Because I have arthritis, I need a vacuum that’s lighter than my 30-year-old Electrolux canister. Because I am careful not to fall, I need a cordless vacuum to get rid of the vacuum tripping hazards.
Two of Tineco’s “S12” models are superior cleaners that easily beat Dyson and other competitors. Using an S12 is good for my arthritis because this vacuum cleaner is lightweight and easy to maneuver. The S12 is good for cleaning the stairs because it gets rid of the bulky canister, the cord, and the hose that always wants to trip me up.
Want to Go Straight to the Best Vacs for Seniors?
Some of the models and features mentioned below have changed, but the important info is still accurate.
The Tineco S12 Pure One is an awesome cordless vacuum.
The upgrade is the S12 Pure One Plus. This model adds HEPA filtration and the motorized fiber floor brush.
Get the Right S12 Cordless Vacuum for Your Home
Tineco makes four models with “S12” in the name, but only two have the direct drive head. These are the superior vacuum cleaners.
- For superior carpet cleaning, get the S12.
- For superior carpet and floor cleaning, get the S12 Plus.
Both Tineco S12 and S12 Plus are two of the very few cordless vacuums out there with motorized vacuum heads.
The S12 Plus includes the soft roller brush for hardwood, tile, or resilient flooring. It’s a superior design for flat surfaces.
Both are amazing at cleaning carpets and much safer than a canister for cleaning stairs.
- the Pure ONE S12 is best for carpets and carpeted stairs
- the Pure ONE S12 Plus is best for floors, carpets, and stairs with or without carpeting.
The S12 Plus is the same as the S12, but the Plus comes with HEPA filtration and a soft roller head that’s superior for cleaning hard surfaces such as hardwood, tile, and resilient flooring.
The S12 Plus is the Best Cordless Vacuum for Hard Surfaces
For superior carpet cleaning, get the S12. For superior carpet and floor cleaning, get the S12 Plus.
The S12 One comes with everything you need to clean the carpet. You can use it to clean hardwood and tile, too. It does a very good job and might be perfectly fine as is.
If you have allergies or the hardwood is delicate, consider getting the S12 One Plus with the motorized soft roller head designed to clean flat surfaces such as hardwood floors.
The S12 is the Best Cordless Vacuum for Carpet
I’m down to one dog and one cat, but when I bought my S12 Pure One I had two dogs and two cats.
All but one cat shed an above-average amount of fur. I love the S12 Pure One for cleaning the carpet. You can see how clean it is. After vacuuming, the carpet nap stands up as it does with a new carpet.
Why the S12 Series is Great for Seniors
When it comes to vacuum cleaners, there is arguably nothing more important than how effective the cleaner is at pulling up dirt from the floor and carpet.
Those of us who are older need a vacuum cleaner that is lightweight and easy to manage.
I can’t afford to break a hip when I fall over my Electrolux canister while cleaning the stairs.
The S12 is lightweight. It converts to a handheld, and it beats the pants off the Dyson vacuum cleaners.
That’s why I bought the Tineco S12 ONE Pure vacuum cleaner, and I just love this vacuum cleaner.
- The S12 sucks dog hair out of the carpet. It cleans around corners with just a flick of my wrist.
- The S12 makes it easy to clean the stairs without worrying about tripping over a wire, a hose, or a canister.
- The S12 is lightweight. It converts to a handheld, and it beats the pants off the Dyson vacuum cleaners.
Time to Put Away the Canister
Unlike my Electrolux canister, the S12 is wireless, lightweight, and easy to carry.
So I put my Electrolux wired canister in the closet. I leave it right there, in the closet, when I use it to clean the S12’s dirt bin.
I’ve gotten rid of the weight, the cord, and long hose, and the bulky canister.
I stay safe, and everything gets cleaned. It’s worth it to me to have a safer vacuum cleaner.
How to Buy the S12 or S12 Plus
The S12 is Amazing on the Stairs
Even when I was young, I disliked carrying the heavy canister vacuum up the stairs. I always felt like the hose or wire was one inch away from tripping me up. I pictured the canister landing on me after I fell to my stupid, vacuum cleaner-related death.
While there are plenty of wireless vacuums out there, very few are good at picking up the dirt. Tineco is massively ahead of its competitors, and way better than any Dyson I’ve ever used.
As cordless vacuum cleaners get better and better, we finally have a few that are worth buying. Without a doubt, the Tineco Pure One S12 is hands down the best vacuum for cleaning the stairs.
- It’s cordless, so there’s no wire to trip you up
- It’s hoseless, so there’s no hose to wrap around your ankles
- It’s lightweight, so it’s ridiculously easy to carry around
I decided a lightweight, upright, cordless vacuum would work best, especially for the stairs. Upright wireless has no wires or bulky pieces to trip me up.
While there are plenty of wireless vacuums out there, very few are good at picking up the dirt. Tineco is massively ahead of its competitors, and way better than any Dyson I’ve ever used.
The best battery-powered upright vacuum for carpeted stairs and floors is the Tineco Pure ONE S12.
The Pure ONE S12 Plus has 100 minutes of battery runtime and a direct drive head that really knows how to suck up the dirt.
Some competitors are worthwhile, but none are as good as Tineco. Either they didn’t pick up as much dirt, the batteries didn’t last as long, or the quality just wasn’t as obvious
The Tineco S12 and S12 Plus have it all. The quality is amazing. You can feel the study of engineering when you hold the pieces in your hands. You can tell this vacuum will last.
Powerful Direct Drive Motor Head
The S12 and S12 Plus are the Tineco models with a direct drive head.
Most battery vacuums have a motor in the handle, but not the head. That’s why they’re not as good as these two.
The direct drive powers the suction at the floor level where the dirt lives.
1 Hour 40 Minutes Battery Run Time
You get two batteries with these models. They each give you 50 minutes of runtime. If you can vacuum for more than 100 minutes, amybe you can also use an older, heavier vacuum. I’m fine with 1 hour 40 minutes of cleaning time.
The Quality Feel
I vacuum the stairs in a few minutes with NO canister and NO wire to trip me up. I LOVE this.
The S12 and S12 Plus have bright headlights. I often do not bother turning on the closet light, and I see the floor just fine.
The engineering is crazy good. The head swivels with just a nudge so you can go around corners without moving from where you are standing!
These two models do come with a motorized stair head, but I ended up not using it. Instead, I attach the floor head directly to the handle. I vacuum the stairs in a few minutes with NO canister and NO wire to trip me up. I LOVE this.
I do not use the Tineco for my hardwood floors very often as I have a robot on the first floor. If I did use it for wood and tile, I would get the motorized soft floor brush head. This head comes standard in the Pure ONE S12 Plus model, or you can get it as an extra with the Pure ONE S12.
How to Buy the S12 or S12 Plus
This is the Robot Vacuum I Bought, and I Love It
Easily my favorite robot vacuum is the Roborock S5 with the built-in mop and amazing carpet results. I have been using the S5 for over six months. I am still thrilled with its cleaning ability and navigation sense. All of the cleaning is automatic. It starts, cleans, and re-docks all on its own. You need only empty the bin and keep the machine clean.
Clean and Mop Hard Floors
The S5 mop is like a wet cloth that moistness and wipes dirt as the machine passes over a dirty spot. This mop helps you keep the floor clean. You do not use it for seriously messy floors. Having said that, I sometimes program it to go over my messy kitchen areas three times in a row. And that works! Therefore, it is possible to use it for really messy kitchen floors.
That is getting away from the purpose of the mop. Where the S5 mop excels is in wiping down the floor after it has removed the crud and dust. This is a genius move because no matter how good the vacuum is (and this vacuum is good), it can still leave behind micron size dust. By wetting down the area after sucking up the visible particles, the mop really cleans the floor as it vacuums it.
I. Love. This. My allergies are much better since using the S5 dust and mop together on both the hardwood and the tile floors.
Clean Carpet
The S5 has a powerful motor that cleans dog hair and sand out of our carpets. When I’m not using the Tineco S12 on the carpets, I bring the Roborock S5 upstairs to do the job.
Between the Tineco upright cordless and the Roborock S5 robot, my carpets have not been this clean since I had them installed.
Invisible Walls
When you get the mop, you pair it with an app on your phone. You set the “map” feature on so the S5 can create a blueprint of your cleanable areas. Do this one or two times and you now have a map in your vacuum phone app.
Once you have the map, you can block off areas. You can create invisible walls so that the vacuum skips certain areas. I programmed my S5 to skip the area around the dog’s food and water bowls.
Remote Control
After my cooking makes a mess of the kitchen floor, I retire to the living room o watch TV. I take my phone with me.
Once I’m settled, I open the S5 zone cleaning function. It shows me the map and gives me a little box to lie over any area the vacuum can clean. I pull the overlay to position it over my messy kitchen floor. When I click “Clean,” the robot wakes up, travels to the kitchen, and cleans just that zoned area. If I made a good mess, I tell it to zone clean that one spot three times.
Hands-Free Operation
The S5 sits in its dock to recharge. At the time you’ve programmed, it goes off and does its cleaning job. When it is done, it travels back to the dock to recharge. You don’t have to do anything at all for this sequence to run every day, as often as you program it to.
Maintenance
My dogs shed and the wood from the fireplace creates crud and dust in the living room. I clean my vacuum once every day or two.
To clean this vacuum, open and empty the dustbin. The vacuum comes with a brush-hook tool to help you remove crud from the filter. Ultimately, you want to wash the filter in soap and water and let it get really dry. While it is drying, use the second filter for cleaning. I wash the filter every couple of months.
After you use the vacuum as a mop, pull the cloth wiper off, and wash with soap and warm water. You can use the rinsed wipe right away because it’s OK if it’s still wet.
The water dispenser fits magically under the machine. It almost feels like a magnet is pulling it into place. Fill the dispenser with water, and attach the wipe to the water dispenser. Place the dispenser back under the machine. Then press the “plug” icon button to send the Robot home to recharge.
You Need to Know
The Roborock S5 is incredibly well-designed, but there is a flaw you need to know about. Once you know the problem, it’s easy to compensate.
The recharge station is a box that sits on the floor near an electrical outlet. The S5 comes with a tray for the robot to sit on. The vacuum’s wet mop can now sit on the tray instead of the floor.
When you attach the tray to the recharge brick, you don’t get the satisfying clicking experience that tells you everything is going to stay put.
When the vacuum leaves the recharging unit, it often tries to take the try with it. The tray will pull away from the recharger brick. Sometimes the robot will pull the tray and the recharge unit away from the wall.
The fix is very simple. Use heavy-duty tape to attach the tray to the recharge unit. Tape the underside of the tray to the underside of the recharging unit.
Now use a Command Strip or some kind of household Velcro to attach the brick to the wall. The combination of the tape and Velcro keeps things exactly where they belong. The S5 docks and leaves the docks exactly as you would expect.
Why the S5 is Excellent for Seniors
It’s much easier to clean the house with a robot vacuum than a human-powered push vacuum. Don’t get me wrong, I’m really happy with my Tineco S12 wireless upright vacuum.
The advantages of the S5 robot are:
- it cleans on a programmed schedule
- it docks itself
- your only job is emptying the filter and washing the mop pad
- you can program it to avoid dog dishes or anything else you don’t want vacuumed
- it’s great for edge cleaning
- it thoroughly sucks debris out of the carpets
How to Buy the Roborock S5 Vacuum
