The Tineco Go H2O repaired my relationship with wet/dry vacuums

I’m a busy mom of an even busier three-year-old, and I don’t like to spend hours sweeping, then vacuuming, then mopping, when I could be hanging out with my little one. Like most people, I want to streamline my cleaning routines where I can. Floors are my most dreaded chore: time-consuming and labour-intensive. So I jumped at the opportunity to try Tineco’s Go H2O Cordless Hard Floor Wet Cleaner for review.

The acclaimed cleaning solution boasts powerful suction, Enhanced Edge Cleaning technology, and Tineco’s classic dual tank system that keeps clean and dirty water separate. Tineco claims the Go H2O will cut your cleaning time in half, making your routine effortless. That’s a tall order, and before we get into whether the Go H20 lives up to its promises, I’ll share my complicated relationship with wet/dry Floor cleaners.

I tried a Tineco Floor One S5 Cordless Smart Wet/Dry Vacuum Cleaner several years ago when my daughter was just learning how to eat solid food. Like most babies, she only managed to get about 15 per cent of her food into her mouth, and the rest naturally ended up on the floor. My experience back then was just okay for a number of reasons. First, I was dealing with pretty large amounts of food and liquid. While the Floor One S5 did a reasonable job with our messes, I still often found myself surgically removing wet food from the brush roller chamber or the dirty water tank filter.

Additionally, with an increasingly mobile baby in tow, I didn’t always have time to deal with the dirty water immediately, which, when cleaning larger food messes, meant things got smelly quickly. Eventually, the device just wasn’t working for our family anymore, and we ultimately sold it to a friend. Our friend, however, who lives alone in a gorgeous condo with no grubby babies crawling around, absolutely loves the Tineco Floor One S5. He’s better able to take advantage of its many smart features, using it weekly to keep his tiled floors gleaming and free of dust and dirt.

Now, these are completely circumstantial issues, but helpful to keep in mind for anyone in a similar position (parenting an infant with a truly impressive penchant for destruction and terror). We’re a couple years out from the baby-led-weaning trenches now, and my toddler is a much more effective eater. While we’re still dealing with a lot of crumbs, spills, and the occasional potty accident, our floors are looking much better these days, thanks, in part, to the Tineco Go H2O.

We use it several times a week for general cleaning and mess management. This device does not have the myriad of smart features sported by the Floor One S5, and that’s actually a good thing for our family. We are constantly on the go, cleaning up quickly when we can, and don’t require the monitoring and reporting offered by a smarter vacuum.

The Go H2O does, however, have Auto Mode for standard cleaning, and Max Mode for more involved cleaning, and switching between the two is as easy as pushing a button. The LED display also features a Dirt Monitoring Bar, which functions like the ‘iLoop’ ring display of the Floor One S5, changing from blue to red according to the amount of dirt sensed. While it’s kind of cool to see, it’s not really a necessary feature if you’re the type of person who’s pretty aware of where the dirt tends to collect in your home. The digital display also has icons to notify you of the battery status, roller brush blockages and the status of both the clean and dirty water tanks.

Sultry automated voice prompts typically accompany the maintenance icons. Although Tineco describes it as “low noise,” it’s actually quite loud. The noise created when using the device is definitely manageable; I wouldn’t say it’s any louder than a standard vacuum cleaner. It would be nice to have the option to decrease the volume of the automated voice. The Floor One S5 did have a volume control feature both on the body of the vacuum and in the companion Tineco Life app. A simple mute button would have gone a long way with the Go H2O.

A distinct highlight of all of Tineco’s wet/dry cordless vacuums is the auto-cleaning feature. It is a little noisy and sometimes takes a while, but it does the heavy lifting of keeping the device clean. Once the auto-cleaning cycle is complete, I empty the dirty water tank, rinse and disinfect its parts, remove the roller brush to dry in the included accessory holder, rinse the brush roller cover, and wipe any debris off the brush roller chamber. That process takes less than five minutes, and as long as it’s done quickly after each clean, there is no issue with smell at all. I’ve found that if I do start to notice a smell on the brush or in the dirty water tank, a short soak in diluted Pine-Sol or just plain vinegar will usually take care of it.

Filling the clean water tank is also very easy, but it’s incredibly small. Starting with a full tank and using the device on Auto Mode, you can expect to refill the clean water tank at least once each time you use it, probably more than that if you’re using Max Mode or alternating between the two. Additionally, at just 20 minutes on Auto Mode, the battery life is shorter than Tineco’s other wet/dry vacuum models. This is usually more than enough to take care of my main floor, but to clean my basement and the 3 bedrooms and bathroom upstairs requires at least 2 battery cycles. It’s not really a problem for me because I break up the levels of our house to be cleaned on separate days, but if you’re an all-in-one-shot type of cleaner, that may present an issue.

When it comes to how well it actually cleans, the Go H2O does a really great job with most things. The only issue I’ve had so far is in areas with a higher dust concentration, such as underneath furniture or in secluded corners, like where our floor lamps are tucked away. When the dust is wet, it clumps together, and the device doesn’t always effectively pick up those clumps. I do have to go over some areas several times to see the results I want.

Additionally, while it does an excellent job with surface grime, it doesn’t reach into the grooves of my hardwood floor. An extra brush with gentle bristles would have been fabulous to really get in deep. Other than that, it has done a great job with hair, sand, mud, salt stains, and all of the other various ick on my floors. It doesn’t leave floors instantly dry, as claimed, but the dry time is still negligible, and the floors are always streak-free.

Now, edge cleaning is something I’m picky about because so much dust and dirt tends to collect around the perimeter of a room. The Enhanced Edge cleaning technology of the Go H2O left a little bit to be desired, frankly. The front of the vacuum leaves about a half-inch gap between the device and the wall, and while the side does get closer, it’s still not quite as flush as one would hope. A preliminary sweep would fix this, but that defeats the purpose of the device.

Overall, I like the Tineco Go H2O. It’s a solid tool for simplifying my cleaning routine, and does the basics really well. I’ll continue to use it, even with the few flaws it has, but I don’t think I would have spent $349.99 on it. For the average person, it’s not quite worth it, but with a few simple tweaks, it certainly could be.

The Tineco Go H2O is available for $349.99 at Canadian Tire and Walmart, and there’s a larger ‘XL’ model available at Best Buy for $399.99. Strangely, it wasn’t listed on Tineco’s website at the time of writing.