Over the years I've become quite the floor-cleaning expert. It's not like it's something I'm passionate about - quite the opposite, in fact. Being the designated vacuumer/mopper in our household means I'll try just about anything to make the job easier.

Which, it turns out, dovetails nicely into something I AM passionate about; gadgets.

I have now trialled a long list of stick vacuums and robot cleaners - many of which are excellent products and have the ability to clean both carpet and hard floors.

The high-end robots generally do a great job of mopping as well as vacuuming, while the odd stick vacuum comes with some kind of mop-head attachment.

However, at this point, when it comes to mopping, the robots win. They generally achieve a more consistent, quick-drying, streak-free result than the labour-intensive addon attachments for the manually-operated vacuums.

But what if I've had my priorities all wrong?

While the Tineco FLOOR ONE S7 Stretch is for hard floors only, it still vacuums as well as mopping, although the focus is clearly on the "wet work" side of the equation.

It comes pretty much ready to go, straight out of the box, other than you having to install the handle into place on the head of the device.

Right away, I appreciated how the FLOOR ONE S7 Stretch can be left standing on its own in the middle of a room, with the handle clicking easily in and out of its upright position. This just makes things that much more convenient when it comes to filling and emptying the tanks.

There are two tanks - a clean water reservoir that slides into place on the top of the cleaning head and a dirty water chamber that slots into the handle. The latter is actually a three-chamber container, which ingeniously separates solids from liquids and prevents any moisture getting anywhere near the motor.

These tanks have a capacity of one litre and 0.8L respectively, which I've found is plenty to do an entire clean of the hard floors in my home - both wooden and tiled. And if you're worried about pushing the weight of all that water around, because the clean tank sits on top of the cleaning head, it carries the majority of the load, not the handle.

There's an app - because of course there's an app - called Tineco Life. The main purpose of this, as far as I can tell, is to install any firmware upgrades although you can also view a log of the dates and durations of your cleaning sessions (not sure why) and you can set the volume of the voice notifications - which of course, most normal people will immediately turn off completely.

What is far more useful is the large colour LED screen on the top of the waste bin. This gives you an accurate display of remaining battery life and tells you what mode you're in; Auto, Max or Suction. The FLOOR ONE S7 Stretch also utilises the Tineco iLoop Smart Sensor which automatically detects how much of a mess it's dealing with and adjusts the water flow and suction accordingly - this is also represented on the screen; Red means dirty. Aqua is clean.

Most of the time you can get a dazzlingly clean floor just in Auto mode, but for major emergencies, you may need the extra attention Max offers and if you're cleaning up a particularly wet mess, it might pay to resort to Suction mode to eliminate any actual puddles before proper cleaning can commence.

There's a bottle of Tineco Floor Cleaning solution included in the box, which will probably go a long way (if you use any at all) because you only need to add capful with every full tank of clean water. I'm not sure how much extra cleaning power it provides but I feel like it leaves behind a faint "you've-just-given-everything-a-really-decent-going-over" smell.

Remember, this is a vacuum as well as a mop and if there's one thing I've come to detest when cleaning a house inhabited by two long-haired ladies and a perpetually moulting doggo, it's hair tangled around the cleaning brush. That's where the DualBlock Anti-Tangle system comes in; a combination of straight and comb scrapers de-shed the roller brush as it spins at 450rpm.

The roller brush also extends right to both edges, getting you to within half a centimetre of your baseboards which is very helpful in tight areas like the space between the toilet and the wall, where no robot ever dares to go. And this is where the "Stretch" component of the FLOOR ONE S7 comes in; the handle can actually fold down completely flat without impeding the suction power into the dirty water tank at all. That means you can get right under furniture and cabinetry with a clearance of just 13cm or more, as you'll see me demonstrate in the video below.

Battery life is impressive, given how much is going on with the cleaning head. You'll get around 50 minutes cleaning in Auto mode. Any longer than that and you're just skiting about how big your mansion is.

The result is a shining floor which is dry to walk on in a matter of seconds - not minutes, with no streaks or stray water drops lying around.

Then the dirty water tank easily unclips, with the hair and other solids trapped in their own, dry compartment while the waster water can be easily tipped out of another. 

But perhaps the feature that has impressed me the most is the FlashDry self-cleaning system, all built into the charging station. This is a similar process to what the more advanced robot vacuums I've reviewed do to clean and dry their mopping systems; thoroughly rinsing the mopping roller with clean water heated to 85° then drying it out to keep it fluffy and avoid any unpleasant odours. Except, with those other systems the drying process takes hours. 

With the FLOOR ONE S7 Stretch it takes 5 minutes. Done. Sure, it gets a little loud as hot air is forced through the whole system, including the filter and all the tubes, but you're literally home and dry in just 5 minutes. Incredible. 

The Tineco FLOOR ONE S7 Stretch is currently on special for NZ$899.00 including shipping, with a spare filter, a spare roller and a cleaning brush included in the box.

That may seem a lot for a mop - but if your whole house is hard floors or you just hate the streaks, splashes, puddles and drying of doing it manually, I can assure you, this is one of the best cleans I've seen. I just wish I could use it on my carpet too.

Click here for more information and pricing on the Tineco FLOOR ONE S7 Stretch.