★★★ 4.2 stars
Combined Cleaning Efficiency	★★★★★ 4.7 stars
Price	★★★★★ 3 stars

Would we purchase it again?	Yes.
Recommend for Buyers?	Yes, highly recommend it for hard-floor households.
Biggest Loves:	Self-cleaning, speediness, and virtually dry floors afterward.
Biggest Concern:	Some stuck-on messes may require hands-on help.

In the end, we can easily consider it one of the best wet-dry vacuum hard floor cleaners to date.

The Tineco Life App Home Page
The S5 Home screen allows you to activate self-cleaning mode and gain access to more stats.
Tineco S5 Cleaning App
Tineco S5 Maintenance Screen
Get cleaning stats, weekly cleaning reports, user manual, firmware updates, planner tools, and self-cleaning access through the Tineco Life App.
The Tineco Life App for the Tineco S5 and other Tineco products gives you feedback on your cleaning speed, consistency, and progress.
With the Tineco Life App, you can create reminders, provide feedback and chat with Support.
Tineco Life App Account screen
Add a cleaning plan to reminder yourself when it’s time to use your Tineco S5.
Set a creating plan and access Maintenance Reminders.
Tineco S5 Vacuum Cleaning Planner