Not Another Viral Cleaning Gadget: This One Is Actually Worth the Hype

I always knew we were expecting overnight guests the moment my mom broke out her steam mop. Floors had to be sparkling, tile grout and all, prior to a friend’s arrival. As a kid, I used to think it was a bit much—wasn’t vacuuming enough?—but after recently trying out viral cleaning brand Tineco’s latest launch, I once again have been humbled by the fact that parents truly know best. 

For context, Tineco’s popularity recently skyrocketed on TikTok (390 million views!) and across the Internet for bundling multiple cleaning essentials into one streamlined wet-dry gadget. We’ve already been impressed by the S5 Extreme after it successfully handled everything from crushed potato chips to rogue squirts of ketchup in one go (it also didn’t balk at the debris caused by our associate editor’s three-dog household) by mopping and vacuuming at once. 

Tineco Floor One S7 Steam

Tineco Floor One S7 Steam, Amazon ($650)

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What sets the S7 Steam apart from the rest of Tineco’s lineup is two updated modes that promise to sanitize—sans cleaning solution—and suck simultaneously. With my mom’s cleaning habits embedded in the back of my brain, that added functionality piqued my curiosity enough to see if it was an upgrade worth making. 

The Impressive Power of Steam 

The unit ships as just two separate parts in one box, and all that’s required to put it together is simply clicking the handle into the body. After assembly, the whole thing lives on a separate charging base (which doubles as storage for extra dry filters and brush rollers); it needs to fully power up before the first use. Then to get started, all I had to do was press the main power button. This immediately catapults the machine into its auto mode. Depending on how dirty your floor is, it’ll apply the right amount of water and suction power needed to scrub things down and/or gobble up crumbs. And while Tineco describes it as lightweight, it does weigh in over 10 pounds. Something to note, even though the device feels like it propels itself when on. 

Things got really interesting when I pressed the steam button. Located above the main power button (the icon sort of looks like a cloud), this switch toggles between base and boost mode, with the selection reflected on the digital screen. In a singsong voice, the machine alerts it’ll need a minute to heat up, specifically to 284 degrees. Initially skeptical, I was shocked to eventually see billows of vapor emitting around the brush roller. I took to the spots in my apartment where I knew stubborn bits of dried gunk were hiding. And in a few passes, the grease and grime were gone. In the boost mood, it took even less to get old spots beneath the kitchen island to disappear. A pleasant surprise: The floor dried streak-free in no time. Old memories of being banished from recently steamed rooms until they dried flooded back to me. But I was able to return my runner to its place in front of the sink without having to worry about moisture getting trapped beneath it almost immediately. 

Things to Keep in Mind 

This machine definitely had me channeling my mom, who once she starts steaming can’t seem to stop (the smart iLoop display, which turns from red to blue as messes are detected and taken care of, was motivation enough). Consequently, my excited hand offered immediate insight into the unit’s capabilities. I, admittedly, was a bit overzealous my first time around and the S7 Steam quickly warned me to put it back on the charging dock before it died, much like my Dyson will do when it’s been overworked beyond its limit. The boost mode will drain the battery in a matter of minutes, and Tineco advises saving that for heavily polluted areas—rightly so. 

The charging dock itself needs roughly a 12-by-12-foot block of space and can plug into an outlet about 6 feet away. For larger homes with utility closets, I imagine this isn’t as much of an issue compared to apartment dwellers where, in a city like New York, multiple closets are a rarity. Still, the sleek white and black exterior isn’t an eyesore if it has to take up permanent residence in your living quarters. 

And while it will be a welcome addition to my monthly deep-cleaning routine (and, okay, before guests arrive), it definitely seems like a no-brainer for large households where spills are a regular occurrence. It’ll come in handy if you share a space with furry friends and/or kids, especially little ones who haven’t yet mastered keeping food on their plates. The S7 Steam will also suck up kitchen messes aplenty: everything from coffee and water to sauce splatter, even entire bowls of soggy cereal (embarrassingly, I was forced to suck up the latter one morning). The LED lights also helped illuminate dust I hadn’t even noticed.

A Little Bit of Upkeep

I’d be remiss to not mention another magical mode: self-cleaning. Once your chores are complete, activate it by pressing a separate button (this one in the shape of a water droplet on the actual handle). By the time I dropped it off and sent a few emails from my desk, Tineco’s new machine had already flushed out its inner system with fresh water and rinsed its brush roller. On my end, there’s a small amount of work still to be done afterward. I then dumped the murky water, cleared the dry filter of clumps of dust and dirt, and allowed everything to air-dry before taking it for another spin—except for the brush roller, that is; the S7 Steam dries that on its own.  

The Final Word

For households where wet messes aren’t a rare occurrence, whether by way of kids, pets, or geographic location, having the S7 Steam around will absolutely come in handy on a daily basis; it’s most impressive tackling food, mud, and more sloppy straits. Bonus: It’s also more affordably priced at $650 compared to the $799 S7 Pro. But fair warning, you might get hooked on steaming. (Mom, if you’re reading this, I now understand.)