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Tineco A11 Review

Derek Hales

Written By: Derek Hales

Updated on:

Dyson Alternative Stick Vacuum

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Tineco A11 Hero

If you like the convenience of a cordless stick vacuum, but don’t want to sacrifice the long run time, the Tineco A11 Hero could be a great option. It’s essentially a less expensive alternative to the same body style and run time as the Dyson V10 cordless stick vacuum. Performance wasn’t flawless, but still very good, especially considering the price.Check Price

Pros

  • The Tineco has up to a 60-minute run time (using both batteries)
  • Comes with a wide variety of included accessories
  • Less expensive than other cordless stick vacuums with similar run times

Cons

  • Depending on your space, the charging station can be pretty bulky.
  • Not great at removing cereal from hardwood floors

Tineco A11 Design

The Tineco A11 cordless stick vacuum is a lightweight vacuum with an in-hand motor and dustbin, similar to the setup of the Dyson V10 stick vacuum.

You can use this vacuum as a full-height stick vacuum or as a portable handheld, making it a versatile choice for a variety of cleaning jobs.

Tineco A11 cordless vacuum

Also similar to the Dyson, the Tineco A11 has a clear dust bin with a simple release latch that makes it easy to empty the bin.

The body of the vacuum contains the filter and battery.

The battery is a Lithium Ion battery that is rechargeable and the filter is washable. This helps to keep maintenance costs down and makes this vacuum a little more convenient to operate as well.

The Tineco A11 cordless vacuum comes in two different color schemes and sub-models:

The Hero is a little less expensive than the Master model and has slightly different features. This review is specifically looking at the A11 Hero cordless.

How Does It Clean?

The Tineco A11 Hero cordless is a 2-part system.

Tineco A11 Hero cordless stick vacuuming cleaning hardwoods

First, you’ve got the cleaning head at the base and in-hand you’ve got the body of the vacuum which contains the motor, dust bin and on / off switch.

The Base

The Tineco is designed to clean hardwoods, carpeted floors, and other hard indoor surfaces, and comes with two interchangeable cleaning heads.

  1. Soft roller cleaning head: This head is used for cleaning hard surface flooring like tile, hardwoods, or laminate flooring. The soft rollers help to not scratch the flooring, and the deep grooves help to capture larger debris.
  2. Brush roller cleaning head: This head is used for cleaning carpeted flooring or area rugs. The longer rotating bristles help to agitate the carpet fibers and draw debris out.
Tineco A11 charging base

The Wand

The wand is the long vertical piece that allows the debris from the floor to travel into the dustbin. The wand is only used when operating as a stick vacuum.

Tineco stick vacuum assembly

The Body

The body of the vacuum comfortably fits in-hand. It has a 0.6 liter dust bin capacity with a one-touch emptying process.

There is a “continuous power mode” switch lock that makes it so you don’t have to hold down the power button in order to continue cleaning.

Tineco A11 Size & Dimensions

The Tineco A11 cordless is a lightweight stick vacuum cleaner. It’s 43.7” tall and 10.4” x 11.2” at the base.

The base separates from the stick portion to convert to a portable handheld.

Tineco A11 vacuum size

How big is the vacuum as an upright?

  • Length: 43.7”
  • Width: 10.4” (cleaning head)
  • Depth: 4” (cleaning head)
  • Weight: 5 lbs.

When used as a handheld vacuum, the length is obviously shorter and it’s a little lighter as well.

Tineco A11 in handheld mode

How big is the vacuum as a handheld?

  • Length: 17″
  • Width: 5″
  • Tall: 8″
  • Weight: 4 lbs.

Accessories & Parts

This cordless stick vacuum comes with a variety of tools and attachments. Some are required for all cleaning jobs, while others are designed for specialty tasks only.

Tineco A11 dusting brush

Basic parts include:

  • Vacuum body
  • Upright wand
  • Spiral brush cleaning head
  • Sort roller cleaning head
  • Handheld power brush cleaning head
  • Lithium-Ion battery (X2)
  • Charging base
Tineco mini motorized brushroll

Advanced / speciality parts include:

  • Crevice tool
  • Dusting brush (combination)
  • Soft dusting brush
  • Flexible extension hose
  • Long soft crevice tool
  • Flexible multi-angle tube
Tineco A11 crevice tool

Maintenance tools include:

  • Microfiber pre-filter (extra)
  • Pre-filter cleaning tool
  • Hair cleaning tool
Tineco A11 vacuum filter cleaner

Of all of the vacuums that we’ve reviewed to date, the Tineco A11 comes with one of the widest selection of accessories and tools.

Model Differences: The Tineco A11 Master includes more accessories than the Tineco A11 Hero. Most notably the Master includes the soft roller brush.

The majority of these accessories are designed to be used in handheld mode, although the interchangeable floor cleaning heads are great options when using it at an upright stick vacuum.

Cleaning Performance

Overall

94%

Hardwood

83%

Low Carpet

100%

High Carpet

98%

The following vacuum cleaner tests are designed to show how the Tineco A11 Hero cordless vacuum performs on different surfaces, picking up a variety of debris types.

Modern Castle behind the scenes
Our home testing lab and photography / videography studio

We test on three different floor types, including:

  • Hardwood floors
  • Low pile carpet
  • High pile carpet

For each floor type, we test the vacuum cleaner against:

  • Rice – 2 ounces
  • Dry Cereal – 0.5 ounce
  • Kitty Litter – 2 ounces
  • Sugar – 2 ounces

Each of these debris types is spread across our testing lane. The base surface of our testing lane is an engineered hardwood floor. For our carpet tests, we slide in a low pile and high pile carpet insert on top of the hardwood floor.

Our vacuum cleaning process strives to be as consistent, fair, and true to real world use as possible.

Our tests utilize the following procedure:

  1. Measure the weight of the testing debris
  2. Spread the respective debris type on the testing lane.
  3. Run the vacuum cleaner over the testing lane (one debris at a time).
  4. Empty the dust bin into our measurement container and takes notes on cleaning performance.

For more great vacuum cleaning tests, see our complete vacuum cleaner review series here.

Hardwood Floor Cleaning

Hardwood cleaning performance for the Tineco A11 hero was okay, but not great.

Cereal

41%

Kitty Litter

97%

Rice

95%

Sugar

100%

The A11 Hero only includes the rotating brushroll cleaning head, which was so tight to the ground that it pushed cereal and other debris forward and out of the suction path.

The results?

Cereal was the biggest miss, where it only removed 41% of the total debris field. Other debris types it did well on. 

Tineco A11 hero hardwood floor cleaning tests

If you have lots of large debris that you are typically cleaning you’ll definitely want to upgrade to the A11 Hero to get the soft roller brush roll.

Low Pile Carpet Cleaning

The Tineco vacuum dominated our low pile carpt cleaning tests, scoring a perfect 100% on all 4 debris types.

Cereal

100%

Kitty Litter

100%

Rice

100%

Sugar

100%

It had no problems removing any of the debris.

Tineco A11 low pile carpet cleaning performance

High Pile Carpet Cleaning

High pile carpets was similar to what we saw on low pile.

Cereal

100%

Kitty Litter

100%

Rice

100%

Sugar

93%

Cleaning performance was flawless on 3 out of 4 debris types (rice, kitty litter, and cereal), where the A11 scored 100%.

The only problem?

Sugar. The Tineco removed 93% of sugar on high pile carpet. Not an amazing score, but not bad either.

Tineco high pile carpet vacuuming tests

Usability & Maneuverability

Overall, we found the Tineco A11 Hero easy to use.

It’s lightweight, easy to turn, and the double battery pack is a nice add.

Is the Tineco easy to manever?

Maneuverability can be a big selling feature for cordless stick vacuums. When assessing maneuverability, we’re looking at its ability to cut sharp corners, squeeze under low furniture, and reach nooks and crannies.

Tineco A11 lay flat test

The Tineco Hero scored well in all of these categories. It cannot get quite as flat as the Dyson V8V10, or Shark IONFlex, but it gets reasonably close. It can also make tight turns and pivots easily.

Tineco A11 cordless stick vacuum trying to lay flat
Tineco A11 cannot lay perfectly flat

There is no flexible hose, like in a traditional upright vacuum, but the ability to quickly and easily convert into a handheld vacuum helps to make up for that.

Tineco A11 handheld vacuum configuration

As a handheld, you can attach a variety of accessories and tools to help clean hard-to-reach areas.

Tineco A11 Maintenance

This vacuum does come with quite a few tools and parts, but that doesn’t necessarily mean more maintenance. The primary maintenance tasks for the Tineco A11 vacuum can be broken down into the following to-do list:

  • Empty the dust bin: It’s important to empty the dust bin whenever it is full to avoid the vacuum losing suction or causing strain on the motor.
  • Clean the pre-filter: As necessary, be sure the clean out the filter whenever you notice it getting dirty. Unlike traditional reusable filters that need to be washed, the Tineco filter takes a different approach. This vacuum includes a filter cleaning attachment that clips in and uses the suction power of the vacuum to clean the filter. A clean filter will not only help the vacuum to run at optimal suction, but it will also allow it to run quieter.
  • Wash the HEPA filter: The HEPA filter is the larger filter that snaps out the back of the body of the vacuum. This filter can be rinsed under running water and should be air-dried for 24 hours before reinstalling.
  • Clean the brushrolls: Sometimes hair or other debris can wrap around the axle of the brushroll and cause blockages. Be sure to regularly check the brushrolls for any debris.
  • Replace the battery: Tineco doesn’t explicitly specify how long their battery is expected to last, but generally speaking, these batteries can last from 1-3 years, depending on use. Since the Tineco comes with two batteries, the lifespan may be greater. Regardless, this is an expense you’ll want to consider, as they can be somewhat costly.
Tineco stick vacuum assembly

How long can the Tineco A11 vacuum run?

The Tineco A11 can run for up to 60 minutes when used consecutively with both lithium-ion batteries. Independently, each battery will run for approximately 30 minutes on regular mode or 7.5 minutes on MAX mode (using non-motorized accessories).

The Tineco takes about 3.5 hours to generate a full charge with each battery.

Is the Tineco A11 a good value?

Overall value on the Tineco A11 is pretty good.

Tineco A11 hero vacuum review

Cleaning performance wasn’t perfect, but the only major stumbling block was on cereal on hardwoods. Other cleaning scores ranged from good to perfect.

The 60-minute run time via 2 batteries is a nice extra, as is the substantial docking station.

If you have hard surfaces to clean or want maximum accessories I would strongly advise going with the A11 Master. If not, if you can save a few bucks and get the A11 Hero.

Tineco A11 Specifications

Below you’ll find a complete table listing the important facts and features about the Tineco A11 cordless stick vacuum:

Specifications
TypeCordless Stick
ManufacturerTineco
ModelA11 Hero
Length (inches)43.7"
Width (inches)10.4"
Weight5 pounds
Floor TypeAll Indoor
FilterWashable
Dust Bin0.6 L
CordlessCordless
Suction PowerUnknown
BaglessYes
ReturnsVaries by retailer
Warranty2 Year
PriceCheck Price

Who Should Buy the Tineco A11 Master?

The Tineco cordless handheld is a solid option for a cordless stick vacuum. It has a long run time, larger dust bin (for a stick vacuum), and has strong suction.

I would recommend the Tineco A11 cordless if you’re looking for the following in a cordless stick vacuum:

  • Want a good value: If you’re looking for lots of features, but want to cash out at a lower price, the Tineco A11 could be right for you.
  • Want a wide variety of included accessories: If you really don’t like the feeling of being nickel and dimed after you’d made a purchase, have no fear. The Tineco Master package comes with virtually every accessory you could need, both handheld or upright use.
  • Want a large dust bin: The Tineco A11 cordless has a decently sized dust bin, especially considering its small size. While it doesn’t quite beat the capacity of the Dyson V10 Absolute or Animal, it is a close second.

For more information on the Tineco A11 Master cordless stick vacuum, see here.

Why did the Tineco A11 Master stick vacuum score the way it did?

  • Design – I don’t love that you cannot lay it perfectly flat, but that’s small. Most other major design elements are on par with other industry best practices.
  • Performance – Not flawless, but not bad, especially considering the price.
  • Quality – Doesn’t feel as high-end as other stick vacuums in this range that we’ve tested.
  • Usability – Lots of accessories, 2 batteries, and a filter cleaner.
  • Value – I do wish the performance on cereal for hardwoods was better and that build quality was a bit stronger, but overall, it’s still a good value.
Long Run Time, Lots of Accessories
  • Design - 93%
    93%
  • Performance - 94%
    94%
  • Quality - 92%
    92%
  • Usability - 93%
    93%
  • Value - 92%
    92%
93%

Summary

The Tineco A11 Hero is a cordless stick vacuum with a 60-minute run (via 2 batteries), lightweight design, and lots of accessories. It performed well during most of our tests and overall we found it easy and convenient to use. The charging dock base is fairly substantial, allowing you to both store parts and charge both batteries at once. If you’re looking for a cordless stick vacuum with a long run time it’s going to be hard to beat this price.

About Derek Hales

Derek HalesDerek Hales is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of ModernCastle.com. He has been featured in Fast Company, Reader's Digest, Business Insider, Realtor.com, She Knows, and other major publications. Derek has a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration from Kansas State University. Hales has been testing and reviewing products for the home since 2014.