Tineco is at the forefront of vacuum cleaner technology, with advanced devices that make Dysons look like a children’s toy.
Tineco makes award-winning vacuums designed to clean carpets and hardwood floors easily. They feature inbuilt smart sensing technology that intelligently detects and adjusts the power of the vacuum based on the amount of dirt and grime it’s trying to clean.
Now Tineco has its own rather expensive, proprietary cleaning solution that’s left many people wondering if they can substitute it for something else. So in this article, we will cover our top picks for the best Tineco Solution alternative.
The best alternatives to Tineco Solution
Tineco Solution is primarily used in their ‘wet dry’ IFLOOR vacuum series, which simultaneously vacuums, deep cleans, washes, and dries any hardwood floor in a single pass.
Not only that, but they are self-cleaning vacuums, too, which has made them incredibly popular in recent years.
Tineco claims that you shouldn’t use a third-party cleaning solution in their vacuums as they were designed and optimized to work with only their product.
But of course, users have long had suspicions that this is just a marketing spiel to dissuade you from using another product. They have reported having great success using several off-brand cleaning solutions in their Tineco wet-dry vacuum.
So let’s go through those to decide which will work best for you.
1. Water and vinegar mixture
It’s a tried and true cleaning solution that your grandmother and her mother before her would have used to take care of all manner of dirt and stains.
To make this mixture, you can use a 2:1 ratio of water and vinegar, which is strong enough to eliminate the most common dirt, grime, and stains, without leaving your entire home smelling of vinegar.
We don’t recommend loading this straight into an IFLOOR vacuum directly. Instead, apply this to the hardwood floor with a squirt bottle and then ‘dry vacuum’ the solution up.
Tineco Solution is powerful and can be diluted so much that just a single cap full of it is enough to cover an entire home’s flooring.
This vinegar is not as diluted as it won’t be able to clean effectively, so if you cover the entire laminate floor, it will require a massive amount of the stuff to cover everything.
So apply it to the areas you need and clean accordingly. This way, you avoid loading up the upright vacuum with a vinegar-y-smelling solution, and you can save some money by not needing to use so much of it.
Speaking of the vinegar smell, it can be a problem. There are two easy solutions to this. The first is adding some of your favorite smelling essential oil into the solution so that when you apply it to the laminate floor, it will help mask the smell of the vinegar.
The second option is to fill the floor with more bland soap and water solution to re-vacuum over it after cleaning to help clean up the vinegar.
2. Baking soda and vinegar
If the water and vinegar don’t match the Tineco in terms of aggressiveness, you can swap out the water for baking soda to drastically increase its cleaning power. It’ll make short work of tough stains and is safe to use on most hardwood flooring types.
We must change the mixture ratio here by using three parts of vinegar to one part baking soda.
Once again, it would be best if you approached this with the same mentality as the water + vinegar combo, don’t load it into the IFLOOR directly. Instead, apply it to the floor and then use the dry clean function or only load it with water.
Clean the baking/soda vinegar off with the water cleaner function afterward, which will help to remove the vinegar, so you don’t have to clean it by hand.
3. Lemon juice + salt
Another timeless classic that’s been used for generations to clean up the most challenging of stains.
While this is arguably not as effective as Tineco in terms of its cleaning power and the added convenience of loading it directly into one of their vacuums, it is, nevertheless, easily accessible, cheap, and will leave your home smelling lemony fresh.
Another downside to this is you once again have to spot-clean an area directly, you could always try filling the IFLOOR up with some lemon/salt/water combo, but it’s not going to be effective enough to be worth it – stick to spot cleaning here!
4. Bleach
There’s no denying that Tineco is highly effective at removing tough stains. You can clean with it like an everyday cleaner, but it will have the effectiveness of a far more aggressive cleaner, such as bleach.
That said, bleach can make short work of tough stains for specific floor types, such as bathroom or kitchen tiles.
Of course, it can’t be used with the floor, so this will be a manual job. And as you probably already know, bleach doesn’t have the most pleasant smell. So be sure only to use this in a well-ventilated area.
5. Fabuloso floor cleaner
Moving on from cleaners that you will need to apply manually to the floor, we have Fabuloso Floor Cleaner. This is available in most reputable supermarkets, and while it doesn’t quite have the cleaning power of Tineco, it is excellent for everyday use.
While Tineco doesn’t recommend loading a third-party cleaner into any of their devices as they’ve been explicitly calibrated for Tineco Solution, users have reported getting great results with Fabuloso (and many say they prefer the smell too).
You can buy it in large tubs that, when combined with water, will make up to 64 gallons of the cleaner.
This makes it both excellent value for money, and you can use it across your entire floor as a general cleaner instead of a ‘spot cleaner.’
6. Mr. Clean
Another brand that can match the cleaning effectiveness of Tineco at a fraction of the cost.
One of the downsides of this third-party brand (including Bissell, Pine-Sol, and Bona) is that they tend to produce a lot of bubbles.
Tineco’s solution has been specifically designed to produce fewer bubbles while maintaining maximum cleaning efficiency to get the most use possible of its relatively small water tank.
So when these alternative brands start producing a lot of bubbles, it can fill up the tank in minutes – meaning you’ll take many trips to the bathroom to empty it.
Providing you understand this and have the patience to empty the tank several times per clean can save you a lot of money in the long run.
7. Karcher Multi-Purpose Floor Cleaner
Another great third-party brand that’s extra convenient as it’s already concentrated, and you can place one cap of it in the Tineco upright vacuum, and you’re good to go! It couldn’t be easier.
Users have praised its cleaning ability, and it’s available from Home Depot for a fraction of the cost.
8. Hoover paws and claws
If you have pets or animals around the house and want to keep control of that ‘pet smell’ that can be difficult to get rid of, Hoover Paws & Claws Multi-Surface Liquid Cleaning Solution could be the thing for you.
You can load it into the Tineco IFLOOR cleaner without any worry that it will make the tank turn cloudy. And then you use it just like Tineco’s solution, but it will cut right through those animal smells once and for all.
It’s available very cheaply from Walmart. And despite its advertisements as an anti-pet smell cleaner, it’s just an excellent all-around home cleaner. You could easily use this even if you didn’t own any pets!
The pros and cons of Tineco Solution
Tineco has clarified that you are not supposed to load anything besides their own branded cleaner into their vacuums. But curious and cost-conscious users have experimented enough to have a good idea of the benefits and drawbacks of using something other than Tineco’s solution.
Let’s look at the pros and cons of their own brand cleaner so you can make an informed decision about whether it’s worth it.
Pros:
- It’s a powerful all-purpose cleaner. You don’t need to worry about what kind of stain it is, how long it’s been there, or if it smells; Tineco’s solution will deal with it all.
- It’s designed to work perfectly with a Tineco vacuum. Particularly regarding how many bubbles are produced, you can get more use out of it before emptying the tank.
Cons:
- As this is such a specific brand, some users have reported their local stores not having any available, forcing them to either order online or travel further to buy it. Very inconvenient!
- It’s costly when compared to other competing cleaning solutions. Many users are going to great lengths to find alternatives because they don’t want to pay so much for a simple floor cleaner.
Adrian is an ISCET licensed professional that has completed the National Appliance Service Technician Certification Exam and has the expertise to diagnose and repair any appliance. He is well-versed in the latest technologies and techniques and is always up-to-date on the latest industry standards.
