Hot Water vs Steam Cleaning - Mova X4 Pro vs. Tineco Floor One S5 Steam

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Today, we’re taking a look at the Mova X4 Pro Wet and Dry Vacuum and seeing how it stacks up against our Tineco Floor One S5 Steam, which has been our go-to floor cleaner for the past couple of years. We will go over its features, explore the cleaning capabilities and dive deeper into potential marketing trick that we fell for.

Let's start by unboxing the Mova X4 Pro. We have a bunch of documents - a warranty card, a quick-reference sheet with operation tips and warnings, and a thick user manual. Then there’s a layer of accessories, including a spare brush (which is always a welcome addition), a pretty non-exciting cleaning brush, as well as a 500mL bottle of multi-surface floor cleaner, and a spare filter.

Next, we have the base station. It’s noticeably larger than typical vacuum stations, but given the extra features packed into it, the size is actually an advantage. It features high-temperature self-cleaning, using 100°C hot water to thoroughly rinse the brush, followed by 90°C hot-air drying to prevent mold and odours. It also has two small wheels to assist with the push-in function for docking the vacuum. The design is minimalistic and straightforward, with air-drying outlet at the front and large air-drying inlet at the back to ensure efficient airflow, so it’s probably best to leave some space between the base and the wall.

Moving on to the handle – it has all the main controls. Up on the very top it has the self-cleaning button, at the front it has the button for changing the modes, and by long-pressing it you can choose to stay in or exit water saving mode. Then there’s the power button, and on the inside it has a fancy looking gold button for Spot Spray function.

The main body itself is pretty standard, featuring a display screen at the top. On the back, there’s a voice prompt button and right below it – a 730 mL used water tank. To open you will need to tilt the lever and pull it upwards.

Inside, the tank has a spacious debris collection area, and its straight-walled design makes maintenance pretty easy. At the top it has a ridged rubber, which makes it a bit challenging to open but at the same time also gives a reassuring feeling that there will be no leaks, even when the device is laid flat on the floor.

Right at the very bottom there is the clean water tank with capacity of 760mL. It’s slightly smaller than the one from Tineco, but in general quite average for its category. I actually prefer that it’s positioned at the very base of the device, it feels more grounded and easier to move around.

The brush cover has a spot cleaning nozzle designed to release hot water, but it only functions in Hot-Water mode. If you're in any other mode, pressing the Hot Spray Button won’t do anything.

As for the brush itself, removing it from the main body is pretty simple – just tilt the lever and slide it out. The fit is quite snug, which is great for keeping everything in place during use but makes it slightly harder to remove when cleaning or replacing the brush.

The first obvious difference that I’m actually very glad for is that X4 Pro is battery-powered, while the Tineco S5 is corded, which immediately sets them apart in terms of convenience. We didn’t think this would be such a pain-point, but corded vacuums are just extra work that nobody has time for. The Mova X4 Pro runs on a big battery, allowing me to clean the entire house and usually it still has around 40% battery left. It’s incredibly convenient not to have a cord dragging behind, and I can move freely without worrying about repositioning the power plug.

The Mova X4 Pro has Lie-Flat technology which initially seemed like a fantastic feature, but in practice, its usefulness is somewhat limited. While it works well for cleaning under chairs, desks, and certain types of couches or beds, the main body itself is 13 cm thick, which means it still won’t fit under most furniture. That said, it’s a nice option to have, allowing you to lower the device without worrying about overextending it. Just keep an eye on the dirty water levels, as they have different maximum capacities depending on the angle. Tineco vacuum does not allow to lower the device more than 140 degrees to protect it against water leakage. And while the Lie-Flat feature has its limitations, the Dual-Edge Cleaning makes up for it. The vacuum’s brush design allows it to clean along walls and baseboards more effectively than many other models. We tested it by making a mess with spilled rice. It did an ok-ish job with the front but when I tried the side-approach, it immediately picked every bit grain off the floor. This feature is definitely an advantage, but it won’t eliminate the need for occasional touch-ups in certain corners or awkward angles. And then we compared this to Tineco – well... it tried its best.

Now, let’s get into the cleaning modes. It offers a total of four modes, with Suction Mode being the simplest. This mode functions just like a standard vacuum, providing straightforward debris pickup.

Then there is the Hot Water mode. And this is where I got tricked by some clever marketing. I remember being very confused when trying it out for the first time. If we compare it to Tineco’s Steam mode, the floor is noticeably warm after one brush pass but for Mova I couldn’t feel any temperature change anywhere.

After some research it turns out that the device has a dual hot water system. In Hot Water Mode, the water is rapidly heated to over 80°C using a 270W self-developed instantaneous boiler. And then it’s applied in two ways:

First, directly sprayed onto the floor through the hot water nozzle, where it reaches a temperature of around 55°C.
Second, distributed to the roller brush through 16 water outlets.

If the spot spray button is not pressed, the heated water from the boiler flows to the roller brush via a diverter.

According to Mova Product Team – when touching the roller brush directly, the temperature may not feel significantly warm because the water at the separator level is around 50°C.

In reality the Hot Water mopping is actually just normal water by the time it touches the floor. The Tineco One S5, on the other hand, uses steam, which, apart from just looking very cool, gets rid of all the bacteria and also gives a more "squeaky clean" feel after mopping. A major downside of the S5 is that it blows hair away with the steam, making it harder to pick it up. If we compare the same situation with Mova vacuum - it grabs hair effortlessly and I haven’t seen any tangles on its brush. Mova even officially states this vacuum is 100% tangle-free. So far it has held up. With the Tineco, I have to detangle the brush after every use.

And also because of the steam function Tineco uses significantly more water, requiring me to refill the clean water tank and empty the dirty water tank several times per clean cycle. With the Mova X4 Pro, I can clean the entire house without refilling or emptying anything. While I appreciate the efficiency, it does make me wonder – is it using too little water? Can it effectively clean floors with such minimal water usage? Keep watching to see our head-to-head cleaning tests in a moment.

Then there is the Smart mode. It uses room temperature water and employs an infrared sensor to detect the level of dirt on the floor. Based on what it detects, the mode then uses light cleaning for minor dirt and intensive cleaning for heavy dirt.

The Ultra Mode goes one step further – it uses all the same functionalities as in Smart mode but also adds electrolysis of water for enhanced cleaning. We are still not 100% sure about the effectiveness of this electrolysis. It has not even been mentioned anywhere in the marketing materials. We were informed about it only in an email. After asking for some sort of proof, we got a copy of the certificate of the electrolysis. Here is and auto generated translation of it and a short explanation of this would be the following - This floor mop claims to generate a disinfecting solution via electrolysis and showed a >99.96% kill rate against Candida albicans in a controlled test. The test was carried out for 10 minutes, using a flow rate of 30 milliliters per minute and operating at a voltage of 12 volts. The lab results suggest high fungicidal effectiveness under those precise conditions. In real‐world use, performance can vary based on contact time, floor coverage, and other practical factors.

So in essence we just need to be aware that carefully controlled lab setup is not something we can replicate in our homes. If users move the mop quickly or apply less water, or if the floor surface or contamination levels differ, the actual disinfection rate might fall short of the test result.

Enough with the theories, let’s go through real-life cleaning examples side-by-side! For these tests we set Tineco on Steam mode and Mova was on Hot-Water Mode (see the results in the linked video above, timestamp at 8:08).

First, we start with a dried coffee stains on a kitchen floor. I was expecting it to be more of a challenge but Tineco cleaned it in one pass with no effort at all. Mova had a bit of a struggle here – it took a couple of seconds to fully wet the stain and then clean it.

Next up was an easier task with a thick jam smear on a floor – as expected, both of the devices dealt with it on a first swipe.

Then we increased the difficulty by spilling sticky oyster sauce on the floor. Tineco dealt with it quite nicely but I notice now that we should’ve spent a bit more time focussing on the grout lines. Mova didn’t leave obvious marks in the grout lines but there are some visible smear marks from the tiny wheels on the sides of the device.

Next up we scattered granola bits all over the floor. For Mova it was quite an easy task. However Tineco did show some signs of struggle since the steam was pushing the lighter bits away before I managed to get them, but nonetheless I was able to get all of them.

Then we used dried basil leaves. This is where Tineco completely fell apart. It felt like I was playing catch-me-if-you-can instead of cleaning. For this task ideally you would need to turn off the steam function and do just normal cleaning. For Mova it was like a walk in a park. I would say it was actually quite satisfying to clean.

For the final test, we used cat litter - specifically pine pellets. Due to their shape and size, the Tineco really struggled to pick them up and also ended up blowing the finer dust away, making it a miss on both fronts. The Mova handled the dust a bit better, but it faced the same challenges with the pellets, so neither device nailed this one.

After all this heavy cleaning, let’s test their self-cleaning modes. I must say they both do a great job. I did notice that Mova seems to clean out its brush and base more effectively. It flushes the brush with 100°C water, then dries it at 90°C, leaving it completely dry in 30 minutes. Tineco’s self-cleaning process uses steam to deep clean the brush, followed by centrifugal air-drying. While it does the job, the brush remains damp, so I always end up removing it and setting it aside to fully dry, which is another step to deal with.

Overall the Mova X4 Pro and Tineco Floor One S5 Steam offer distinct approaches to floor cleaning, each with strengths and trade-offs.

Tineco’s steam cleaning still feels more sanitising and satisfying to use, especially with the visible steam action - but it comes at the cost of higher water use, more cord management, and more post-cleaning maintenance.

The Mova X4 Pro, on the other hand, might not have that same “steamy clean” feeling, but it makes up for it with cordless convenience, smart water efficiency, better edge cleaning, and a self-cleaning system that actually leaves the brush dry and ready to go again.

It’s not a clear-cut winner across the board - but depending on what matters more to you, whether it’s genuine steam cleaning or everyday practicality, the choice becomes a lot easier. For us, Mova X4 Pro might just be the better fit for regular, hassle-free cleaning.

Let us know which one you’d pick and is cordless finally good enough to ditch cords altogether?