Gtech Orca Hard Floor Cleaner Review: Cleaning Hard Floors Made Easy

In one look

Expert Rating

Benefits

Vertical loading support
Fast
Self-cleaning

The inconvenients

Exclusive detergent
Sealed floors only
Working too close to vertical can cause a power outage

Our verdict

With sanitized cleaning, 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 on the wet/dry vacuum market that look very similar. Gtech’s Orca joins vacuums from Tineco, Ultenic and Eureka, all of which have similar designs and features. That’s not necessarily a bad thing: they’re designed to do a job and do it well.

You can find out how they all compare in our roundup 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 construction

Cordless broom
Two water tanks
300 ml cleaning solution

Open the box and you’ll see the main body of the Orca in glossy black and white: this includes the motor, a 25V battery, the attached vacuum head/cleaning roller and the two transparent water tanks.

The clean tank at the rear holds 0.8L and the waste tank at the front holds 0.7L. A supplied roller cover can also be placed on top of the cleaning roller. The controls are located on the handle with a colour digital display screen above the trigger, the power button below and a button to start the self-cleaning process at the rear.

With the handle attached to the body, the unit weighs approximately 4.1 kg and is 115 cm high. The vacuum/cleaning head is approximately 28 cm wide and 22 cm deep.

The other key element is a square charging base, approximately 32cm by 28cm, with an accessory holder, charger, tube brush and the 300ml bottle of cleaning solution, which has a scent reminiscent of cologne, daisies and white linen.

When you open the box, the Orca looks complicated to assemble, but it’s not. You simply slide the long handle into the main body of the device until you hear a click. Then you set up the charging stand somewhere relatively close to a power outlet, somewhere where there’s room to keep the Orca upright while it charges, and plug the charger into the stand and a power outlet.

The Orca’s battery comes partially charged, but Gtech recommends that you fully charge it before your first use of the device. This will take around five hours. This will give you around 20 minutes of cleaning time or 40 minutes of vacuuming time.

One of the Orca’s coolest features is the voice assistant that tells you what it’s doing at any given moment – for example, that it’s charging when you put the device back on the cradle – and that voice has such a British accent it’s like someone has teleported a Sandhurst sergeant into your kitchen.

When you’re ready to use the Orca, fill the water tank to the maximum level and add three capfuls of cleaning solution if desired. Then, simply tilt the handle, press the power button until the blue lights on the front of the Orca illuminate and the display turns on, and you’re ready to go.

The Orca has three functions – four if you include the self-cleaning mode. You can choose between vacuuming and mopping functions via the digital touchscreen.

Water Sterilization is the cleaning function. In this mode, the Orca dispenses and collects water while the cleaning roller rotates. Eco Vacuum is the vacuum-only function, in which the Orca does not dispense water, but collects it. You use it to clean up spills or dry the floor. Since this is an eco mode, it runs at a lower power and has a longer run time than Max Suction, which does the same thing as the Eco Vacuum but at a higher power and with a shorter run time.

The self-cleaning feature is not automatic. You activate it with a button on the handle and it cleans the Orca cleaning roller while it is on the charging stand.

Features and Performance

Fast
Easy to maneuver
Electrolyzed water

We started by testing the Orca’s cleaning ability. It’s a quick little trick, a bit like steering a mop on roller skates – and there’s no significant strain on the forearm as the device weighs just 4.1kg. The joint between the body and the roller head has a nice smooth 45-degree angle of movement from right to left, and it’s very easy to push.

We covered a large area of floor space very quickly – about 50m² in less than 15 minutes – and the cleaning was even and streak-free. There is just one problem to be aware of: if you put the Orca back upright, it turns off. This can be a problem in small spaces, or until you get used to it.

For the second cleaning test, we added a little cleaning solution to the water and started cleaning a tiled floor. The smell was pleasant, not overpowering, and added a delicate clean scent to the air. You can’t use other detergents with the Orca; you have to use the Gtech solution, which doesn’t seem to be readily available at the time of restocking.

The Orca is a fast little thing, a bit like steering a mop on roller skates.

The Orca also has a built-in electrolysis process to sanitize the water, eliminating bacteria, viruses, spores, and odors. We have to say that even when we accidentally left water in the water overnight, there was no stagnant water smell the next day, so it seems the technology is working.

We then vacuumed a spill using the Eco Vacuum function. The Orca absorbed the excess water very quickly, leaving a slightly damp floor.

The Orca isn’t a vacuum cleaner per se, but we wondered what would happen if we put it to a flour test. We were surprised to find that on Max Vacuum, the Orca picked up all the flour in one go from the area. So it’s safe to say that the suction and pick-up are good.

A view of flour on the floor before the Gtech Orca flour test.

Cleaning the waste water tank afterwards was a bit messy, but the tank simply comes apart and can be rinsed under the tap and left to dry.

After use, you can start the self-cleaning function. Make sure the clean water tank is filled to at least the minimum fill level, place the Orca on the charging stand and press the self-cleaning button, marked with three stars. You can choose between standard cleaning or deep cleaning, and the Orca will dispense water and rotate the cleaning roller to clean the fabric.

This process is a little noisy, at a noise level similar to a low-wattage hair dryer, and you’ll get a touch of spit at the front of the roller, but it removes a lot of waste water from the cleaning roller.

Pricing and Availability

At this point, the Gtech Orca is not available in the US. In the UK, you can buy it from Gtech, Robert Dyas, B&Q and AO.com. There is no price advantage to buying it from any of these retailers – it costs £349.99 in all cases and is more expensive on Amazon.

Its price puts it head-to-head with the Tineco Floor One S3, which has a very similar feature set but has been knocked down from its launch price by £399 and is now available on 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 roundup of the best wet and dry vacuums.

Should you buy the Gtech Orca?

If you have a lot of hard floors that need regular cleaning and don’t have the budget for an expensive modular wet and dry vacuum like the Dyson V15s Submarine, or you struggle with a heavy-duty vacuum, the Orca is a great option. It gets the job done and is well worth the price.