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A robust robotic vacuum and mop that cleans its personal mopping pads.
Execs
- Good base station design
- Mop washes & dries itself
- Tangle-free curler brush
- Robust suction
- Impressively silent
- Lengthy battery life
Cons
- Novel mud bag design isn’t nice
- Flawed mapping system
I’ve personally examined greater than 200 totally different robotic vacuums throughout my time at BGR. For sure, it takes lots to impress me nowadays. But the Narwal Freo X Extremely robotic vacuum and mop combo actually managed to impress me with a novel design and a number of other glorious options. It’s not excellent, although, and I’ll talk about two large flaws with Narwal’s newest flagship robotic.
Since robotic vacuums are ubiquitous nowadays, I’m not going to bore BGR readers with all of the minutia that they already know. I’ll go away that to the spam blogs that exist solely to recreation Google. As an alternative, I’ll give attention to the important thing options that separate the Narwal Freo X Extremely from different comparable flagship robotic vacuums, such because the Roomba Combo j9+. I’ll additionally spotlight the easiest Freo X Extremely options, in addition to the worst issues about this new mannequin.
For these inquisitive about shopping for one, it’s value noting that the Narwal Freo X Extremely is at the moment on a limited-time sale, so it can save you some cash. Narwal’s personal web site is providing a reduction, however you’ll save much more if you pick yours up from Amazon. The present Amazon deal drops this mannequin to its lowest value ever, however the low cost will solely be out there for a couple of weeks.
One final essential be aware: there’s a bit close to the tip of this overview with updates after prolonged use. This manner, you may see how the Narwal Freo X Extremely holds up throughout prolonged use and testing.
2025 replace
An entire lot has occurred since March 2024, which is after I first reviewed the Narwal Freo X Extremely. So many new robotic vacuum fashions have been launched, together with greater than 20 that I’ve personally examined. One in all them was the Narwal Freo Z Extremely, which is the successor to the Freo X Extremely mannequin.
The newer Z version does have a couple of good upgrades. For instance, the inner mud storage baggage that I complained about under on this overview have been changed by a particles bag within the base station. There are additionally a couple of different neat options, like a duster that attaches to the robotic to wipe your baseboards because it cleans.
Regardless of the upgrades, nonetheless, I nonetheless discover that I desire the Freo X Extremely mannequin. It leaves much less particles behind when it cleans, and it additionally sometimes does a greater job mopping. As a matter of truth, the Narwal Freo X Extremely remains to be my favourite general robotic vacuum and mop combo mannequin. For my cash, there isn’t a greater possibility on the market from any model.
Making the selection even simpler is the truth that the Narwal Freo X Extremely goes on sale with deep reductions on a regular basis now. On the time of this replace, it was discounted to just $899.99 instead of $1,399.99. At that value, it’s a really unbelievable worth and a no brainer.
The great
I’ll begin issues off by highlighting the very best Narwal Freo X Extremely options that actually blew me away. Given my 4.5-star ranking above, it shouldn’t come as a lot of a shock that there’s a complete lot extra to love about this spectacular new robotic vacuum and mop than there’s to dislike.
1. Narwal’s All-in-One Base Station is epic
Apart from iRobot’s Roomba Combo j9+, most flagship robotic vacuum and mop combo fashions nowadays have an auto-wash base station. That features the Narwal Freo X Extremely, and I really like this mannequin’s design greater than every other mannequin I’ve examined up to now.
For these of you who haven’t but skilled the auto-wash characteristic your self, right here’s the way it works:
When a typical mid-range and high-end robotic vacuum finishes cleansing, it returns to the bottom station, and the mud bin is robotically emptied. It’s an superior comfort characteristic that I refuse to stay with out at this level.
However some newer flagship robotic vacuum and mop combo units take this idea to the logical subsequent stage. As an alternative of solely emptying the mud bin, additionally they robotically wash and dry the mop pads.
The Narwal Freo X Extremely is the latest instance of a mannequin with an auto-wash characteristic for its mopping pads. And in my professional opinion, Narwal has the very best auto-wash base design up to now.
Inside the bottom station, there are two air-tight tanks in addition to a specially-design bottle of floor cleaner. One tank holds clear water, and it robotically refills the inner water tank within the robotic. The bottom station additionally dispenses a exact quantity of flooring cleaner every time it refills the robotic.
When the Freo X Extremely finishes a cleansing activity that includes mopping, the bottom station robotically flushes clear water via the mop pads to wash off dust and basic nastiness. That’s the place the second tank within the base station is available in. Because the mopping pads are cleaned, the soiled water is sucked up into that tank and saved there till it’s full.
Of be aware, the soiled water within the second tank actually begins to stink after some time. However the tanks within the Narwal Freo X Extremely base station are unbelievable, and no odor escapes in any respect. In addition they have a terrific zero-drip design that doesn’t leak in any respect whenever you carry them round. I’m solely mentioning the odor so that you’re not shocked the primary time the soiled water tank fills up, and it’s important to open it to empty it.
As soon as the twin mop pads on the Narwal Freo X Extremely are executed being rinsed, the bottom station makes use of warmth to dry and disinfect them. I’ve been testing this mannequin for practically two months now, and the mop pads are nonetheless good and clear. After some time, nonetheless, I do plan to scrub them with detergent.
2. Good for pet hair
The following large examine within the plus column for the Freo X Extremely is Narwal’s curler brush design. It very nicely could be the very best brush design I’ve ever seen on a robotic vacuum.
Some robotic vacuums have higher curler brush designs than others, and I’m the proper particular person to check them. That’s as a result of I’ve a canine that sheds nonstop, all yr spherical. The fixed onslaught of canine hair is without doubt one of the most important the explanation why I check so many robotic vacuums within the first place. With a robotic to deal with routine vacuuming a couple of instances per week, I don’t have to fret about seeing canine hair all over.
Each robotic vacuum I’ve ever examined must have its brush detangled after some time. Whether or not it’s a $100 low-cost mannequin or a $1,000+ Roomba, it must be detangled. Between all that canine hair and my lengthy hair, it’s inevitable. However within the practically two months that I’ve been testing the Narwal Freo X Extremely, I’ve but to should detangle this mannequin’s curler brush.
I’m certain it’ll should be detangled sooner or later, however I’m shocked at how lengthy the Narwal Freo X Extremely has been tangle-free.
3. The sound of silence
Sure, The Sound of Silence is a tremendous music. However the sound of silence is even higher whenever you’re speaking a few robotic vacuum.
Most robotic vacuums are fairly loud as they roll round your home, sucking up dust and dirt. Even louder is the thumping and clunking you hear as they roll off rugs, over half-rounds, and over every other uneven floor.
The Narwal Freo X Extremely is remarkably quiet, and I’m right here for it. I’m really blown away by how a lot quieter this mannequin is than the Roomba s9+ that I usually use on the primary flooring of my home. I’m usually in my basement gymnasium figuring out whereas my first-floor robotic vacuum runs, and the s9+ feels like a military is stomping round. In the meantime, I usually don’t even understand that the Narwal Freo X Extremely is operating till I come again upstairs.
4. Battery life
Battery life is one thing I failed to say after I first printed this overview. I’ve since realized that this was a giant omission, although, as a result of the Narwal Freo X Extremely has outstanding battery life.
Let’s begin with some context.
Once I’m not reviewing a brand new robotic vacuum, I used to have a Roomba s9+ on the primary flooring of my home. I had it set to run twice per week, with every cleansing job configured to take about two-thirds of the rooms on my first flooring. There was some overlap as a result of I wished it to hoover the kitchen and the lavatory throughout each jobs.
Why didn’t I’ve it set to hoover the complete first flooring every time, you ask? As a result of the battery on the s9+ couldn’t deal with vacuuming all of the rooms in a single move. It must return to the bottom station to recharge, after which it might resume the job a few hours later.
I do business from home, so listening to the vacuum run for therefore lengthy was annoying. Plus, my canine hates it so I attempt to spare him as a lot as I can by ending every job whereas he’s nonetheless sleeping upstairs.
Now, let’s examine that to the Narwal Freo X Extremely robotic vacuum and mop combo.
For the reason that Freo X Extremely has mapping points (we’ll get to that somewhat bit later), it’s set to wash my complete first flooring every time it runs. I nonetheless have it set to run twice every week. The primary time is only a vacuuming run, after which the second time it vacuums and mops my complete first flooring.
When it’s executed vacuuming and mopping all the first flooring of my residence, it nonetheless has about 60% of its cost remaining. And thoughts you, the primary flooring of my home undoubtedly isn’t small.
The Narwal Freo X Extremely’s battery life is unquestionably one other large examine within the plus column. Until you reside in a sprawling 10,000-square-foot mansion, it’s going to deal with every cleansing job with out having to cease to recharge midway via.
5 & 6. Robust suction & squeaky clear mopping
Final however definitely not least, the Narwal Freo X Extremely has admirably sturdy suction. Additionally, Narwal’s DirtSense mopping tech is excellent. These are gadgets 5 and 6 on my checklist of 5 issues I like in regards to the Freo X Extremely.
The place suction is anxious, Narwal says that the Freo X Extremely is rated at as much as 8,200Pa. That’s a really large quantity that’s spectacular on paper, however what does it imply in apply?
In my testing, the Narwal Freo X Extremely is close to the highest of the checklist in the case of sucking up various kinds of particles. Close to, however not at the highest.
I examined the Freo X Extremely with various kinds of dust, mud, canine hair, sprinkles, leaves, and even crushed-up bits of meals like pretzels and potato chips. It did a superb job of sucking all of it up, nevertheless it’s not fairly nearly as good as another high-end fashions just like the Roomba s9+. I did discover that a couple of bits have been left behind right here and there.
I’ve been utilizing the Freo X Extremely for a number of months now, so I wished to offer an replace on this mannequin’s vacuuming efficiency. After extra time with this mannequin, I do have a tendency to seek out that it tends to depart extra issues behind because the bag fills up. Normally, it’s little clumps of canine hair. I consider it’s a problem with the bag design, which you’ll examine shortly.
The difficulty seems to be extra prevalent when the mud bag is getting full. Additionally, it’s not an enormous downside. When it occurs, I sometimes solely discover one or two little hair tufts which were missed.
The dangerous
As you may see, there’s lots to love in regards to the Narwal Freo X Extremely. However nothing is ideal, after all, and this mannequin additionally has a couple of large flaws that have to be mentioned.
1. Narwal’s mud bag design
I listed Narwal’s All-in-One Base Station as probably the greatest issues in regards to the Freo X Extremely. That’s completely true. However there’s one factor that I actually don’t like about this base station.
My solely grievance about Narwal’s new All-in-One Base Station design is that it doesn’t suck the dust and dirt out of the robotic’s mud bin. As an alternative, this mannequin makes use of a special filter and dust bag combo to retailer as much as 7 weeks’ value of dust contained in the robotic itself.
The Freo X Extremely has a particular characteristic that compresses particles contained in the bag to retailer as a lot as potential, and it really works nicely. But it surely doesn’t make up for the comparatively small dimension of the mud bag.
These baggage have 1 liter of capability, which is first rate when coupled with Narwal’s compression tech. However comparable flagship robotic vacuums suck particles out of the robotic and into a bigger bag within the base station. These baggage usually have as a lot as 3 liters of capability.
I discover that Narwal’s 7-week estimate is fairly correct. However with different robotic vacuums that maintain particles in a bigger bag inside the bottom station, I can go as much as 3 months earlier than I’ve to vary baggage.
There’s additionally one other downside with Narwal’s mud bag design. It appears as if the robotic doesn’t have any type of sensor to point when the mud bag is full and wishes altering. As an alternative, there’s only a time-based notification within the app that provides you a message each seven weeks.
What occurs in case your mud bag fills up faster than that, you ask? Properly, right here’s your reply:
That is what the mud bag seemed like after round 5 weeks since I final modified the bag. I instructed you… my canine sheds A LOT.
As you may see, I didn’t obtain any notification that the bag was so full that it started to overflow. Consequently, canine hair and dirt started to again up into the Freo X Extremely’s consumption channel. That’s really the one means I knew that it was time to vary the particles assortment bag; I discovered little rolled-up hairballs after the robotic was executed vacuuming as a result of the bag was so full that it couldn’t maintain any extra particles.
Aside from the inconvenience of getting to change out the mud bag twice as usually — and typically not figuring out when the bag wants altering — there’s one other downside with Narwal’s design: the Freo X Extremely creates way more waste than with comparable fashions. As you can see, Narwal’s filter-and-bag combo design makes use of a number of plastic that finally ends up getting thrown within the rubbish as a substitute of being recycled.
2. Mapping leaves a lot to be desired
The Narwal Freo X Extremely is nice at navigating round obstacles. In actual fact, Narwal’s triple-laser navigation system is best than most others I’ve examined. Sadly, nonetheless, the identical can’t be stated of Narwal’s mapping system.
The primary flooring of my residence has an open flooring plan. With out getting too deep within the weeds, the lobby, kitchen, and eating room all wrap round a collection of centrally-located partitions, closets, kitchen cupboards, and a fridge. Then, my front room and household room are additionally open to one another, with an extended half wall in between them.
For no matter motive, the mapping system on the Narwal Freo X Extremely can not determine any of this out, and it thinks that a lot of the first flooring of my home is one large room.
This wouldn’t be as large of an issue if the Narwal app let me manually draw partitions to separate the rooms, as most robotic vacuum apps do. Sadly, nonetheless, you may solely draw a brand new wall within the Narwal app if it extends to attach two current partitions. That makes the characteristic ineffective for me and for a lot of others. A fast search on-line reveals that plenty of individuals have the identical downside with older Narwal robotic vacuums. I’ve discovered threads on Reddit from years in the past the place individuals are complaining about this identical downside.
I labored with a Narwal spokesperson to attempt to determine this out, however we have been unable to repair it after three totally different mapping runs. The corporate’s solely suggestion was to make use of “opaque and/or tall” objects to assist the robotic establish totally different rooms. As I instructed Narwal’s spokesperson, I don’t know what could possibly be taller or extra opaque than partitions, a fridge, and floor-to-ceiling kitchen cabinetry.
Most houses gained’t have this difficulty, so it’s in all probability a moot level for 98% of potential consumers. That’s why this difficulty and the smaller mud bag mixed to solely knock half of a star off of the Narwal Freo X Extremely’s ranking. However when you’re like me and different individuals on the market who do have the issue, it means you can not create cleansing schedules for various rooms within the affected space.
3-month replace
Preliminary critiques are nice for early adopters who like to take a look at new merchandise as quickly as they’re launched. Most individuals desire to understand how one thing performs over time, although. That’s why I wish to replace my critiques after I’ve spent extra time with a product, in case issues change with extra utilization.
Excellent news: not a lot has modified after a couple of months of utilization. The Narwal Freo X Extremely continues to impress in so some ways. It’s really a set-it-and-forget-it robotic, due to the unbelievable base station. I simply want I may “overlook it” for a bit longer, however Narwal’s mud bag design leaves a lot to be desired. I already defined why that’s the case.
I haven’t but modified out the curler brush for a brand new one, just because I haven’t needed to. Efficiency with pet hair is persistently nice, although I do discover that it misses another issues on occasion. This previous Might, I usually discovered little bits of leaves left on my kitchen flooring after vacuum-only runs, however that was comprehensible. It rained a lot within the Northeast the place I stay, so these moist little bits of leaves can pose an issue. After vacuum-and-mop runs, nonetheless, I sometimes didn’t see something left behind.
The Narwal’s mapping issues proceed to be annoying, however the difficulty nonetheless isn’t a deal-breaker. It might be good to only have the Freo X Extremely shortly vacuum and mop my kitchen, for instance, as a substitute of spending over an hour going over the vast majority of my first flooring.
Once more, I’ve by no means had this difficulty with every other robotic vacuum I’ve examined, so hopefully, Narwal can sort things in a future software program replace. Sadly, individuals have been complaining about this difficulty for years with older Narwal fashions, as I discussed earlier than. With that in thoughts, I’m not holding out hope that it is going to be resolved anytime quickly.
I’ll replace this overview once more after some extra time or if something adjustments.
Must you purchase the Narwal Freo X Extremely?
As you may see, the Narwal Freo X Extremely’s professionals dramatically outweigh the cons. The Freo X Extremely is definitely probably the greatest robotic vacuum and mop combos I’ve ever examined. And that’s saying lots, since I’ve examined greater than 200 totally different fashions.
Should you’re available in the market for a brand new flagship robotic vacuum and mop within the $1,000+ value vary, I extremely advocate the Narwal Freo X Extremely. Of be aware, it usually goes on sale. On the time of this newest replace, the Freo X Extremely was out there with a reduction.
This overview was initially printed on March 25, 2024. It has since been up to date with further particulars and impressions.
