Several years ago I bought a couple of relatively inexpensive area rugs that I’d planned to replace after training my new puppy. That puppy is now four years old. The same rugs are still on the floor, and until recently, they were pretty filthy.

Professional carpet cleaning is expensive, and in my case out of the question since it would far exceed the cost of the rugs. I thought about getting a home carpet cleaner but decided the only way I’d opt in is if I could find a machine that performed more or less like a vacuum. And I didn’t think that existed until I came across the Tineco Carpet One Cruiser.

I spent three hour-long cleaning sessions testing the Cruiser on area rugs and upholstered furniture in my apartment. It’s as easy to store and maneuver as an upright—and one with a relatively compact design that’s aesthetically miles better than the competition.

There are a few drawbacks, including that it’s intended for use on low-pile carpet only and the water tank is small and requires frequent emptying. But overall, you won’t find another option that’s better suited to everyday cleaning or performs as well.

Assembling the Carpet One Cruiser was no more complicated than connecting the arm to the main body and sliding the handheld cleaning nozzle onto the attachment hose. Along with cleaning solution and pre-treatment stain spray, the box contained the dock to run the unit’s self-cleaning cycle, a cleaning brush, and a hair removal tool.

With all the components in place, I filled the water tank and added two capfuls of cleaning solution. The tank disengages with a button at the top and slides back into place with a satisfying click.

Two hooks on the back of the arm keep the long cord neatly wrapped. If, like me, you’re used to a vacuum with a retractable cord, you may find that it gets in your way while you’re cleaning. Still, I can’t knock the design because storing the cord internally would almost certainly add bulk to the carpet cleaner’s streamlined design.

With sensors that detect dirt and moisture levels to auto-adjust the intensity of cleaning and drying, the Carpet One Cruiser is a sophisticated machine. However, operation couldn’t be more straightforward.

There are three cleaning settings: automatic, which is the default; maximum, for set-in stains; and accessory, for using the handheld tool. There’s also a drying setting to use at the end of the cleaning process (more on that below). All this info is shown on the color display, conveniently located near the top of the handle.

I mostly kept the Carpet One Cruiser in auto mode and let it automatically change the suction and cleaning power based on the amount of dirt detected in the carpet. Within a minute of running the machine over the rug, there was black, murky water in the tank (and yes, I was both elated and horrified). I could feel the strength of the suction in the handle, and the rugs were visibly cleaner after just one pass. The only time I kicked it up to the max setting was to remove crusty ground-in peanut butter, which the appliance lifted after a few passes.

Hooking up the handheld accessory requires flipping down a panel on the main cleaning head and plugging the accessory onto the attachment hose. At the opposite end is the suction head fitted with a removable brush roll and an integrated spray nozzle below. Once the pieces are attached and engaged, the unit automatically switches to the accessory setting. Easy peasy.

I used the handheld tool on an upholstered chair and areas of the rug under furniture. There’s a trigger below the head to spray the cleaning solution, which comes out fast and at full force. There’s no variability in the trigger, so I was initially concerned about soaking the rug. I eventually got the hang of it, but there’s definitely a learning curve. You may want to test it over the sink before you start cleaning. All that said, overall I was impressed with the handheld’s strong suction and noted how quickly dirty water accumulated in the tank.

When I first read that the Carpet One Cruiser had powered wheels, it didn’t really catch my attention. The feature seemed more like a nice-to-have rather than a necessity. Wow, was I wrong.

There’s a slide button on the unit’s side to choose how much of a power assist you want—low, medium, or high. Pressing the foot pedal and tilting back the arm is what engages the feature, which takes some getting used to because you need to be prepared for the vacuum to start moving forward right away. It’s sort of like turning on cruise control in a car, and let me tell you, the Cruiser cruises.

When I turned on the carpet cleaner for the first time, I hadn’t realized the powered wheels were engaged on medium. It was only after turning the feature to low that I learned how helpful the feature actually is. For me, pushing the 22-pound machine across the carpet was challenging without a medium or high level of assistance.

The carpet-drying setting, which expels hot air at 167 degrees Fahrenheit, is among the Cruiser’s standout features and perhaps the one I was most keen to try. It’s possible to turn it on at any point while you’re cleaning by pressing a button on the handle. So there’s no need to wait until you’re finished to run the machine over the carpet a second time to dry.

For the purposes of testing, I toggled back and forth between cleaning and drying to gain a sense of how well the carpet cleaner switched gears. I was delighted with its performance. Generally speaking, for every cleaning pass I made, it took three or four passes to dry the carpet.

A red light at the base switches on while the carpet is wet, and it turns blue when the area the machine passes over is dry. Likewise, there’s a colored ring on the display below the handle that gradually changes from red to blue as the carpet dries.

I admittedly expected my feet to get wet when I slid my slippers off to step on the carpet after drying, but I felt no moisture. To be sure, I put on socks and walked across the rug. They remained bone-dry.

My biggest gripe with the Carpet One Cruiser is the tank capacity, which is about one gallon. What isn’t obvious is that roughly half of that is for clean water and the other half is where dirty water accumulates.

I was able to clean half of an 8 by 10–foot rug, which took about 10 minutes, before I needed to refill. In addition to the other half of the rug, I had a 3.5 by 16–foot hallway runner, plus a large upholstered chair to clean. After six refills, I decided to call it quits. I finished the rugs, but I couldn’t deal with emptying and refilling the tank again to finish cleaning the chair.

Much like the powered wheels, the self-cleaning function was a welcome surprise. I initially thought of it as the same type of feature on my oven, which I honestly never use. For me, it’s easier to wipe up spills after each use rather than make time for a separate process.

But with the carpet cleaner, there’s essentially no way to clean it out without disassembling the parts, and who wants to do that? And it’s pretty important to put away a carpet cleaner clean and dry, or else mold accumulates, and carpet fibers clog the airways.

Getting it done is as easy as parking the machine in the dock and turning on the self-cleaning setting. That’s literally it, and the whole thing takes two minutes. Water is flushed through the systems and then the drying cycle kicks in. The dock is essentially a plastic platform with grooves to keep the carpet cleaner in place, so there’s no maintenance required.

At $600, the Tineco Carpet One Cruiser is certainly an investment but one that I fully recommend making, even with the downside of its limited tank capacity. Sure, there are other carpet cleaners that cost less and may match it in performance, such as the Bissell Revolution HydroSteam, which we recommend as the best for most people, or the easy-to-use Hoover SmartWash. But none are as lightweight or have a modern, streamlined design like the Carpet One Cruiser. All in all, it delivers commercial-quality cleaning in a package that’s primed for everyday use on low-pile carpeting.

Buy the Tineco Carpet One Cruiser