Tineco Pure ONE S15 Essentials Smart Cordless Vacuum Review

With so many vacuum cleaners on the market today, it can be really difficult to choose which one is right for your home. Particularly with all the different brands, and models that can seem quite similar to others. I recently got the opportunity to test out Tineco’s Pure ONE S15 Essentials Smart Cordless Vacuum, and in this review I’ll give you an overview of what you get, show you how well it cleans, and take a look at what differentiates this vac from another popular Tineco model, the Pure One Air Pet. I’ll wrap things up by listing all the pros and cons, and telling you whether I think this vacuum is actually a good bet for you.

What’s in the box?

There’s a few things to unpack when you open up your package. You get:

• Motor handle with dustbin
• Freestanding charging base
• Anti-tangle motorized brush
• 2-in-1 dusting brush
• Extension tube
• Crevice tool
• Hair cleaning tool

FreeStand Charging Base As the name suggests, the charging base for the Pure ONE S15 Essentials Smart Cordless Vacuum is freestanding and does not require any wall mounting. This vacuum can stand upright anywhere in the house as long as it is near an outlet so it can be plugged in for charging. The base also has built-in holders for the brushes.

Set up & assembly

There’s virtually no set up or assembly required; simply plug-in the charging base and slide the vacuum into the small bracket to get it charged. When you’re ready to vacuum, connect the extension hose and the accessory you need, and pull the trigger on the underside of the handle. The trigger locks the vacuum into the on position which I actually really appreciate. Some trigger style vacuums force you to constantly hold the trigger down while you’re cleaning but with this one it’s on until you turn it off.

What’s So Special about Tineco Pure ONE S15 Essentials Smart Cordless Vacuum?

Stick vac or handheld

This vacuum is what you could call a convertible cordless stick vacuum. That means you can use it with its extension tube to clean floors, or remove the extension to create a handheld vacuum which is ideal for upholstery or your car. With a good sized dustbin (just under half a litre) there seems to be room for several cleanings, and the weight of the vacuum is about 7 pounds with the extension tube and motorized head on.

Zero Tangle mortised brush

What primarily sets Tineco’s vacuum apart from others is the so-called ZeroTangle Technology that comes in handy when vacuuming hair. While Tineco also makes a pet-specific vacuum (Pure ONE S15 Pet), this vacuum comes with the same tangle-free brush that uses V-shaped bristles and a dual comb that prevents hair from wrapping around the brush, therefore increasing the vacuum’s efficiency. I might be jumping ahead a little bit here, but I found this brush worked incredibly well at avoiding tangles. I ran the vacuum for probably about a week before I flipped the motorized brush head over to take a look. As you can see, there are no hairs whatsoever wrapped around the brush. This is a stark contrast for sure to most other motorized vacuum brush heads, which often include a cutter in the package so you can untangle hair that typically wraps around these rotating brushes. With this one, all the hair and tangly bits simply end up in the dust bin.

How well does Tineco Pure One S15 Essentials clean?

I used this vacuum for about two weeks in my home. I test out all my vacuums in the same way… I use them for regular daily cleaning and vacuuming of tracked in dirt and pet hair, and I also set up some dedicated spells and tests on both carpet and hardwood floors to see how well it works. I used this vacuum for about two weeks in my home. I test out all my vacuums in the same way… I use them for regular daily cleaning and vacuuming of tracked in dirt and pet hair, and I also set up some dedicated spills and tests on both carpet and hardwood floors to see how well it works. I’ll spill things like finer flower, rice or oatmeal as well as bigger cracker pieces on both carpet and hard floors to see how well the vacuum picks each up with the S 15 Essentials, it was easily able to handle almost every spill. On both hard and soft flooring. The one caveat was it wasn’t able to get larger cracker pieces up and into its bin quite as well; they seemed instead to just get trapped under the head. But that is what those other tools are for… This vacuum can be used almost completely flat to clean under furniture and other tight spaces. The motorized brush head also has a LED light that helps you see where you are cleaning.

Folds flat & lights up

This vacuum can be used almost completely flat to clean under furniture and other tight spaces. The motorized brush head also has a LED light that helps you see where you are cleaning.

iLoop Smart Sensor: I can finally see it working!

One of the cooler features of the Pure ONE S15 Essentials Smart Cordless Vacuum is the iLoop Smart Sensor, which automatically analyzes a surface to detect how much dirt is there. The vacuum can adjust the suction power based on the reading, and interpreting the sensor is as easy as it gets: a red light means a higher level of debris is being detected. In the past I have reviewed other Tineco vacuums that use this technology, but I have been quite disappointed with it. In my experience with this technology it seemed more random than purposeful, seemingly changing its light at well and not necessarily because I was using it to clean an extra dirty area. In fact, in some of my testing the red light never came on though I was rolling over deliberately messy spills. I’m happy to report that for the first time I’ve actually seen this technology working with this vacuum. In particular when I was cleaning higher traffic areas and areas that I could see were dustier or dirtier, I noticed the light changing to red and I could hear the suction power of the vacuum increasing. Contactless Dust Bin Another nice feature of this vacuum is the contactless dust bin. In this version, you need to hit the release buton on the base of the dustbin, then you can use a level to push any wound up dirty or hair free of the filter. Other dust bins, including the Pure One Air Pet can get debris stuck and tangled in them if you don’t empty them often, but the dust bin on the S15 Essentials vacuum is designed to scrape all of the contents out and into the trash itself. Overall, it saves you a mess and means you don’t need to get your hands dirty. I really appreciated this feature… which you often only see on higher end vacuums like Dyson.

Noise level

This vacuum is also made to be a bit quieter than some of the others on the market, measuring below or at 78 dB(A).

Adjustable suction & power

This vacuum has two cleaning modes; regular and Max mode, which ramps up the power and suction. I found the regular mode was often more than enough for most cleaning tasks in my house, and if I ever did need some additional power the max mode certainly helped.

Battery life

Getting the battery fully charged up takes about 5 ½ hours. This is a little on the long side, and when in auto mode the runtime should be approximately 40 minutes. When Max power is engaged the runtime will drop to just 10 minutes. While the 40 minutes should be more than enough for a bigger space or a few cleans, that shorter life in high power might be one of the bigger concerns about this vacuum; getting 10 minutes of run time from half a day of charging doesn’t sound like a particularly good trade-off. To overcome the continuing issue of short battery lives on cordless vacuums in general, you could buy a backup battery to extend the amount of time you can vacuum in one cleaning. But spending extra on swappable batteries just to be able to clean your house seems like a bit of a stretch. One other way to look at it is because the vacuum should live on its charging base, it should always be charged up anytime you need to use it, so short her battery life might become less of a concern.

PureCyclone Technology

Tineco’s Pure ONE S15 Essentials Smart Cordless Vacuum is able to separate air and dust through its so-called PureCyclone Technology. Vacuums that do not have a feature like this can get clogged easily and therefore reduce suction and extend cleaning times. On that note, the maximum suction power of this vacuum is 120W. Tineco’s Five-Stage Filtration  Tineco’s vacuum comes with a unique filtration method, which involves the following five “stages”:

• Main Cyclone – Large particles are separated out
• Mesh Filter – Dust and hair are filtered out
• Tineco PureCyclone (outlined above)
• Pre-Filter – Fine dust is blocked
• HEPA Filter – Microscopic (0.3 micron) dust particles are filtered out and fresh air is released

The magnetic filter is easy to clean and Tineco recommends doing so after every few uses.

How does Pure One Essentials S15 compare to Pure One Air Pet?

I had the opportunity to try both the Tineco Pure One Essentials S15 and the Pure One Air Pet. If you happen to be comparing the Essentials S-line to the Air line, there’s a handful of differences that might affect your decision. Here’s what I learned:

• The Air line is designed to be lighter than the Essentials S-Line
• Essentials S-line is made for larger spaces; Air models are made for smaller spaces
• Essentials S-line typically has a larger batter/longer runtime than Air models
• Essentials S-line’s dustbin is usually larger
• Essentials S-line features the iLoop sensor/dirt detector while Air doesn’t have it
• Suction power is the same on both models (16K pascals)
• Air models cost less

In my testing of both of these vacuums I can confirm the air pet vacuum I tried is substantially lighter than the S15 essentials. If you’re going to be carrying your stick vacuum up and downstairs a lot or moving around with it, you might prefer the lighter air model. For the most part I didn’t find the difference in battery life to be a huge issue, mainly because since I store my vacuums on their charging base, I always get started with a full battery. While the iLoop sensor is a novelty, it’s not an essential to your vacuuming. The slightly larger dust fan on the S15 Essentials line is also a bit more convenient, as is the point and shoot contactless dust bin. Which vacuum is right for you and your space will largely come down to your preferences and your budget.

Overall review: Tineco Pure One S15 Essentials

Pure One Essentials S15 is an extremely capable vacuum. It was able to tackle all of the cleaning tasks I needed in my home, and did extremely well at the vacuum tests I threw at it. While this model is a bit heavier than the air series, it was easy enough to use around my house. When used as a handheld vacuum, this additional weight is certainly more noticeable, but I find those handheld vacuuming tasks are usually short-lived so the weight shouldn’t become a problem. The larger dust bin is convenient and means less frequent emptying, and the point-and-shoot trigger for clearing it out means my hands never get dirty. I also found the vacuum is a good balance of power and quieter operation. What are the downsides? I suppose the biggest downside of this vacuum for some users would be its 7 pound weight, which might make you less inclined to want to lug it around. I think the bigger concern is that if you want to use this vacuum on full power it really only runs for about 10 minutes on a single charge. Of course as I mentioned earlier if you run it on regular power which worked for me for 95% of my daily cleaning tasks you do get 40 minutes out of the battery which in my opinion is quite reasonable. Those concerns aside, I think the Tineco Pure One S15 Essentials is a solid vacuum, and an effective cleaner and I can recommend it for you. The Tineco Pure ONE S15 Essentials Smart Cordless Vacuum retails on the company’s website or from Amazon for $399.99. **A note about Affiliate Links: TechGadgetsCanada & TechGadgetsInternational is supported by our readers. Occasionally I will include affiliate links in my reviews. I do this partly for convenience of the reader (since I’ll almost always include a link to the company website or similar anyway) in case you want to read more or purchase, but I also may get a small commission from the click, which helps me keep the blog running. If you choose to use this link I thank you greatly for supporting the blog. There’s no obligation or cost to you for using these links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.