At a glance
Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Enhanced edge cleaning
- Self-cleaning mode
- Flat wastewater roller scraper for a cleaner, drier finish
Cons
- Proprietary cleaning solution
- Can’t vacuum or mop under low furniture
- You can’t dry vacuum alone
Our Verdict
If you’re looking for a way to vacuum and mop in one go, this is an easy-to-use solution that delivers great results for a reasonable price. Bear in mind that you’ll get most use from it if you have wide spaces of hard, sealed flooring: the iFloor 5 can’t get into corners, under furniture or into small spaces the way a hand mop can.
Best Prices Today: Tineco iFloor 5
$239
One of the selling points of Dyson’s new WashG1 is its ability to vacuum and mop at the same time. It means that, if you have a lot of sealed hard flooring, you can effectively cut your cleaning time in half. And it’s an excellent cleaner. But at £599.99 in the UK and $699.99 in the US, it’s far from the cheapest option.
Enter the Tineco iFloor 5: an easy-to-use cleaner with the same skillset. And with a regularly available price of £239.99/$239.99, it’s a much more budget-friendly buy. You can see our other recommendations in our round-up of the best wet and dry vacuums we’ve tested.
A cordless upright that both vacuums and mops, the Tineco iFloor 5 promises a perfect, sharp-edged finish that will clean up both wet and dry mess, and easily tackle sticky debris on your sealed hard floors, be they hardwood, tile, marble or laminate.
But is it the time-saver it promises to be? We find out.
Design and Build
- Cordless
- 500ml cleaning solution included
- Good size of water tanks
In the box, you get the black and white appliance, the slot-in handle, a 500ml bottle of Tineco cleaning solution, the power adapter, the standing base, a tubular cleaning brush, a spare brush roller and a spare dry filter.
The appliance body comes with a brush roller and cover already installed. The brush roller head is substantial at 27cm wide, 22cm deep and 6.5cm high (10.6 x 8.7 x 2.5in).
Above this, on the main body of the floor washer, there’s a 0.7-litre dirty tank at the front and the 0.8-litre clean water tank at the back; both tanks slot and clip into place with a pull-down release button.
At the top of the body is a circular LED display. It features six light-up indicator icons to show if the self-cleaning mode is on, the brush roller is tangled, the dirty water tank is full, or the clean tank is empty. There’s also a three-bar battery and charging indicator, and the maximum power mode. It’s easy to see at a glance exactly what’s going on with the cleaner.
If the fact that there’s a specific indicator for brush roll tangles seems ominous, don’t worry: during testing, we found that hair made its way into the dirty water tank and didn’t need to be cut away from the roller.
The slot-in handle hosts the power, self-cleaning and mode buttons.
The square standing base is roughly 31cm x 31cm (12 x 12in) and has two slot-in holders at either side. Once you’ve assembled the iFloor 5, it stands in the base for storage, charging and to run the self-cleaning cycle.
Altogether, it has a height of 112cm/44in, so this is very much an appliance that needs a spot in a utility room or a full length cupboard or cabinet.
Performance and Features
- Strong forward momentum
- Good suction
- Excellent flour test results
Setting up the iFloor 5 is simple: unpack the appliance and slot the handle into the base until it clicks into place. Fill the clean water tank with cold water, along with a capful of the cleaning solution. Then plug in the iFloor 5 to charge and turn on the appliance. Unlike some floor washers, the power does not plug into the base – the socket is just below the handle.
It’s all very straightforward. Once the appliance is charged, you simply turn it on and tilt back the handle to start cleaning.
There are two cleaning modes: eco and maximum. The eco mode is for light wet and dry messes and everyday cleaning and you should get 30+ minutes of cleaning on that mode from a full battery.
The max mode is for tough stains. You should get about 23 minutes on max mode from a full battery. Charging the iFloor 5 fully from flat should take around four to five hours.
We should mention that the cleaning solution is proprietary. Tineco states that you can’t use another cleaning fluid in the machine. You can buy the solution form Tineco UK (£24.99 for 1L) and from Tineco US ($39.99 for 33.8fl oz).
Also, be aware that you can’t turn off the mopping function and just vacuum with the iFloor 5; both functions run together.
We started with a general test on a sealed hardwood floor. One thing we were very impressed with was the forward momentum of the iFloor 5 – it almost speeds away from you, which makes using the floor washer easy because you don’t need to push forward.
In any case, the iFloor 5 is a fairly lightweight machine, weighing in at 5.05kg/11lbs. That weight, combined with the excellent momentum, makes using the floor washer a good choice for anyone who can’t take a lot of weight on their forearm and wrist, which can be an issue with some cordless floor washers.
The iFloor 5 perfectly picked up all traces of scattered flour, without even needing to resort to the max setting
It’s also easy to manoeuvre and won’t shut off when the handle is in a vertical position. However, you’ll struggle to clean under low furniture: it can’t get flat enough on the floor.
We covered a lot of floor space in our first session: roughly 62m2 in total, and we only used one bar of power with no need to empty or refill the water tanks. We found the suction to be excellent, and the cleaning solution scent to be subtle.
Some dried-on debris did require switching up to the max mode, but changing speed is easy as the mode button falls within easy reach of your thumb while cleaning.
Tineco claims that its flat edge scraper within the roller head leaves a better finish than those floor washers with a jagged scraper, as it clears away debris and squeezes out dirty water consistently and in a uniform manner across the roller. We found the finish to be excellent after using the iFloor 5.
There was no difference in finish on different floor surfaces either. Our second and third tests were on laminate, tile and vinyl, and we found the finish to be good on all three.
Due to the dual tank system, the floor washer is always cleaning with fresh water and solution, the dirty water tank is fully sealed, so there is no risk of leakage, and the enhanced edge cleaning allows for precision along skirting boards up to 4mm.
Our final test was the flour test on a hardwood floor. We found that the iFloor 5 perfectly picked up all traces of scattered flour, without even needing to resort to the max setting, leaving sharp vacuum lines in the piles.
One thing to mention is that, obviously, you can only clean a patch of floor wider than the roller brush head, so if you have a home with a lot of narrower spaces, you’ll need to clean them by hand.
This floor washer is excellent for damp dusting or regular cleaning. Now and again, you may feel you need hot water and soap, but the iFloor 5 will keep day-to-day mess under control. Still, as it doesn’t use hot water or bleach, it can’t sterilise floors.
The iFloor 5 is easy to empty and refill.
Once you’ve finished cleaning the floor, you’ll need to clean the iFloor 5. Luckily, it has a hands-free self-cleaning programme that you initiate by pressing the self-cleaning button on the handle while the washer is in the stand and plugged into the charger.
The programme simply feeds through clean water and solution onto the roller head while it spins, and then sucks the wastewater into the dirty water tank.
We found that you really need to run this programme every time you finish using the floor washer. Otherwise, you could end up with a stale roller. Tineco also supplies you with a tubular cleaning brush to clean out the dirty water tank, the brush chamber and to help remove dirt and mud from the roller.
Price and Availability
The iFloor 5 is one of the most budget friendly floor washers in the Tineco wet and dry vacuum range, with a launch price of £299.99/$299.99. However, it’s currently available from Tineco UK and Tineco US for £239.99/$239.99, making it one of the best-priced wet vacuums we’ve tested. Amazon in the US is matching this discount but, at the time of writing, it’s still £299 on Amazon UK.
You can see more options in our round-up of the best wet and dry vacuums we’ve tested. The guide features pros and cons and quick summaries of each product, and links to full reviews and the best prices available.
Should you buy the iFloor 5?
The iFloor 5 is easy to use and delivers great day-to-day cleaning results – as long as you have the floor space to make the most of it. We’d definitely say that it’s a good buy.
If you tend to vacuum and mop your hard flooring separately, it will definitely save you time. But it can’t sterilise floors and, as it can’t get flat under furniture, or clean in smaller spaces, it won’t be right for every home.
