The Vacuum Wars are ON! – Not sure what to buy at the premium level? Read On.
The Brand
Narwal is the lesser known robot vacuum brand. It is a Silicon Valley born disruptor with mop-first ambition and a focus on out engineering its bigger global rivals. Founded in 2016 by Junbin Zhang after a post-dinner cleanup epiphany, Narwal manufactures out of Jiangsu’s robotics heartland. Its innovation edge on global leaders like Ecovacs is its self-cleaning mop stations, DirtSense™ grime detection, and over 100 patents spanning SLAM, 3D perception, and AI object recognition. It has worked with over 700 researchers and scientists from across the globe and has over 1200+ patented technologies. While a newcomer, it’s scaled fast across North America, Europe, and Asia, positioning itself not as a gadget maker, but as a lifestyle brand. This is the first time we have tested a Narwal.
Unboxing
Opening the Narwal Flow is relatively easy for a device at this price point. The packaging is thoughtfully designed with clear compartmentalization for each component. Inside, I find the robot itself, the docking station, power cables, and a modest selection of accessories including spare filters and cleaning solution.
The robot has a sleek, modern aesthetic in white with subtle design flourishes that avoid the overtly “tech” look of some competitors. The docking station is admittedly large. So I clear a space near my dining table.
Set Up
Initial setup is pretty straightforward. First, I download the app. Ahead of the AU launch it took a while, but the easiest way was to scan the QR code on the underside of the robot. The Narwal app guides me through the process with step-by-step instructions. I position the dock (ensuring adequate clearance as per the guidelines), connect to Wi-Fi, and let the Flow do its first exploratory run to map my ground floor inner west terrace.
The mapping run takes approximately 20 minutes. The robot navigates methodically, building an accurate floor plan that I can then customize in the app. Room divisions are mostly spot-on, requiring only minor adjustments to split my open-plan living area such as living room and kitchen into logical zones.
One small annoyance: the initial setup requires good lighting for optimal mapping. Running the first map at night with only ambient lighting results in a less accurate layout that needs redoing the following day.
The Narwal App
The app strikes a balance between comprehensive features and usability. The interface is intuitive, with key functions easily accessible. I schedule cleans, adjust suction and mopping intensity, set no-go zones which are really important if you have nervous pups (like mine), and monitor cleaning progress in real-time.
Customization options are extensive. Each room has individual settings for vacuum power and mopping wetness, which proves valuable, as I have a mix of hard floors and varied soiling levels. The app also provides cleaning reports with coverage maps, areas cleaned, and time taken. The bit I had a lot of fun with is the customisation. I am able to label areas such as – dining table, bed, chairs, sofa, etc which is very helpful around personalisation of my home. It’s kinda fun.
With two dogs, I can also set heavy clean areas near their food stations but also provide distance for their sleeping areas. I like its thoughtfulness around family living.
Integration with smart home ecosystems works well. Voice control through Google Assistant worked well, I don’t have Alexa, so I can’t comment on that its responsiveness.
Navigation
The Flow’s navigation is excellent, using a combination of LiDAR and visual sensors to navigate around obstacles with confidence. It handles furniture legs, floor transitions, and it’s able to jump over larger random objects (dog toys, charging cables, shoes) with impressive dexterity, in a way that other robots have been stuck on other tests. I am still waiting on a robot which can go upstairs on its own…
However, as I mentioned the app automatically creates carpet avoidance zones for my lounge area rugs. This isn’t mentioned prominently in the initial setup, and I only discover it when the Flow avoids my living room rugs and multiple runs. Diving into the app settings reveals the automatically generated zones, which I have to manually override. This makes sense from a protective standpoint (you don’t want mopping on carpets), but the implementation could be more transparent. A notification during setup explaining this feature would save confusion.
Once I adjust the settings, navigation is largely flawless. The Flow doesn’t bump into obstacles with the aggressive confidence of some cheaper models; instead, it slows and carefully navigates around objects. This gentler approach might add a few minutes to cleaning time, but my furniture thanks it.
Edge cleaning is where the Flow shows its class. It gets close to walls and navigates corners with a precision that leaves minimal untouched space. The flow ‘arm’ reaches out from the robot base and has impressive coverage.
I have dining room chairs with fairly high sections on the base and it did a good job but finally got stuck in a corner between a chair and our drinks trolley and no matter what, just couldn’t find its way out again. Over the weeks, this happened every time so the only way to stop it happening was to create no go zones in the app.
Features
It has a number of trade marked features starting with FlowWash™ track mopping with heated water, real-time infusion and wastewater extraction for streak-free, hygienic floors. CarpetFocus™ provides 22,000Pa suction and adaptive brush cover for a powerful, dust clean. The TwinAI Dodge Obstacle Avoidance recognises over 200 objects in real time for seamless navigation
EdgeReach™ precision mopping just 8mm from walls and corners and the DualFlow Tangle-Free System ensuring zero hair tangling – perfect for pet owners. So what is it like?
The FlowWash system is quite frankly AWESOME!! It lives up to the hype. Rather than the dual spinning pad system common in other brands or the sonic vibration approach others use, the Flow employs a continuous-flow mopping system. Clean water is constantly fed to the mop, while dirty water is simultaneously extracted. Think of it as a miniature carpet cleaner for hard floors. It’s a gamechanger hands down.
This feature alone it outperforms any Ecovacs, and others I have tested. Dried-on spills that would require multiple passes from a traditional robot mop come up in a single pass with the Flow. My kitchen floors with cooking splatter, bathroom tiles with product residue, high-traffic areas with ground-in dirt, the Flow handles them all with a thoroughness that genuinely impresses me. There are no residues, lines. It’s clean-perfect.
Suction power is at the upper tier of current models. It handles most things well from from fine dust to cereal crumbs, to greyhound hair without issue on both hard floors and my carpets upstairs. My Dyson handheld still does a better job, but its pretty good.
The self-cleaning station works well. The mop pads wash with hot water with adaptive temperature control at between 45-80°C, then air-dry to prevent mildew, a crucial feature in humid climates. The system also manages clean and dirty water automatically, and emptying the dustbin into the station’s bag works. Battery life is sufficient for my test home on standard settings, with the Flow returning to dock for recharging and then resuming where it left off when needed. I do need to add solution to the water bucket, but that’s fine by me.
It is a relatively large (high profile robot) and it can’t get underneath my low profile King Furniture sofa or my tall boy. So I wonder when the features of this robot get slimlined. This is the biggest draw back for my cleaning needs right now and where a robot excells over a hand held.
The Result
After three weeks of daily use, my floors have never looked better with so little effort. I would say the Flow excels on hard surfaces, where the continuous-flow mopping delivers results that rival manual mopping for everything except the most stubborn, aged stains. I have a Tineco Steam and its up to the challenge of a pure play upright. That’s saying something.
Corners and edges are cleaner than with previous robot vacuums I’ve tested. High-traffic areas maintain their appearance between deep cleans. The lounge floor, always the acid test given muddy paws and dirt – is more consistently clean rather than just “less dirty.” The other area I think is a little better is that the noise levels are reasonable. The vacuuming mode is audible but not intrusive; the mop washing cycle at the dock is slightly louder.
The Verdict
What are we Addicted to? It’s the most significant mopping advancement I’ve tested in a robot vacuum. Its the best in the market right now hands down. It clears difficult to navigate objects reasonably well.
What do we need to be more Addicted? Automatic carpet avoidance needs clearer explanation during setup. The large dock does require significant space and the initial mapping requires good lighting. It’s height prevents it from cleaning under low profile furniture.