After MUCH research I felt the Tineco Pure One S15 Pet Ex Smart (with an extra battery-$599) was by far the closest competitor to the Dyson V12 Detect Slim ($542) which is arguably Dyson's best stick vacuum, (yes, even better than the V15 Detect because it is their first and only vacuum that has an on/off button instead of a trigger you have to constantly hold down to operate, and it is lighter and quieter than the V15 and yet plenty powerful to do all your cleaning.)
So I bought both the Tineco S15 and the Dyson V12. If I had purchased an extra battery with the Dyson the price of the two would have been basically the same, with the Dyson being a little more.
Here is my breakdown of why I decided to keep the Tineco S15 and return the Dyson:
Dyson V12 Canister problems:
The biggest problem I had with the Dyson V12 was how hard it was to clean out the canister. Just simply pushing the lever down to eject the dirt wasn’t enough. My wife has long hair just past the shoulder and her hair would get caught with other debris in the upper portion of the filter chamber, the part that the lever is supposed to “scrape” past and push all the debris down and out of the canister. NOPE. It doesn’t work at all.
What's more, the Dyson V12 canister lever never once emptied the debris, and I couldn’t even reach it with my fingers to get it out, because it gets trapped beyond the section reachable by your hand. So, you have to eject the entire canister and remove it completely from the unit to truly clean it all out. Then, getting that canister to slide back onto the vacuum is not easy. You have to carefully align it just so and it takes a few tries. And to make matters worse, once you close it all up again you still have a few straggling hairs that are still hanging halfway out the seal flopping in the wind that catch your eye almost every time. It’s just a terrible system.
The Tineco S15, on the other hand, works flawlessly every time. It simply opens up and drops out the hair and debris and all the hair is pushed to the bottom. Its design is soooo much smarter and more effective. This issue alone was enough of a reason to skip the Dyson and keep the Tineco S15. But there’s a lot more…
Dyson V12 Cleaning head problems:
The next biggest issue I had with the Dyson is that I needed two separate heads to clean the hard floor and the carpet. They say the Dyson V12 motorbar is supposed to do both, but it really is not great for the hard floor and instead spits stuff around and is super noisy. I hated using it. The Dyson fluffy head with the laser was much better for the hard floor but couldn’t do anything else.
The Tineco S15 has one motorized cleaning head to rule them all…and it works great on carpet and on hard floors AND, like the Dyson motorbar head it's made with a special system to not allow hair to get caught in it. Although they are both supposed to self clean, only the Tineco S15 motorized head actually did it. The Dyson always had at least some hair caught in it. I was so impressed by the Tineco S15 head, it just works every time and all that hair goes up into the canister and then out in the garbage. Just brilliant.
And the wheels on the Tineco S15 head were also superior, it has nice big rubberized wheels that help you steer the vacuum easily and are quiet on all floors. The Dyson wheels are super small and hard plastic and noisy and look like they are going to break and start scratching my floors.
Also, although the Dyson fluffy head works nicely but you have to clean it with soap and water every month. The Tineco S15’s motorized head that works on all floors never needs to be cleaned. Another win for the Tineco S15
Dyson V12 Light problems:
Sure there is a laser on the Dyson fluffy head, but I’d rather just have a regular light because the laser makes everything look like dirt because it shoots across the floor illuminating any and all indentions or protrusions, any nicks in the hardwood would appear as dirt. This is super annoying because you can’t see what’s what.
With the Tineco S15 you get a nice set of LED lights across the front of the cleaning head so you can actually see the hard floor or carpet and discern for yourself what is dirt and what is not. And the Dyson V12 motorbar head doesn’t even have any light on it, so you never get to see into dark places on carpeted floors. Another win for the Tineco S15
Dyson V12 Storage problems:
The Tineco S15 has a free-standing base that holds the entire vacuum and can be put anywhere. It charges the battery that is in the vacuum itself when the vacuum is docked while at the same time charging a separate battery that is docked into the base. This is a brilliant design. You can essentially store your vacuum anywhere and don’t need to screw something into your wall all the while always having an extra charged battery for those long cleaning days. Even if you had an extra Dyson battery there is no way for you to charge them both at the same time. Another win for the Tin...