Tineco Pure ONE S11 Review

The Tineco Pure ONE S11 comes with four attachments, one of them being a pre-filter cleaning tool, which we found super useful. It's designed to clean the filter when it gets clogged. Over the years and with the hundreds of tests we have conducted, we've noticed filters can be sensitive after extended use. We appreciate that it comes with this useful attachment to help prevent filter clogs, providing a more sustainable outlook to this vacuum.

Carpet Performance

To test each vacuum's abilities on carpet, we lay down a variety of debris sizes on large sections of low and high pile carpets. Then, we attempted to collect as much debris as possible within 24 seconds. We repeated this process, averaging the results of each run for our report. I

We repeat each test 2-3 times to ensure that our averages reflect each vacuum's performance.

Low Pile

This vacuum has very intense suction that latched onto the carpet and took some muscle to push. Its 92% collection average ranked near the top of our charts, bested only by vacuums that cost significantly more.

I think the Pure ONE would be particularly good for people with low pile carpet in their homes and a lot of traffic because it feels like you could get a deep, consistent clean.

High Pile

Our testers were delighted by how well this reasonably-priced vacuum sucked up the heavier sand and rice, leading to a test-leading percentage of 57% pickup. Very impressive.

On high pile carpet, I noticed a tendency to push the lightweight Cheerios around, which is fairly common because the cereal sometimes floats on top of the shaggy carpet fibers, sticking up above the debris openings to the cleaner head.

Before Testing After Testing

Overall Carpet Cleaning Performance

As our chart shows, the Pure ONE S11 topped our carpet cleaning charts.

The main strength of this vacuum is its performance on carpet. It handled our tough multi-debris stress tests nearly as well as vacuums that cost twice as much. This machine is hard to beat for those who want outstanding carpet performance and aren't particularly concerned with hardwood or pet hair.

Hardwood Performance

Because so many households now have more vinyl or hardwood than carpet, we conduct a similar stress test on hardwood. Again, we measure 1.5 total cups of sand, rice, and Cheerios, spreading it over 9' x 3' test sections.

We set a time limit of just 24 seconds, then repeat the test 2-3 times to create an accurate average of the amount collected.

Cleaning Performance

In each hardwood test trial, this Pure ONE seemed to do better at the beginning than at the end of each time trial. “This little vacuum would do a pretty good job for the first two-thirds of our test area but then seem to get overwhelmed and slow down sucking up the heavier sand,” one tester noted.

Ultimately, it was able to achieve a below-average 83% collection rate. For reference, the best vacuums in this test easily collect more than 95%.

To get good, consistent results on hardwood, users will likely need to work slowly. In addition, remember that brush roll photo above in the carpet section that shows stiff bristles with large gaps in between? In our experience in our lab, traditional carpet-focused stiff brushrolls tend to do poorly on hardwood, while very soft brushrolls do better on hardwood.

Some, like Shark with its Stratos Cordless, include a cleaner head with two separate brushrolls or use a combo cleaner head that has fluffy material as well as stiffer fins, as it does in its Shark Detect Pro. Dyson takes a different approach by often including two separate cleaner heads with its more expensive vacuums, one with a fluffy brush roll for hard floors and another with an agitating brush roll for carpet. With so much suction power in the S11, we believe Tineco could become a serious contender in the cordless stick vacuum space if the company can produce a more hard-floor versatile cleaner head.

Crevice

For our crevice test, we drop sand in between slats of a bamboo mat, then try to suck up as much sand as possible in 4 passes. The vacuums with more suction power tend to excel in this test.

This model managed to suck up 83% of the sand, which was well above average — and another win for its relatively strong suction characteristics.

Edges

Additionally, we tested how well this vacuum performs when cleaning close to walls. We spread coffee grounds against baseboards and attempted to clean both head-on and parallel with the wall to see how much it could pick up. It performed well when pushing the device head-on to the wall, nearly gathering all the coffee. However, vacuuming parallel was much less effective, leaving plenty of grounds behind.

Before Testing After Testing

Performance on hardwood was a different story. Again, we used a combo of sand, rice, and Cheerios to test its abilities on a hardwood surface.

Overall Hardwood Cleaning Performance

While the S11 squeaked out above-average scores in our flat-floor and crevice tests, it struggled in our edge test, earning a below-average ranking.

No matter which direction I came at test piles, there wasn't enough clearance in the head to keep from pushing large debris around on hardwood. For about $100 more, the Shark Vertex Pro Lightweight outperforms on hardwood while also posting the same overall carpet performance rating, potentially making it a better buy if you have a lot of hard floors you also want to clean.

Pet Hair

For those who have a lot of pet hair in their home, the rigor of our pet hair test might make them smile. To set up for this test, we spread 4 grams of mixed pet hair over both test carpet types, then added 1 gram of hair extensions to simulate long human hair. Then we mashed it all down to make it stick to the carpet. By the time we were ready to test, our 13-square-foot carpet sections looked like a pack of wild dogs who took turns rolling around on it, followed by a marching band whose sole job was to stomp the hair into the carpet. It's a tough test.

Based on the strong performance on carpet, we were expecting higher effectiveness in our pet hair test.

This vacuum left a thin layer of hair across the carpet area on low pile carpet and struggled to pick up the deeply embedded hair. On high pile, the pet hair tended to clump and got stuck in the tines on the brush roll.

Still, to put this in perspective, this vacuum performed slightly above average with pet hair compared to all the vacuums we tested. In fact, every other vacuum that scored better in test hair performance than the Pure ONE also cost at least $100 more. The very best cordless vacuum we tested for pet hair was the Dyson Gen5detect, which costs a whopping $600 more.

Filtration & Suction

We test filtration and suction to determine possible flaws affecting buying decisions. For example, our tests reveal that some high-suction vacuums skimp on filtration. We show these two test results together to help people decide if the filtration and suction characteristics suit them.

As you can see by this chart, the Tineco ranks well above average in both of these metrics. As I measured the suction in our test, I was surprised at this affordable vacuum's power.

Filtration

To test filtration, we suck up flour inside a controlled clean room while using two Dylos air quality monitors to record and detect any spikes in ambient air quality. Because very fine particles can become more deeply embedded in your lungs and possibly affect health, we measure small particles as well as indoor dust.

Tineco says its iLoop Dust Sensor detects hidden dust, pollen, and dander and automatically adjusts suction power in real-time to ensure it flows to its 4-stage HEPA filtration system. In our test, this model did its job, only allowing a very small spike in particulates to enter the air, earning it an excellent filtration rating. For those who have people in their homes who are sensitive to allergens or pet dander, this vacuum's filtration capabilities are unlikely to make allergies worse.

Suction

The Pure ONE S11 exhibits strong suction performance in our test, generating a powerful 1,294 pascals at the cleaner head in our laboratory test. This is very good and particularly impressive for a budget-priced model.

However, we wished it had performed a little better in our hardwood test. Our thorough performance testing shows that suction power isn't everything and that head and roller designs can make a big difference depending on floor type.

Ease of Use

With the handheld weighing in at 3.7 pounds, this vacuum is easy to hold upright and use in its handheld mode with attachments.

In terms of storage, it includes a wall mount that you'll need to install, but it also stands on its own when leaned against a wall. This is different from the Tineco Pure ONE S15 Pet cordless we tested before, which had a charging base for its storage system that didn't require us to install a wall mount.

Maneuverability

This model sometimes stumbled when transitioning from smooth floors to taller mats or thick rugs.

I also found the head of the vacuum somewhat rigid. It tended to tilt instead of turning, making it a little tough to maneuver around obstacles, requiring greater user intent and a heavier hand to use effectively.

Maintenance

One feature we enjoyed was cleaning the pre-filters with an included attachment. This vacuum comes with two pre-filters for this reason, making this part of the process much easier.

However, maintaining the rest of the vacuum is a bit of a chore. A screwdriver is required to release the HEPA filter, which is slightly cumbersome and not common among stick vacuums. I would've preferred a tool-less process. Releasing the brush roll also requires a coin or something similar. Although it came out easily, a dedicated button here would be much preferred. It's a bit of a mixed bag here as I appreciated the pre-filter design, but the rest remains slightly annoying to manage and overshadows the results due to the cumbersome requirements of the rest of the process.

Uphostery & Attachments

We also tested the mini power brush attachment on upholstery to thoroughly assess this model's capabilities. We spread some coffee grounds on a pillow and an ironing board and attempted to remove them with the attachment mentioned above. It performed pretty well here, removing most coffee grounds from both surfaces. However, it left behind a few grounds, and the attachment brushed some coffee off the ironing board, which wasn't ideal. Nevertheless, it remains a fairly effective cleaner on these types of surfaces.

Battery

When we tested runtime, this cordless vacuum lasted just 28.5 minutes on its lowest setting and 10.75 minutes on high.

Those needing to clean a multi-level home at once will likely need to recharge somewhere along the way. That will require an additional 3.5 hours to juice back up.

Should You Buy the Tineco Pure ONE S11?

Given that most modern homes have at least a little hardwood flooring, we can't fully recommend this model. If you primarily have carpeted flooring, you'll likely appreciate its power, but its overall performance at its MSRP price range is slightly lower than we expect.

What Other Stick Vacuum Should You Consider?