Let’s be real: mops and buckets are antiques… and Swiffer wetjets are ok, as long as you don’t mind it doing a lacklustre job. So how to clean floors more thoroughly without all the mess? That’s what wet-dry vac-mops were designed for. Tineco’s latest is the Floor One Stretch 6 or S6, which is designed to get into even more compact spaces. In this review, I’ve got one here in my house for a few weeks, so I’m going to try it out in my day to day, put it through some cleaning tests, and see how it does at getting into small areas. I’ll wrap things up with the pros and cons and let you know if I think I can recommend it for you.
Tineco Floor One Stretch S6
Summary
Overall the Tineco Floor One S6 Stretch is a capable, compact and effective wet-dry upright that makes the job of mopping floors so much easier.
Pros
- Cleans well
- Cleans itself and dries mopping rollers when needed
- Option to add cleaning fluid
- Lay-flat design easily gets under furniture
- Easy set-up
- Different cleaning modes
- Long battery life
Cons
- 4 hour battery recharge time
- Base station needs to be plugged in at all times
What’s the Stretch All About?
The “Stretch” feature isn’t about taking a break and doing some yoga but rather, it’s all about extending your reach without having to move your furniture. The Tineco Floor One Stretch 6 or the S6 comes equipped with a special hinge that stretches up to 180-degrees so you can essentially lay it flat while cleaning.
The promise from Tineco is that it lets you clean more easily and frequently under heavy furniture like beds, or furniture that, let’s face it, we typically only clean once every few weeks, or gulp.… less frequently! So long as you have 5.1-inches of clearance, the Stretch 6 can get in there.
What’s in the box + Assembly
You’ll have a couple of assembly steps before you can begin to use the device. But first let’s unpack all of the pieces and see what you’re getting.
The two pieces of the base station are first out of the gate; a clear tray and the bulkier base. Cleaning brushes and extra filter and rollers are also packed in here which is a nice extra. There’s also a small bottle of cleaning solution included which I also really appreciate. You’ll find the handle next, then the main motor unit is the last and largest component.
To get things going, just slide the handle into the motor body, and snap the tray into the bottom of the base station. Situate your base station and plug it in then leave the machine on there to charge up for the first time.
Set up
If you want to take advantage of the smarts in this machine you’ll want to install Tineco Life app. The app will let you remotely monitor your device, and it also gives you additional customized cleaning settings too.
Once you’re signed into or signed up for an account, the app will walk you through the set up process; really all you need to do is push the Wi-Fi button on the back of the handle for 3 seconds and the app will find your device.
Next, lets get it ready for use…
The Stretch 6 has been engineered a bit differently than other similar devices; to help keep its slim profile, Tineco has placed the clean water tank flat along the top of the mopping head. To use the Stretch 6, you’ll fill the 0.8L clean water tank and you can add a capful of Tineco’s cleaning and deodorizing solution if you want.
The dirty water tank is clipped into the front of the unit. Inside it has what Tineco calls its 3-chamber dirty water separation system; it’s made to keep dirty water away from the motor, ensuring full cleaning power even when lying flat. It also filters out any particles, or pet har that may get sucked into the machine.
Once you unlock the handle you’ll push the power button to turn it on and it will start in whatever mode you left it in previously, or hit the mode button to switch from Automatic, to Max, Suction-only mode or Custom mode.
Cleaning Modes
Auto Mode
Auto Mode let’s the machine choose how much water and suction power to use based on what the machines sensors detect about your floors dirt level. A red dirt monitoring loop around the info screen tells you more dirt is being detected while a blue loop means there’s less. Using this mode should automatically provide the best cleaning option for you.
Max mode
Max mode will use maximum suction power and more water or cleaning solution to get off more intense spills and stains.
Suction only mode
In section only mode the machine will just pick up water without releasing any additional water or cleaning solution.
Custom mode
In custom mode you’ll use the Tineco app to adjust preferences to your liking that will then be used by the machine once this mode is chosen.
The truth is though, that once I had the app set up, I was unable to find any way to customize the clean. It’s not as though I was able to dial in the amount of solution used or how quickly the brush spins. What I think Tineco means by offering a “custom mode” is that inside the app you can change a handful of settings for the machine including it’s running speed, whether the light on the front of the floor brush comes on, how loud the voice is, and whether it cleans with water only or a solution mix.
I personally wouldn’t call this a custom cleaning mode as much as I would call it “preferred settings”. Nevertheless, it was nice to have some choices in how the machine operates.
Cleaning Tests
Lets get right to the cleaning…
In my day to day use it was very convenient to grab the Stretch 6 to mop up spills in the kitchen; from coffee to soda, sauces and even food spills.
Whenever I test out a machine like this I give it a handful of spills to contend with; I’ll spill liquids like coffee, ketchup, soy sauce and jam and let some of them dry, so I can see how well it cleans a variety of spills. I also do things like spill cereal or sticky rice just to see how it’s able to manage.
In my cleaning tests you can see that with the wet spills it’s able to mop everything up in really just a single pass. With drier spills it does take a couple of additional passes over the area to get them clean, but this is not uncommon. When it came to dried on ketchup…/?
Mixed liquid and solid spills like cereal and rice were no match for the Stretch 6; the great thing about a floor washer like this is it’s able to tackle pretty much any type of spill without you needing to partially clean up first.
Lay-flat tests
To test the Stretch 6’s ability to get underneath furniture, I tried it out in both the living room, kitchen, and underneath the bed. It does indeed lie completely flat and makes it a lot more convenient to get underneath things.
Maneuverability
That brings me to another point about this device and that’s that it is highly maneuverable. The cleaner head swivels easily and makes it extremely simple to get into corners and around table legs.
35-Minute Battery Life + Recharging
You won’t find yourself playing a high-stakes game of “Beat the Battery” with the Tineco Stretch 6, trying to work around the room as fast as possible before it taps out. It’s rated for a 35-minute battery life that should be just enough for daily cleaning sessions. Of course, since the Stretch 6 is meant to stay stored on it’s charging base that keeps it fully charged at all times, in addition to keeping potentially wet rollers off your floor.
The only downside is that you’ll have to wait four hours for a full charge.
Two-Step Self Cleaning Process
The worst part about a wet dry upright is usually the emptying and trying to keep it clean. But with this device it runs its own self cleaning cycles whenever it detects that’s necessary.
It starts off with a 2-minute hot water wash and finishes it off with a 5-minute hot air drying cycle. So, you’ll be up and running for another full-on cleaning session in just under 10 minutes.
Using warm, 158℉ fresh water it flushes its insides from the pipes to the brush roller, and deposits the dirty cleaning fluid into its tank. It then undergoes heated drying at 158℉ to keep the roller from developing musty smells. Going one step further, the brush roller rotates in both directions to make the brush fluffier and drier.
Overall review: Tineco Floor One S6
Overall the Tineco Floor One S6 Stretch is a capable, compact and effective wet-dry upright that makes the job of mopping floors so much easier. Let’s go over the pros and cons.
On the pro side, it cleans well, it cleans itself and dries the mopping rollers when needed. With the option of adding cleaning fluid, you’re getting a better than just-water clean. With its lay-flat design it easily gets under all kinds of furniture. It’s easy to set up and the app makes adjustments easy, and with different cleaning modes, you can always find a balance between powering off dirt and protecting floors. The battery lasts a long time and the package came with extras like a roller filter and brush.
So what are the downsides?
The full recharge time is a long four hours. While this shouldn’t be an issue for most people because the cleaner will usually be stored on its base station, depending on the size of your home it might still feel limiting. The only other consideration might be the base station does need to be placed somewhere it can be plugged in at all times, so that might limit where you are able to store it.
Those really just feel like considerations to be aware of as opposed to true downsides or defects, so for that reason I can definitely recommend the Tineco Floor One S6 Stretch to you.
It sells for about $699USD/$899CAD and you can get it from Amazon.
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