Tineco FLOOR ONE STATION S9 Artist Review: Great Design—But Does It Deliver?

A striking design? No question about it. The name “Artist” alone makes it clear that Tineco doesn’t view the FLOOR ONE STATION S9 as just another run-of-the-mill wet/dry vacuum. A glossy housing, eye-catching display, and large docking station—its presentation is far more elaborate than that of many other devices in this class. But what really got exciting during the Tineco FLOOR ONE STATION S9 Artist test was what lies behind this presentation: How easy is the device to maneuver, how well does it handle sticky liquids, crumbs, fine particles, and pet hair, and how much work does the station actually take off your hands after mopping?

Technical specifications of the Tineco FLOOR ONE STATION S9 Artist

Model	Tineco FLOOR ONE STATION S9 Artist
Device Type	Cordless wet/dry vacuum cleaner with Smart Refresh Station for hard floors
Dimensions	266 x 1100 x 233 mm (unit), 12.85 cm high when laid flat
Weight	approx. 5.2 kg (unit, without station)
Suction power	up to 22,000 Pa
Power consumption	230 watts
Cleaning modes	Auto, Max, Suction, Quiet
Battery life	up to 90 minutes (Quiet mode) / up to 75 minutes (Auto mode, laid flat)
Fresh water tank (device)	0.85 liters
Dirty water tank (unit)	0.8 liters
Station water reservoir	5 liters, with automatic hot water refill (“Smart Refresh Station”)
Self-cleaning / drying	Hot water self-cleaning via the station, followed by FlashDry (110°C, approx. 5 min.) or SilentDry (≤45 dB(A))
Special features	iLoop Smart Sensor, SmoothDrive motor, 180° Lay-Flat design, DualBlock Anti-Tangle, triple edge cleaning with height-adjustable StreakFree squeegee, HydroBurst high-pressure cleaning, automatic solution dosing, 2A fast charging, LED spotlight on the brush head, 3D light display, Wi-Fi/app
Suitable for	Hard floors (tile, hardwood, laminate, vinyl) – not for carpet
MSRP	899 euros

Unboxing and contents of the Tineco FLOOR ONE STATION S9 Artist

First impression upon unboxing: quite a lot of packaging. Many parts are individually packed in small bags, plus there are plenty of protective films that you have to peel off first. This likely minimizes the risk of damage during shipping, but the whole process doesn’t feel particularly sustainable or quick.

The package includes:

• the main unit with brush roll
• the Smart Refresh Station with a 5-liter water tank
• a 500 ml bottle of cleaning solution
• a dry filter
• a replacement filter
• a second brush roller as a spare
• a cleaning tool for the roller

For a device in this price range, that’s a decent selection. The most striking difference from many other wet/dry vacuums, however, is the station itself: Instead of a flat docking station where you simply place the device to charge it, this one features a significantly larger unit with its own 5-liter tank that automatically supplies the device with hot water. A replacement roller and replacement filter are still included right out of the box—so if you notice after a few months that the first roller is starting to wear out, you don’t have to reorder immediately.

Design and Build Quality

At first glance, the colored light strip at the top of the Tineco FLOOR ONE STATION S9 Artist stands out in the test—a gradient from blue to pink/red that Tineco calls a “3D light display” and compares to the Aurora Borealis. In my case, it actually lights up when in use, and it’s more than just a status LED; it’s more of a continuous color gradient that gives the device a distinct visual identity.

Separate from that, there is a second, functional display further down on the handle: an LED touchscreen that shows Wi-Fi status and battery level in percent and offers the Auto, Max, Suction, and Quiet modes as selectable options directly on the screen. So you can switch modes right there, not just via the button on the body.

There is also an LED spotlight on the brush head that illuminates the floor in front of the device—useful when you’re sweeping under cabinets or into the dark corner behind the sofa and otherwise can’t see what’s actually there.

As for the material, I was worried that the glossy surface—Tineco calls it a “crystalline IMD layer”—would quickly look unsightly. Fingerprints do show up now and then, but nothing too bad that you’d have to constantly wipe away. Overall, the housing feels high-quality, not like cheap plastic.

Handling: Lighter than the numbers suggest

On paper, the S9 Artist isn’t exactly a lightweight at 5.2 kilos, and you can tell that when you pick it up—the device feels compact but definitely substantial in your hand. Once it’s on the floor, you hardly notice it at all. When I first started pushing it, I had certain expectations in mind, which were quickly dispelled: The device feels much more comfortable to maneuver than the number on paper would suggest. It’s not a sluggish block that you have to laboriously push through the apartment.

The reason for this is the SmoothDrive system: The wheels actively assist when moving forward and backward. You don’t feel like you’re pushing a heavy block in front of you—especially when moving forward and backward, you notice that the device supports itself.

I was a bit surprised by the upright assist. If you stand the S9 Artist upright for a moment, you can clearly feel that the device doesn’t just passively stay in place. It noticeably supports the movement and remains very stable when standing. At first, this feels a bit unusual because the mop vacuum has more of a mind of its own than you’d expect from a classic floor cleaner. After a few minutes, though, I found exactly that to be practical: You can stop briefly, move something out of the way, or change locations without the device feeling wobbly or cumbersome.

The S9 Artist also handles getting under furniture better than you’d expect given its design. When laid flat, the device stays low enough to fit under many cabinets or sofas; the LED spotlight helps you locate dust, hair, and crumbs without just relying on touch.

Test: How does the Tineco FLOOR ONE STATION S9 Artist perform in real-world use?

In my everyday test, I didn’t just push the Tineco FLOOR ONE STATION S9 Artist across a reasonably clear floor—I put it through a few typical kitchen mishaps: spilled cola mix, crispbread crumbs, dried-up mustard, herb mix, salt, and crumbled cornflakes.

With the cola mix, the sticky component was particularly interesting. The S9 picked up the liquid itself very well: after the first pass, most of it was already gone; after a second pass, the floor no longer felt greasy. It doesn’t dry completely right away, but only a slight dampness remains, which dries quickly. It’s precisely in situations like this that you realize why a wet-and-dry vacuum can be more practical than paper towels, rags, and a follow-up wipe-down.

The S9 Artist also performs impressively with dry crumbs. It picks up small crumbs right away, while larger pieces sometimes require a bit more precision. But the key point is: it doesn’t just push them in front of it, it actually sucks them in. After a pass, there’s no fine crumb dust left behind—the kind you often overlook when sweeping.

Dried mustard was the stickier part of the test. Such residues are more challenging for wet-vacuum cleaners than pure liquids because they must be loosened from the floor rather than simply picked up. The S9 Artist handled this as well, though it required a bit more follow-up work on the yellowish residue compared to cola mix or crumbs.

All in all, the Tineco FLOOR ONE STATION S9 Artist performed particularly well with mixed kitchen grime: liquids, crumbs, fine particles, and sticky residues rarely end up on the floor separately in everyday life. It handles this exact mixture very well.

Edge cleaning and streaking

Edge cleaning is one of the S9 Artist’s strong suits. Tineco employs a triple-edge cleaning system here: the roller not only gets close to baseboards, furniture, and fixtures at the front but also on the sides. Fine debris in particular, such as herb mixes or salt, which tend to get stuck right along an edge, was picked up well in the test.

However, the wet vacuum cleaner doesn’t work completely edge-free. Even the S9 Artist can’t get into true interior corners perfectly; depending on the angle, a small residue may still remain there. Along straight edges, though, it does a good job, especially where crumbs or fine particles lie directly against the furniture.

In addition, there is a movable squeegee on the front that lifts as the device moves forward and lowers again as it retracts. On the spec sheet, this is listed as the “StreakFree squeegee” with a reaction time of 0.2 seconds. What matters isn’t so much the number as the effect when retracting: the wiper presses more firmly against the floor, picks up water marks more effectively, and reduces visible streaks. After pressing the stop button, the device also automatically moves back a short distance to pick up any remaining water streaks.

Hair Pickup and Anti-Tangle in Everyday Use

When it comes to hair, the S9 Artist performed pleasantly unobtrusively in testing. Individual hairs, longer strands, and even fine dog undercoat were picked up without the roller becoming visibly clogged. This is an especially important point for wet-and-dry vacuums, because tangled hair quickly becomes a nuisance: Remove the brush, remove the hair, put everything back in.

Tineco relies on the DualBlock Anti-Tangle System for this. A comb-like scraper catches the hair directly on the roller, while a second scraper carries it away along with the dirty water. When using the mop vacuum, the main benefit is that you don’t have to reach for scissors right after mopping. In my case, no significant hair tangles formed around the roller.

Officially, the S9 Artist is still intended for hard floors. The fact that it also picked up dog undercoat from a rug in my case is therefore more of a practical side effect than a replacement for a proper vacuum cleaner or cordless vacuum with a carpet nozzle. For households with pets or long hair, the hair pickup is still a clear plus.

Self-cleaning test: The Tineco FLOOR ONE STATION S9 Artist features a hot-water circulation system instead of just rinsing the roller

After dealing with cola mix, crumbs, and herbs, the S9 Artist returns to the station. The exciting part here isn’t so much that self-cleaning starts at all—you’d expect that in this price range by now—but rather how Tineco has solved it. The Smart Refresh Station operates with its own 5-liter water reservoir, heats the water, and automatically refills the device’s fresh water tank. Only then does the cleaning cycle run through the device, hose, and brush roller.

You also don’t have to measure out the cleaning solution yourself every time. It is dispensed automatically, which is actually more convenient than those little cap-counting calculations required by simpler devices. However, the system doesn’t run entirely on its own: fresh water in the station, the dirty water tank on the machine, and solid residues are still things you have to take care of.

After cleaning with hot water comes drying, and here there are two modes to choose from: According to Tineco, FlashDry dries in about 5 minutes at 110°C, while SilentDry stays below 45 dB(A)—handy if you’re mopping in the evening and don’t want to wake up the whole house. To match this, the brush roller itself is more heat-resistant than a standard roller, which is necessary at 110°C.

Sounds like a lot of technology for “the roller gets dry”—and it is. The question is whether it actually makes a difference in the end.

After one cycle, the roller was still slightly damp despite the hot water and 110°C drying. Not wet, but not completely dry either. After a second drying cycle, it was significantly drier. That’s not a big effort, but it does put the very confident 5-minute claim into perspective a bit.

This doesn’t make the Tineco FLOOR ONE STATION S9 Artist maintenance-free—the test showed that. Solid debris remains inside the unit, and the tank, roller, and housing should also be checked regularly. The self-cleaning feature noticeably reduces the effort required after mopping, but it doesn’t make the S9 Artist a device you can simply ignore indefinitely.

The Tineco App

The S9 Artist can connect to the Tineco app via Wi-Fi. Among other things, this allows you to check the battery level, further customize the cleaning modes, and—handy if the voice prompts are annoying—adjust the voice and volume of the voice output.

In my opinion, the app isn’t essential. The controls on the device itself are perfectly sufficient for normal use, and especially when you’re doing a quick sweep, you don’t want to have to fiddle with your smartphone first. As a supplement for basic settings and voice prompts, it’s still useful, though, because you can fine-tune a few things there more precisely than directly on the display.

Volume and Voice Prompts

As for the volume, I never felt at any point that it became unpleasant. You can hear the device, of course—especially in Max mode and during self-cleaning, it’s quite noticeable. But for me, that was never the point where it became annoying.

More noticeable to me than the volume were the voice prompts. They’re handy because the device itself lets you know when it’s running low on fresh water or when the dirty water tank is full. However, anyone who generally finds talking devices annoying will probably want to turn them down anyway—and that’s exactly where the app comes in handy.

What you should know before buying

There are still a few practical points to keep in mind before buying. The fresh water tank is relatively compact for its volume, but it doesn’t necessarily fit comfortably under every small bathroom faucet. It’s much easier to fill at the kitchen sink or at a shower or tub faucet.

The station requires more planning. It’s not a small charging pad that you can just shove into a corner somewhere; instead, it needs a permanent spot near an outlet. Visually, too, the S9 Artist doesn’t simply disappear inconspicuously into a cabinet.

Furthermore, the S9 Artist does not replace a standard vacuum cleaner. It is designed for hard floors; sofas, upholstery, cars, carpets, or dry corners remain the domain of another device. However, for kitchen spills, wet marks, and mixed dirt, it saves you several steps.

After testing the Tineco FLOOR ONE STATION S9 Artist, the design matters less

With the S9 Artist, it’s not the design that stands out in the end, even though Tineco heavily emphasizes this very point. The housing looks sleek, the display is eye-catching, and the station also feels significantly higher quality than a simple charging base. But for me, something else was decisive in the test: The mop vacuum feels lighter to push than its weight suggests, gets close to straight edges, and has no major problems with typical kitchen grime.

The S9 Artist does a particularly strong job with mixed messes. Cola mix, crumbs, herbs, mustard, salt, and cornflakes weren’t unrealistic extreme tests, but rather fairly normal kitchen accidents. That’s exactly where the device shines, because it picks up liquids, fine particles, and sticky residue in a single pass without making a bigger mess.

The station is more than just a convenient extra. Hot-water cleaning, automatic fresh water supply, and drying noticeably reduce the effort required after mopping. The system isn’t perfect: the roller was still slightly damp after a FlashDry cycle in my case, emptying the dirty water tank is still a manual task, and you’ll still need a different device for upholstery, cars, or dry corners.

With an MSRP of 899 euros, the Tineco S9 Artist is clearly an expensive device. It makes the most sense in households with lots of hard floors, regular kitchen spills, pet hair, or little desire to do follow-up cleaning after mopping. If you only mop a few square meters occasionally, you don’t need a system like this. But if you frequently wet-clean and are looking for a convenient solution with a docking station, this is a device that impresses primarily with its handling, edge cleaning, and self-cleaning capabilities—not its price.