Tineco Pure One X Pet vacuum review: a lightweight cordless for pet lovers
Tineco Pure One X Pet: two-minute review
As the name suggests, the Tineco Pure One X Pet is aimed at those with furry four-legged friends. It’s not the whizziest model to emerge from this Chinese cordless vacuum manufacturer, but if you do happen to have a problem with molting hounds (or humans), it’s worth putting the Pure One X Pet on your hit list.
There is also a Pure One X, which is identical to the Pet version, except it lacks the anti-tangle brusher on the main floorhead. The Pure One X Pet is the least expensive in Tineco's Pure One cordless line-up and also has the smallest dust bin. You'll find this a bit annoying if, like me, you have two excessively hairy spaniels, as well as two excessively hairy daughters (hairy heads, I hasten to clarify). It also lacks a detachable battery so don’t think you can buy an extra one to double that 45 minute run time. No dice.
Given that it’s also not that exciting to look at, I didn’t expect to like the Pure One X Pet as much as I did. For two weeks, I used it exclusively to keep our four-bedroom family home ship-shape, and we even took the handheld version away camping for the weekend – such dedication to the cause!
Overall, I found the Pure One X Pet easy to maneuver, comfortable to hold, and a cinch to empty and clean the various components. It did a really admirable job on all our various flooring types, including our dreaded kitchen rug, which is a velvety number with the dog hair-trapping powers of Velcro. Useful features include a trigger lock that allows you to hold it without having to keep the trigger in manually, a special filter-cleaning attachment that makes filter cleaning a far less messy affair, and dust sensors that indicate dirt levels as you clean.
It may not be one of the best vacuum cleaners or the best cordless vacuum cleaners I have ever tested, hence not earning a five-star rating, but the Tineco Pure One X Pet is far from the worst. I’m not sure I’d want it as the sole vacuum in my home, unless my home was half the size, but it would be brilliant for anyone needing a lightweight little vac to quickly zap up the dog hair dust-bunnies, or blitz upholstery after the cat has been grooming on the sofa.
I’d be quite tempted to buy one to store upstairs, to save lugging a vacuum up and down, and I am certain it’s lightweight enough for anyone with poor strength or mobility issues (and a cat or two) to manage, without breaking a sweat.
Tineco Pure One X Pet review: price and availability
List price: from £229 / 249.99
Not currently available in Australia
In the UK, you can buy the Pure One X Pet for £299 at Pets at Home and Mobile Lab, which makes it a low-mid budget vacuum that won’t put too much strain on your wallet. It's also available at Robert Dyas, but at time of writing the exact same model cost £329.99, so I’d wouldn't recommend shopping there unless that changes. The only one I found was a fiver off for signing up for the newsletter. In the US, you can pick one up at Lowes for $249.99.
The non-pet version in the X range, called Pure One X, is no longer available in the UK or anywhere else, so the closest model you’ll get from Tineco is the Pure One S11, which is a similar price but you’ll lose five minutes running time and it is a little heavier.
The Pure One X Pet comes with all the extra heads and nozzles you’ll need, which is handy because I couldn’t find any extra accessories or spare batteries available on Tineco’s site. The Pure One X Pet is not currently available in Australia.
Value for money score: 4 out of 5
Tineco Pure One X Pet review: specs
Pure One X Pet review: design
Exceptionally lightweight, if a little cheap-feeling as a result
On-off via a lockable trigger on handle
Straightforward but mostly effective design
While the overall design of the Tineco Pure One X Pet is nothing to write home about, it’s not offensive either. I think I’d choose to store it in the utility room or inside a cupboard but it’s simple white and black livery isn’t an eyesore and wouldn’t blight your décor if you had to leave it in plain sight.
Obviously, I am not going to drill holes in my walls for every vacuum I review, but the Tineco Pure One X Pet comes with a wall-mounted bracket that holds accessories neatly in place and it easily clips into for charging. It doesn’t stand up unsupported, so if you need to put it down during cleaning (to pick up a sock or whatever), you’ll need to lay it flat on the floor or try to prop it against the wall. It’s top-heavy though, so the floor was my preferred option.
Putting the Tineco Pure One X Pet together was extremely easy. There’s a quick-start guide on the box but I didn’t need to reference it. Until I got to connecting it to the Tineco App, which proved rather painful (more on that in the App section of the review).
Moving on, the vacuum head has very few bells and whistles – none of the Space Age illuminated LED display of the lovely (expensive) Pure One S15 Pro that I tested recently year – just one single button on the top, which says Auto/Max. Turning it on is a trigger action on the handle, and, brilliantly, there’s also a trigger-lock that keeps the trigger compressed for you, which is much more comfortable grip-wise when vacuuming for longer periods.
Accessing the bin for emptying is similarly low-thrills but it works well and everything comes out without the need to poke around with a stick. There are also a couple of filters which come out easily, too. Aware that any vacuum is only as good as the cleanliness of the filter inside of it, I was quite excited by the pre-filter cleaning attachment that plugs into the vacuum allowing it to be suctioned clean, rather than having to manually wash it. I did notice the dust being cleaned out then lodges into the filter that’s inside the vacuum, leading to a perpetual circulation of dust but if you switch them about a few times, you eventually end up with two filters that look fairly clean.
Moving down the vacuum tubes, which connect and come apart easily and form a decent length for my 5’10” build (the entire unit measures L110 x W28 x D26 cm), we come to the main power brush. A.k.a the Zero Tangle Brush, which as the name suggests, manages to evade getting clogged by hairs, and making it a promising choice for pet owners – and the reason it’s a popular buy at Pets at Home.
There is also a mini brush for upholstery and car cleaning, as well as a couple of nozzle attachments, one of which can be used with or without a brush. Again, they are nicely designed and shaped, and clip on and off without sweat or tears.
One of the main points I noticed about the overall design of the Tineco Pure One X Pet is its lightness. Admittedly this does contribute to a slight cheap feeling, it’s certainly not as robustly built as a Dyson or Miele for example, but it’s lightness would be a major boon for anyone with limited strength or mobility. I suffer with RSI in my right wrist, which can sometimes be excruciating, so I definitely appreciated it’s 1.3kg weight, which is lighter than the (full) water bottle that sits on my desk.
The other thing I noticed was how its static plastic exterior was a magnet to my spaniel’s fur, which meant the floorhead and main pipe had to be wiped down with a damp cloth to remove them. Seems a little ironic that your vacuum cleaner could do with a vacuum!
Design score: 3 out of 5
Tineco Pure One X Pet review: Performance
Very light, nimble and comfortable to hold
Decent suction on hard and soft floors, but not the most powerful I've tried
A breeze to clean
On the whole this cordless vacuum has been a pleasure to use. I know I’ve mentioned it already, but the lightweight feel of it means you can vacuum for the full 45 minutes (and it does that easily in Auto mode) without any arm or wrist fatigue. It also makes it easy to carry upstairs, vacuuming as I go of course, and to lift onto our mattresses, sofa etc without bothering to switch out the floor head for the upholstery brush.
I did test the upholstery brush on our sofas and when vacuuming my car interior. We also took the Tineco Pure One X Pet camping (much to the amusement of our fellow campers) and it was brilliant for sucking up all the sand and grass that had accumulated in the tent before packing it away.
One of the features I found really helpful was the LED indicator ring around the Auto/Max button that, in Auto Mode, changes from blue to red when dust is detected and then back to blue when you’ve sorted the situation. I found it reassuring to know that the dust was all gone, especially on carpets, which often host dirt you can’t really see. The white lights in the floorhead were also very useful for guiding the way/highlighting dirt when cleaning under furniture and skirting boards.
The suction power isn’t as forceful as other cordless models I have tested (for serious power I can recommend the Henry Quick) and I didn’t once get that satisfying ‘can barely push the floorhead along’ when I hit a rug that usually indicates serious suction. With other cordless models I always downgrade the power when I get to our kitchen rug (which is a flat, velvety number by Ruggable) otherwise the suction is so strong you can’t move the vacuum back and forth, but with the Tineco Pure One X Pet I can still push it easily in Max power mode, suggesting it’s not as sucky as some!
With this in mind, I was actually rather impressed by how well the Tineco Pure One X Pet cleans. I used it for a couple of weeks throughout our busy four-bed home and never felt the need to grab my regular vacuum. I conducted two controlled tests, one with flour and one with porridge oats, on both hard flooring and carpet.
Amazingly, the Tineco Pure One X Pet cleared everything up, completely, in Auto Mode and without the need for repeat passes over any one area. I should probably explain that Auto Mode uses sensors to automatically dial up the power when it hits a particularly messy mess – you can hear the power crank up and then back down again when the dirt is sorted, and you’ve moved onto less dirty areas. I did hear it move to Max once or twice, especially during the flour on carpet test, but it wasn’t long before it switched back to the lower, quieter setting on Auto Mode.
Speaking of quiet, the Tineco Pure One X Pet isn’t especially loud. In Auto my decibel meter gave a reading of 71 dB, which is typical for a vacuum cleaner, and in Max mode it zipped up to 80 dB, which is similar to a food processor. Neither felt offensively noisy or disturbing.
The 0.4L bin isn’t particularly generous, especially since the Max Fill line is low, and I found myself having to empty the bin after every significant clean – I’d say it needed emptying after about 30-40 minutes of cleaning. We do have a particularly messy house, filled with pets and kids and it’s in the country so in summer you get all sorts of dust and dirt coming in off the fields as the farmers are charging up and down in their tractors. Luckily emptying the bin is very easy and takes seconds, with little mess.
Cleaning the two filters is also easy. As mentioned, the pre-filter is taken care of by the special Pre-filter cleaning attachment, which I really did love and found much easier than either bashing out the dust or washing under the tap as you have to with other cordless models. The HEPA filter is also easy to remove, and it does need to be washed under the tap and then left to dry, so it’s worth doing that before bed and leaving it to dry overnight. I wouldn’t think you’d need to do it more than once a month tops. I did it once just to check ease levels, but it really wasn’t dirty, despite the flour tests and all those pets, kids and farmers.
Oh, and in case you are wondering, the Zero Tangle roller brush in the main floor head works like a dream. My usual vacuum needs the hair cutting off it on a regular basis, at least once a fortnight, and it’s a real faff and very messy. After a little more than two weeks of testing, there was not one single hair wrapped around the roller, and both of my girls and I have long, thick hair that seems to hate staying on our heads.
Performance score: 4 out of 5
Tineco Pure One X Pet review: app
Available for Android and App
Provides cleaning status, charging status, and when the bin/filter is full
Not worth the hassle it took to get it connected
There's a companion app available for both Android and Apple devices), but proved to be the only real sticking point in my setting up process, involving the usual pain in the rear ‘can’t find device’ nonsense anyone who has ever attempted to connect ‘Smart’ tech will be familiar with.
I had to put the vacuum into pairing mode (by simply pressing the Auto button for a few seconds until the light ring blinks) but although I had my iPhone resting on the actual appliance, it couldn’t find it. Eventually I managed a manual connection via Wi-Fi. Then the App froze and I had to uninstall and reinstall it, by which time my Garmin had sent me a ‘Relax Reminder’ alert and I was ready to throw the whole thing out of the window. Deep breaths.
In truth, it wasn’t worth the hassle of getting the App connected in the end. The App tells you the cleaning status, charging status, and when the bin and filter needs emptying, but I can see all that by looking at the actual vacuum and can’t fathom any advantages to checking it on my phone instead.
For the purposes of this review, it was handy as it supplies battery and usage stats but I am not sure why anyone would need this data in their life generally. Oh, the App does tell you when the filter needs to be cleaned, which I suppose is handy. Although I’ve always found the fact it has stopped sucking up dirt efficiently is a pretty effective indicator that the filters need to be cleaned, and don’t really need an App to back this up.
Pure One X Pet review: battery life
Slow to charge
No spare battery
Sufficient runtime for a smaller house
The battery does indeed last 45 minutes before it needs to be recharged if you stick to the lowest power setting and this was more than enough to whip upstairs and down in our house. I think my longest single vacuuming session was 47 minutes on the lowest setting. I’ve had cordless vacuums that boast double that (with two batteries) but the Tineco Pure One X Pet never once ran out of energy before I did during my two-week testing period.
In Auto Mode, with it flipping to max power for 5% of the duration, I managed nearly 32 minutes. And I’d argue that nobody, except perhaps a professional cleaner, needs to vacuum for longer than that. In Max mode alone, it lasted a miserly 12 minutes.
Recharging from empty took just under 4 hours, as Tineco claim. Obviously, I didn’t sit watching it with my stopwatch poised for that duration, but I did set my alarm to check every half hour and it was fully cooked sometime between 3.5-4 hours.
You can’t replace the battery with a second one to double your vacuuming time, which is a bit of a flaw for those with massive homes or a penchant for vacuuming..
Battery score: 3 out of 5
Should you buy the Tineco Pure One X Pet?
Around 40-45 minutes is the top battery life you’re going to get, and if you stick in Auto mode it’ll probably be more like 30-35 minutes.
Buy it if...
Don't buy it if...
Pure One X Pet review: also consider
Pure One X Pet review: how I tested
I used this vacuum in my own home for two weeks
I vacuumed carpets, hard flooring, upholstery, my car and tent!
I timed the battery life and how long it takes to recharge
I used the Tineco Pure One X Pet to clean our four-bed family home for a couple of weeks, using it every single day (sometimes more than once) on all our floors, which include terracotta and porcelain tiles, engineered timber, vinyl laminate, carpet and several rugs.
I also checked out both nozzle attachments, using them to clean skirting boards and the staircase, as well as cobwebs, and the Pre-filter cleaner attachment. I took both brush heads apart to clean the rollers, cleaned the HEPA filter, and emptied the bin, more times than I’d have liked!
During testing, I used the decibel meter on my iPhone to monitor noise levels and conducted two specific tests to see how the vacuum dealt with flour and oats on carpet and hard flooring.
As part of my job as a journalist specialising in kitchens and bathrooms, I’ve been reviewing vacuum cleaners for publication both online and in print for several years now. I take testing very seriously and feel a real responsibility to provide honest, accurate feedback that’s (hopefully) useful and not biased in any way.
Read more about how we test.
[First reviewed June 2024]
