Tineco Carpet One Cruiser review: Painless carpet cleaning

Best Prices Today: Tineco Carpet One Cruiser Carpet Cleaner

The Carpet One Cruiser from Tineco is a high-end carpet cleaner that combines water and enzymatic cleaner to get the job done. The $699 cleaner is priced almost twice as much as other upright carpet cleaners, but offers several unique features.

The app seems like almost an afterthought and adds very little to the cleaning experience, but the machine’s intelligence ensures you don’t need the app (or manual) to immediately use the cleaner in your home.  

Note: We received an early review sample of the Carpet One Cruiser with some missing app features and documentation, as we’ll detail below. Tineco says those features plus a full manual will be added to the app once the cleaner hits store shelves.

The Tineco Carpet One Cruiser is one of the more expensive consumer carpet cleaners, but it offers incredible value for the price.

Design

Measuring approx. 41.5” tall and weighing just 28 pounds, the Carpet Once Cruiser is almost as tall and heavy as other consumer cleaners.

Its standout design details include a narrower width (just 11 inches), and the slender stick handle that makes it easy to use and store in small spaces. The Carpet One Cruiser has a clean white and black color scheme with purple details. 

While light for a cleaner of its type, Carpet One Cruiser comes in a large box loaded with accessories:

• Carpet cleaning machine with water bin
• Self-cleaning base
• Bag with 2-1 nozzle and accessory hose
• Cleaning tools
• Pre-treat formula spray
• Cleaning solution
• Instruction manual

Notable design choices that we appreciate include the buttons being placed almost exclusively on the top part of the handle, making them easily accessible. Only the propulsion adjustment is on the side of the machine near the bottom where it’s harder to reach, but this feature is only used at the beginning of a cleaning session. 

Having the clean and dirty water in one tank was another thoughtful touch. Users can pop it out quickly with a button push and do empty and refill in one trip. (The tank is also very compact and light.) 

The vacuum announces its activity as you use it, and the voice settings can be adjusted for volume and language preference within the app. It currently supports English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. 

Setup

While the user manual we received wasn’t specific to this early sample model, it did give us a quick overview of how to assemble the handle and download the Tineco app. (The manual included directions for disassembling the handle, which might be handy for long-term storage later on.) 

It also listed out all the accessories and parts except for the self-cleaning base. This was a big deal for us, because the base is a very large, clunky plastic tray that one would assume the cleaner sits in when not in use. There’s no indication that it’s for self-cleaning (and the manual we received didn’t mention the self-cleaning function at all.) 

In fact, we only knew that it had self-cleaning after updating the app and seeing it on the app screen as an option for this device. Since we had never seen a cleaning machine clean itself quite like this, we didn’t realize how important the large black tray was for self-cleaning. (The machine sits in the tray and uses it as a shallow bathing pool; without the tray in position, you’ll have a big water mess on your floor.) Thankfully, the machine does tell you to put it into the self-cleaning tray before it starts the process. We would have eventually figured it out. 

The Tineco app guided us through connecting the vacuum to the wireless network, where we could name the vacuum, check language settings, and see a quick overview of how each cleaning and drying cycle worked.

The app also includes a section for a product manual, which was blank at the time we tested the device. Other screens showed a cleaning history, which we were unable to get to work in time for this review. (Tineco says it will address both these issues before the cleaner officially launches.)

For the first cleaning, we followed the product manual directions to remove the tank, add two capfuls of the included cleaning solution, and fill the tank to the line with warm or cold (not hot) water. Snapping it back in place was a breeze, and we were on our way to cleaning the floors. We used the pre-treating spray a few minutes before cleaning.) 

(Note: Both of the included Tineco cleaning products had a nice but not overpowering smell. They were more “fresh” than fruity or floral and reminiscent of a new car smell. Tineco recommends not using other cleaners in their machines, and there was more than enough included in the packaging to do the entire home once.)

Cleaning the floor

While the Tineco seems complicated based on all the features it provides, using it was rather straightforward. After filling the tank with water and cleaner, we set it in the room we wanted to clean and pushed the power button. The cleaner greeted us, and the app indicated it was connected and ready to use.

We pushed the cleaning button, putting the machine into Auto mode. Then, the app directed us to choose our carpet type. We could select the material, design, and length, and the app told us to adjust the vacuum propulsion to be best to care for our flooring. (The adjustment is a manual slider button on the side of the machine.)

Then, we started pushing the machine, and immediately the propulsion kicked in. With just minor pressure from my wrist, the machine would move forward and then back with no additional work needed from me. It sprayed water as the machine was pushed forward and then sucked it up as it was pulled back. It also had a brush roller turning 3,000 times per minute to help break up dried-on dirt.

According to the Tineco website, the cleaner can adjust the amount of water and suction based on how dirty the floor is. I could see some of the larger, dark stains on our children’s carpet slowly fade away as we cleaned, and the overall appearance of the carpet became lighter and fluffier. Also, while the machine shouldn’t be used as a vacuum, it does have a separate dry debris container for any debris that get picked up in the process.

The top of the machine has a display that shows the current mode (“AUTO”, in this case), and there is a circle animation (called an iLoop ring) that shows up blue in places. According to the user guide, this means we had a very dirty floor in our kids’ room. (Red was an indicator of dirtier areas; blue was an indicator of clean.) 

However, because the circle appeared red and blue and changed to both red and blue as we moved, responding to it was impossible. We did try cleaning a very small area over and over for many minutes, but the circle didn’t turn blue enough to let me know it was done. There was no point where I felt the circle gave me enough information to guide my cleaning routine, and the guide didn’t offer any additional insights into how to use the iLoop visuals. Even the brand-new rug we purchased for this review showed up half red and half blue many minutes into the cleaning.

After using the cleaner for several minutes and being satisfied with how clean the floor looked, we stopped.

Drying the floor

Tineco’s user guide says that the cleaner blows air in both cleaning and drying modes, and in the drying mode, it also applies heat. We pushed the red button for drying (the machine acknowledged the mode change with an announcement) and pushed the machine back and forth across the floor, a red right glowing from under the machine while we worked.

Again, the iLoop lit up showing red and blue. This time, red indicated wet, and blue indicated dry. It was tricky to know exactly which spaces needed more drying, but with a 167-degree heater blowing air into the carpet, it didn’t take longer than a few minutes to get the carpet very dry to the touch.

(Note: I thought at some point the app would give feedback on cleaning status or drying status, but it doesn’t communicate in real time in that way. It does show the modes of cleaning/drying and explains how they work.)

Other modes and features

The Tinco includes three other cleaning modes:

• “Max” mode, which uses the maximum water no matter how dirty the floor is
• “Carpet care” mode, which uses a lower brush speed and less water to keep newer or more delicate carpets looking their best
• “Accessory” mode, which activates itself automatically once you insert the accessory hose into the front of the machine

The accessories were fairly standard for a carpet cleaner. We used the trigger to spray water and suck it back up in smaller spaces. It also worked well on upholstery. This is an ideal feature for cleaning sessions where you need more control. 

App control

The Tineco app was simple to download and update, and adding the machine didn’t take long at all. From there, we really only used the app to reference the cleaning modes screens for a reminder of how each mode worked. 

As we mentioned previously, the user manual was missing, and the cleaning history showed no data, even after several cleanings. Tineco promises these issues will be fixed, but the missing features aren’t deal-breakers for the machine, as most users won’t be overly concerned with how long it takes to clean or dry their floors. 

Maintenance

The maintenance requirements for the Tineco are virtually non-existent, making it one of the best machines for those who hate dealing with gunk, pet hair, and stinky water. While it does come with a cleaning tool to help remove longer hairs or debris, you won’t have to do more than run it through the self-cleaning process and then dump and rinse the tank after each cleaning. 

The cleaner will audibly tell you to clean the machine when it’s time, or you can initiate it when you’re finished. Place the machine in the cleaning base, press the maintenance button, and watch it go through the cycle. It uses a combination of suction and water to get all the gunk out of the brush roller, suction inlet, and brush roller cover. Heated air then dries the brush for next time and prevents mold from growing. 

Noise

As carpet cleaners go, the Tineco isn’t any louder than most consumer models when used to clean. When in self-cleaning mode, however, it can get very loud, especially during the last phase of cleaning, when suction and heat are used to clean the roller brush.

The voice prompts can also be loud, but if you set them any lower than the default, it can be hard to hear over the machine itself. 

Should you buy the Tineco Carpet One Cruiser?

Unsurprisingly, the Tineco is one of the more expensive consumer carpet cleaners on the market, but it offers incredible value for that price. Not only does it deliver on its promise of cleaning up some of the grungiest carpets with care and efficiency, but the self-propelled motor and self-cleaning functions also save wear and tear on your body.

Many of the things we hate about carpet cleaning (moving heavy machines around, cleaning gunky pet hair from the rollers, sopping wet carpets, finding a place to store a monster device) disappear with this well-designed product. It’s also impossible to forget to dump the dirty water; it verbally reminds you to finish the job.

Add in the nice-smelling Tineco products, and this machine answers the question I’m always asking myself, “Why don’t I clean my carpets more often?” With a solution for nearly every pain point, it could change the way we handle carpet care forever.

The app is lackluster and more of a distraction than a feature. We trust Tineco will work out the bugs to get all features working by product launch. However, even if they don’t, the machine alone would be worth the price. If you only buy one carpet product this year, do yourself a lot of favors and consider the Tineco Carpet Cruiser. There’s a high likelihood you’ll actually use it.

Best Prices Today: Tineco Carpet One Cruiser Carpet Cleaner