This “Floor Washing Machine” Makes Tidying My Apartment an Actual Joy

Of all the household chores I do on a weekly-ish basis, mopping falls just below vacuuming on the list, which is ordered by the amount of time it takes and my personal levels of irritation. I was taught that the only way to really clean a kitchen floor is with rags, on your hands and knees, like Cinderella—a method that produces results, but is deeply unpleasant. Vacuuming is slightly less arduous, but still not very enjoyable; I’ll do it when the rug looks like it’s more cat hair than fabric, but otherwise, I’d rather do anything but. Part of my distaste is due to the tools I have—a Swiffer WetJet and an ancient, dusty Bissell, both of which do a passable job and take up a lot of space in the one closet in my entire apartment. The appeal of a dual-use product is obvious: one tool to do many things sounds like a lovely fantasy. So when Tineco reached out and offered their Floor One Switch S7 floor cleaner for review, I was ready.

What is a "floor washer" and why is it not just a vacuum?

Tineco’s product is billed as a "floor washer," because technically, it’s not just a vacuum, it’s also something close to a mop. Other companies like Bissell and Eureka make wet/dry vacuum cleaners with the ability to switch functions depending on the surface you’re cleaning, so that you can mop and vacuum the whole house without much trouble. Its multifunctional capabilities are reflected in its price. At $899, this thing isn’t cheap, but it’s comparable to others on the market.

While any of those products, like the Bissell Crosswave, would be a marked improvement on my ancient, heavy, corded vacuum cleaner, something about the multi-function in the same unit reminds me of those washer/dryer combo machines tucked into the kitchens and weird hall closets of some apartments—it seems counterintuitive that a machine that cleans with water can switch easily (and effectively) to clean without. With the floor washer, it’s technically two machines: Instead of pushing a button to switch between functions, you switch out the battery; the vacuum cleaner comes as a separate unit along with the various attachments you’re likely familiar with, including a brush for furniture and a crevice tool for getting into, uh, crevices. There’s also a replacement brush head for the floor cleaner and a bottle of their proprietary cleaning solution, as well as a charging stand.

Easy, breezy, beautiful

My kitchen floor is white and also takes up a third of my very long and narrow railroad apartment. A single drop of anything on said floor makes the entire house look and feel dirty. I’ll spare you the details of what my kitchen floor looked like before I tried this product, but let’s just say that the cleaner arrived just in the nick of time. I had my doubts about how efficiently this would work, but all were erased the minute I turned it on. According to Tineco’s website, the machine moves with their SmoothPower system, which is designed to do some of the more arduous work for you. It felt like an invisible helping hand was guiding the cleaner along my nasty floors, so that all I had to do was idly push it along, marveling in amazement as my floors became clean. Unlike previous mopping solutions, like my formerly beloved Swiffer WetJet, there were no streaks on the floor after I’d done a first pass, and the floor wasn’t sticky—my bare feet left no trace.

Vacuuming was just as easy, if not more enjoyable than mopping. My rug was clean of cat hair and other detritus with just one to two passes and once I broke out the various attachments, I cleaned parts of my home that I never have before—under the radiators, along the baseboards, and all of the trim around every window and door frame. I cleaned the sofa. I vacuumed my mattress. And most importantly, it took me about a half hour to thoroughly vacuum my entire apartment, which feels like a personal record.

When I had cleaned to my satisfaction, I emptied the dirty water bin into the toilet and set the vacuum back on its charging dock for its self-cleaning cycle—a loud but thorough process that takes a few minutes and little else than a push of a button. Unlike other vacuum cleaners in my past, I was able to empty the bin of dust into my trash can without getting any of it on me or my sparkling floor. And the vacuum and all of its parts fit neatly into the very small closet where the rest of my cleaning things live without any problem.

It feels a bit retrograde to extol the virtues of both housework and a vacuum cleaner, but I’m almost embarrassed to say that this thing has changed my life for the better. I will never love to clean, but now, the worst part about it won’t feel like a chore.

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