Welcome to War of the Wet Vacuum Cleaners: Bissell Crosswave vs. Tineco
6 Month Update at bottom of this post!
Hey, hey there clean freaks!
I’ve had a ton of requests for this post, so I’m excited to finally be publishing my thoughts.
If you follow me on Instagram, you know I love to post a lot of content around cleaning and organizing.
It’s kinda my jam. 😉
After our huge kitchen renovation and the installation of our porcelain tile flooring (which is SUPER TEXTURED), I decided to look into getting a tougher floor cleaner.
I tried using our traditional spin mop to clean the flooring, but I ended up shredding all of the mop heads that touched it.
Textured flooring is a beast, BTW, don’t recommend it…
I resorted to grabbing a shop floor scrub brush from Walmart, along with a hand scrubber so I could manually scrub our floors.
Our daughter, Zoey, had just started crawling and I couldn’t help but think just how gross the floors were.
Buuuuuut my back and knees took a beating, and that’s when I turned to the internet to finally look into one of the wet-dry vacuum cleaners I’ve been dying to try.
In this post, I’ll be sharing the two wet vacs that I have, what I love about them, what I don’t love about them, and which one I would recommend.
A little note before you read this post, however…
I am not a typical consumer.
I write posts on cleaning and organizing and do the research for you.
If I didn’t do what I do for a living, I would never end up buying these two different machines.
Okay, with that out of the way, let’s get to my complete review…
*This post contains affiliate links, however, all opinions are my own, as always. This post is not sponsored in any way, and the products featured were purchased with my own money.
The Bissell Crosswave
The wet-dry vac I had been seeing everywhere was the Bissell Crosswave.
It was all over social media, and I really love watching videos of how it performed.
After much research, I ended up buying the corded Bissel Crosswave.
I went strictly off of reviews and saw that the corded version had fewer issues over time than the cordless.
I even read reviews where people had returned their cordless to get the corded Bissell Crosswave because it lasted longer!
However, a dear friend of mine owns the cordless version and loves hers.
But, maybe we both don’t know any better for sure because we only have one version of the machine while the other has the other version. 😉
The price difference was also a hefty $150 more, and I wasn’t willing to shell out more cash for slightly less favorable reviews.
Bissell Crosswave Overview (Corded Version)
The Bissell Crosswave weighs just over 11 lbs (11.02 lbs).
The cord is 25 ft long, which is just shy of the industry-standard cord length for regular vacuums by 5 feet.
Vacuum cords are typically 30 feet long.
The cordless Bissell Crosswave has a self-cleaning brush, however, the corded version does not.
To clean the roller brush, you’ll need to put the wet-dry vac into its tray, and pour water into the roller brush while you tip the machine back so the roller brush is activated and rolling.
To run the machine, you plug it in and push the water trigger while pushing it across your floors.
For tougher messes, you can hover over messy floors and keep the trigger button pressed.
You can also run the machine without any water at all by refraining from pressing the water trigger button.
This would be ideal when cleaning water-sensitive flooring.
The clean water tank has a capacity of 28 oz, while the dirty water tank has a capacity of 20.6 oz.
The Bissell Crosswave wet-dry vacuum cleaner can be used on either sealed hard floors or area rugs.
After several months of using it, here’s what I love and what I don’t…
What I Love About The Bissell Crosswave
- It does a great job cleaning fresh messes
- I can control the water/solution
- the clean and dirty water tanks are a good size
- it’s pretty light
- I can use it on area rugs
- I have used it to spot-treat our living room carpet when there’s been a spill instead of breaking out my carpet cleaner
- It can pick up debris as big as a rotini noodle
What I Don’t Like About The Bissell Crosswave
- it does not grab food or messes that have been there for longer than a day (so if the kids splatter tomato sauce or leave pieces of cereal bar on the floor that get hard and don’t tell me until the next day – I still need to hand scrub those off)
- rarely, it psyches itself out and thinks the dirty water tank is full when it’s only half full, prompting me to need to empty it more often than it should have to be emptied
- It requires a larger solution : water ratio than the Tineco S3
Tineco Floor One S3
Because this was a combination of a birthday gift from my wonderful husband, Christopher, as well as something I wanted to try out for my audience, I was able to get the cordless version – the Tineco Floor One S3.
The Tineco S3 weighs almost 10 lbs, at 9.9 lbs according to the manufacturer.
It has a self-cleaning cycle, where you press a button and it runs the cleaning solution through the roller brush to clean it for you.
It can only be used on sealed hard floors.
To use it on your floors, tilt it back and press the power button for about 3 seconds to power it on.
That’s it, just push it across the floor, but be ready for a small kick forward the first time you turn it on as it is self-propelled.
This wet-dry vacuum cleaner has automatic power and water adjustments as it senses dirt and debris.
Here’s what I love about the S3, and what I didn’t really love…
What I Love About The Tineco S3
- It’s cordless (not a fair comparison here, however, since the Crosswave does have a cordless version that I’m unable to directly compare right now)
- It’s insanely light (but it almost feels cheap because of how light it is!)
- self-cleaning brush
- great for everyday light messes
- LED screen and charging base
- It talks to you (tells you to refill the clean water tank, empty the dirty water tank, as well as tells you it is charging or running a self-cleaning cycle after you press the button)
- It only requires a small capful of solution added to the clean water tank
You May Also Like: Spring Cleaning Checklist – 25 Days To A Clean Home
What I Don’t Like About The Tineco S3
- Doesn’t handle big messes as well as the Crosswave (in my opinion)
- I never noticed it automatically adjusting the water or power, even as I moved into obviously dirtier messes
- For my textured tile flooring, I found myself needing to turn on the MAX setting whenever I cleaned
- It can pick up debris as small as a Cheerio, but not noodles.
- It’s about $150 more than the Crosswave (but again, apples and oranges comparison here)
For the price point I just mentioned, I have to remind myself that the Crosswave, which retails at about $250 is corded, whereas the S3, which is cordless, retails at about $399.
My Overall Thoughts And Which One I Would Buy If I Were You
Part of my job is being completely honest with you.
Okay, maybe it’s not in the job description, but I’ve made it my mission.
I’m actually very difficult for brands to work with because of this fact, but I’d rather earn and keep your trust than sell out for a few quick bucks.
Oh man, the money I’ve passed on.
I both kick myself and pride myself on that fact.
***When it comes to both of these wet-dry vacuum cleaners, I would recommend the Bissell Crosswave.***
The mess that you see in the photo above, with the strawberries and noodles?
I would 1000% rather grab the Crosswave for that mess than I would the S3.
BUT, that’s also on my textured tile flooring.
I think they both perform very well on our LVP floors.
I think it does a better job on tough messes, even if it lacks a few fancier features that the Tineco S3 boasts.
I expected to fall head over heels in love with the S3 vs. the Crosswave, but that wasn’t the case.
Especially after seeing a few TikTok and Facebook videos directly comparing the two with the baby wipe test, which I replicated but did not see the same results (see below).
Basically, these videos showed people squirting ketchup and mustard on the floor in front of the machines and then crunching tortilla chips in the condiment mess.
They ran both machines 2x over the mess and then used a baby wipe to wipe the floor in front of each machine.
The baby wipe that was used on the floor in front of the Crosswave was turned over and showed the floor was still dirty as the baby wipe has dirt on it, even though the condiment mess and chips have been picked up and the floor looked clean.
The baby wipe used to wipe the floor in front of the Tineco S3 was turned over and showed no dirt.
I did the same test with my machines but did not see any dirt left over from the baby wipe from either machine.
As fancy as the self-cleaning brush, LED screen, and cordless features are – I was not as thrilled with the S3’s ability to clean up everyday messes.
Does that mean it’s going to sit and collect dust in my cleaning closet?
No way!
I still think it’s a fantastic machine, but I find myself wanting and reaching for the Crosswave each time I have a true mess on my hands.
Tineco Floor One S3 vs Bissell Crosswave
Feel free to post this on social media and tag me on Instagram @slayathomemother…
Update: 6 months later…
As requested, I’m providing an update for you guys on my thoughts on these two wet vacuums.
I’m still loving the Bissell Crosswave more for our textured floors!
Even with the cord, I feel it does a better job cleaning overall, and I love the option to switch out the brush and clean our area rugs.
I’ve since moved the Tineco S3 upstairs to do quick cleanings of the bathroom floors and laundry room since those floors are LVP and smooth tile.
*Post originally published February 2021, updated January 2023.
If you’re considering buying one of these wet-dry vacuums and have a question I didn’t answer, let me know in the comments below so I can include it!
If you already have one of these machines, tell me some things you love (or don’t love) about your machine.