This $270 cordless vacuum easily cleans all the weird angles in your house — I even use it to get cobwebs from my ceiling

Cordless vacuums should be lightweight, easy to use, and have plenty of power.
The Tineco A11 Hero Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner has excellent battery life and enough cleaning power for many day-to-day situations.
At $269.90, it’s pricey but still a whole lot cheaper than similar offerings from Dyson, which can go for more than $500.
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The humble vacuum has evolved a lot over the past decade or so. Gone are the days when a decent vacuum meant a bulky, ultra-expensive, huge box that you had to keep plugged in all the time. These days, modern vacuums have built-in batteries and are more powerful than ever, but are still relatively lightweight and easy to use.

Of course, Dyson is leading the charge, but there are competitors. Perhaps the best-known Dyson handheld competitor is Tineco. It’s launched a number of popular handheld vacuum models — like the Tineco A11 Hero Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner I’ve been using for weeks.

The Tineco A11 Hero costs $269.90 on Amazon, so it’s not cheap — but it’s a lot cheaper than a Dyson. After using it for a while, it’s an incredible value for the price and doesn’t skimp on cleaning power.

Design

If the Tineco A11 Hero is your first handheld vacuum, you’ll notice how sleek, lightweight, and slim it is.

The vacuum is agile and it was easy to navigate around my home to suck up dirt and debris on the floor and stairs. We even used the vacuum on the ceiling for cobwebs, and at around five pounds, it still felt lightweight.

In addition to the main vacuum and body, you’ll get a dual charging and storage case, and a range of accessories — which further justify the $269.90 price tag. There’s the main power brush, a mini power brush, dusting brush, crevice tool, and a tool to clean the vacuum itself.

One of the best things about the Tineco A11 Hero is that it’s so lightweight and agile. Even with the larger accessories, we found that the A11 Hero was easy to navigate around the home.

The vacuum is only available in blue.

Specs

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30-minute run time per rechargeable battery (two included)
120W suction power
Includes full-size power brush, mini power brush, crevice tool, and dusting brush
0.6-liter dustbin capacity
Dual charging base station
5.5 pounds

Set-up process

Setting up the Tineco A11 Hero is actually pretty easy — the hardest part is waiting for the batteries to charge.

To start out, you’ll simply take the vacuum and accessories out of the box, install the main brush and dust bin, put all the extra accessories in the storage case, and start charging the batteries in the case as well. According to Tineco, you’ll have to charge the batteries for at least a few hours before using the vacuum — at least if you want it to last more than a few minutes.

When you’re putting the accessories in the case, you’ll notice that there isn’t space for all of them. The mini power brush and the extra filter both don’t have a spot, so you’ll need to find space for them somewhere else.

Generally, however, the set-up process is easy and we don’t think anyone will have issues with it.

Special features

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There are plenty of things we like about the Tineco A11 Hero, but the first and most important is that it’s powerful.

Before the A11 Hero, I had a relatively weak and cheap vacuum, so using the A11 Hero opened my eyes to what a clean carpet in my home should look like. The old vacuum left my floor clean-ish, but not clean like it is now. Coupled with the fact that there are a good amount of accessories for cleaning corners and tight areas, this is a really versatile vacuum.

It was able to clean up most of my spills quickly and easily even on the first go-over. It picked up dust with ease, and also picked up larger spills like cereal, and even things like confetti.

We also tested the vac in a variety of different settings and rooms for comparison. For starters, we vacuumed a carpet that got cleaned regularly with our old, cheap vacuum — and the difference was night and day. The vacuum made the carpet look a whole lot cleaner than it did before.

Then we moved to a room in the house that almost never got vacuumed and again, it was able to pick up the majority of dust and dirt on the first go-over. Finally, we tested the vacuum on a hard floor in the kitchen, and found that it worked perfectly fine there too. It easily picked up crumbs and other bits and pieces without any issues.

If you’ve ever used a vacuum with a cord, you’re probably used to plugging and unplugging it every time you move into a different room. But with the Tineco A11 Hero, as long as you can vacuum your floor within the time limits of the battery, you won’t need to worry about power — or cords. You’ll get up to 30 minutes of use out of a charge, but if that’s not enough, the vacuum comes with a second battery that is super easy to switch out. The base can charge both batteries at once, so they’ll be ready to go the next time you need to switch one out.

There are also small details that make the Tineco A11 Hero even easier to use, like having LED lights on the power brush so you can see your floors better as you vacuum and being able to use the vac without getting a hand cramp. There’s a switch to keep that trigger pushed in so you don’t have to hold it down the entire time you’re vacuuming.

The vacuum also has a MAX mode, which is great for the extra embedded spots of dirt and grime that you want to suck up.

The Tineco A11 Hero is pretty quiet too. It’s not completely silent, but it’s far quieter than the vast majority of other vacuums, and we found that you could continue to have a normal-volume conversation even while the vacuum is on.

Cons to consider

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The storage base that doubles as a charging station is a little bulky. We would be fine with the bulk if it housed all the included accessories, but it doesn’t. The extra filter and mini power brush would have to be stored elsewhere.

But aside from that, there’s little to complain about. It’s reasonably priced for a cordless vac and certainly cheaper than any similar offering from Dyson — especially those with similar run times.

The bottom line

The Tineco A11 Hero is an excellent cordless vac with great cleaning power, a lightweight design, and a great selection of accessories.

There’s also a different version of the vacuum called the A11 Master that comes with additional accessories like a second full-sized power brush, a soft-roller power brush, dusting brush, angle tube, an extension hose, and a long soft crevice tool. It’s worth it if you want the extras, though it will cost a bit more at $359.90.

If you need something really powerful, then perhaps you’ll need to look at something from Dyson. But that’s perhaps the main difference to consider here. A Dyson vac offers a little more oomph but a majority of people won’t need that extra power for regular use, so the trade-off is a much lower price tag.

That said, the A11 Hero was able to clean everything we threw at it with ease, and is super easy to use in the process. We’d recommend the Tineco A11 Hero to anyone that needs a new vacuum for day-to-day use at home.

Pros: Lightweight, easy to use, powerful, well-designed, relatively inexpensive, good battery life

Cons: Base is a bit bulky and doesn’t house all the accessories