Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Upright stand charging
- Speedy
- Self-cleaning
Cons
- Proprietary detergent
- Sealed floors only
- Working too close to upright can trigger power off
Our Verdict
With sanitised mopping, vacuuming and a self-cleaning mode, the Gtech Orca is a quick, easy and lightweight way to clean hard floors.
There are a number of models in the wet and dry vacuum market that are very much alike. Gtech’s Orca joins cleaners from Tineco, Ultenic and Eureka which all have a similar build and feature set. That’s not necessarily a bad thing: they’re built to do a job and do it well.
You can find out how they all compare in our round-up of the best wet and dry vacuums. But to find out what the Gtech Orca is like to use and decide if it’s the right buy for you, read on.
Design and Build
- Cordless mop
- Two water tanks
- 300ml of cleaning solution
Open the box and you’ll see the Orca’s main body in high-gloss black and white: this comprises the motor, a 25V battery, the attached vacuum head/mopping roller, and the two transparent water tanks.
The clean tank at the back holds 0.8l and the waste tank at the front holds 0.7l. There’s also a supplied roller cover you can place on top of the mopping roller. Controls are situated on the handle with a colour digital display screen above the trigger, the power button underneath and a button to start the self-cleaning process at the back.
Once you’ve fitted the handle onto the body, the appliance weighs about 4.1 kg and stands 115cm high. The vacuum/mopping head is roughly 28cm wide and 22cm deep.
The other key part is a squarish charging base, roughly 32cm by 28cm, with an accessories holder, charger, a tubular brush, and the 300ml bottle of cleaning solution, which has a scent reminiscent of cologne, daisies and white linen.
Upon opening the box, the Orca looks complicated to put together, but it really isn’t. You simply slide the long handle into the main body of the appliance until you hear a click. Then you set up the charging stand somewhere relatively near a plug point, in a spot where there’s space to keep the Orca upright while it’s charging, and plug in the charger to the stand and to a power point.
The Orca’s battery comes partly charged, but Gtech advises you to fully charge before your first use of the appliance. This will take around five hours. From this, you’ll get roughly 20 minutes of mopping time or 40 minutes of vacuuming time.
One of the Orca’s most interesting features is the voice assistant that tells you what it’s doing at any given time – for example, that it’s charging when you place the appliance back on the stand – and this voice has an accent that’s so British, it’s as though someone has teleported a Sandhurst sergeant into your kitchen.
When you’re ready to use the Orca, fill the water tank up to the maximum level and add three capfuls of cleaning solution if you wish. Then you simply tilt the handle, press the power button until the blue lights on the front of the Orca illuminate and the display lights up, and you’re ready to go.
The Orca has three functions – four if you include the self-cleaning mode. You choose between vacuuming and mopping functions via the touchscreen digital display.
Sterilising Water is the mopping function. In this mode, the Orca dispenses and collects water as the mopping roller turns. Eco Vacuum is the vacuum-only function, in which the Orca doesn’t dispense water, but does collect it. You use this for cleaning up spills or drying the floor. As it’s an eco mode, it runs on a lower power and has a longer running time than the Max Vacuum mode, which does the same thing as Eco Vacuum but at higher power and with a shorter run time.
The self-clean function isn’t automatic. You activate it using a button on the handle, and it cleans the Orca mopping roller while it’s on the charging stand.
Features and Performance
- Speedy
- Easy to manoeuvre
- Electrolysed water
We began by testing the Orca’s mopping capability. It’s a quick little thing, a bit like directing a mop on roller skates – and there’s no significant forearm strain because the appliance only weights 4.1kg. The hinged joint between the body and the roller head has a good, fluid 45-degree angle of movement from right to left, and it’s very easy to push.
We covered a lot of floor space very quickly – roughly 50m2 in under 15 minutes – and the mopping was even and the result non-streaky. There’s only one issue to be aware of: if you pull the Orca back to an upright position, it’ll switch off. This could be an issue in smaller spaces, or until you get used to it.
For the second mopping test, we added some of the cleaning solution to the water and began to mop a tiled floor. The smell was pleasant, not over-strong, and added a delicate clean scent to the air. You can’t use other detergents with the Orca; you need to use the Gtech solution, which doesn’t seem to be readily available when it comes time to restock.
The Orca is a quick little thing, a bit like directing a mop on roller skates
The Orca also has an inbuilt electrolysing process to sanitise water, eliminating bacteria, viruses, spores and odours. We have to say that even when we accidentally left water in overnight, there was no standing water smell the next day, so it seems that the technology works.
We moved onto vacuuming up a spill using the Eco Vacuum function. The Orca took up excess water very quickly, leaving a slightly damp floor.
The Orca is not a vacuum cleaner per se, but we wondered what would happen if we put it through a flour test. We were astonished to find that, on Max Vacuum, the Orca picked up all the flour with just one stroke over the area. So we can safely say: the suction and pick-up are good.
Alex Greenwood / Foundry
Alex Greenwood / Foundry
Alex Greenwood / Foundry
Alex Greenwood / Foundry
Alex Greenwood / Foundry
Alex Greenwood / Foundry
Cleaning the wastewater tank afterwards was somewhat messy, but the tank just pulls apart and can be rinsed under the tap, and left out to dry.
After use, you can start the self-cleaning function. Ensure the clean water tank is filled at least to the minimum fill level, set the Orca into the charging stand, and press the self-cleaning button, which is marked with three stars. You’re offered a choice between a standard clean or a deep clean, and the Orca will dispense water and spin the mopping roller to clean the fabric.
This process is a touch noisy, at a similar noise level to a hairdryer on low power, and you will get a touch of spitting at the front of the roller, but it does remove a lot of wastewater from the mopping roller.
Price and Availability
At this stage, the Gtech Orca isn’t available in the US. In the UK, you can buy it from Gtech, Robert Dyas, B&Q and AO.com. There’s no price advantage from buying from any of these retailers – it’s £349.99 across the board and it’s more expensive at Amazon.
Its price puts it head-to-head with the Tineco Floor One S3, which has a very similar feature set but has come down from its £399 launch price and is now available from Amazon for £339. At the time of writing, there’s an even better deal on the Tineco Floor One S5 Extreme, which is on sale on the Tineco website for £279, down from £399.
All of these models are very effective hard floor cleaners and your best bet may well be to see what’s on offer at the time you want to buy.
You can compare models and see all our top recommendations in our round-up of the best wet and dry vacuums.
Should you buy the Gtech Orca?
If you have a lot of hard floors that need regular mopping, and don’t have the budget to spend on a pricey modular wet and dry vacuum such as the Dyson V15s Submarine, or if you’ll struggle with a heavy vacuum, the Orca is an excellent option. It does the job and is well worth its price.
