Narwal Freo Z Ultra Review

Narwal Freo Z Ultra Review: Design and Features

Let’s start with the bases. Looking, the Freo Z Ultra is similar to any other high robotic vacuum. It is a round bot about 14 inches of diameter and about 4.5 inches high. Above is a Lidar Tower (not unlike you would see on a self-driving car) that helps with room scanning and recognition of objects. Previously the aforementioned double RGB cameras. Below, towards the front, you have two spindle sweeps that help direct waste under the robot; In the middle is the vacuum entrance with a roller, and towards the back are two spinning MOP pads. You can also attach an inclusive “basic cleaner” to it, which is effectively a fluffy dust that you stick on the side of the robot to wipe low, vertical surfaces.

The base station is about 17 inches wide, 15 inches deep, and 18 inches high. It needs proprietary 2.5L bags that Narwal claims will take you up to 120 days before you exchange it, depending on how dirty your place is. It has two large, removable water tanks (one for clean water and one for dirty water), which are easy enough to empty or replenish. It also has a separate cube where you can install a detergent cartridge. On the upper cover is a small touch panel with some basic commands that you will probably never use, because the applications and vocal commands (via Google/Siri/Alexa) are much more appropriate. The robot and base look gentle and modern. The base can also clean the mops of the robot with temperatures reaching 167 degrees Fahrenheit, which should be enough to kill most bacteria, and then air the mops.

The layout is quite easy. You pull everything out of the box, tie the MOPs, push the base, fill the fresh water tank, push the boot into their base to load, and then pair everything with the app. After ordering some connectivity problems and firmware updates, I pressed the button to scan my apartment, accomplished quickly and efficiently, mapping my entire floor plan in about 7 minutes. The map it created, however, needed some work. It correctly identified a bed and sofa, but it divided my entire (one -room) apartment into two large rooms. Fortunately, it was simple enough to edit that in the app. I created divisors for the bedroom, bathroom, lobby, living room, dining room, kitchen and entrance. Thus, if only one room needed to be cleaned, I could tell it to clean that specific room.

Narwal Freo Z Ultra Review: Performance

The cleaning, however, could use some work. The default profile is to clean the entire apartment, vacuum and mockery, as seen appropriate, so I thought I would start there. I pressed the button in my app, and the base station announced that it was making electrolyzed water, which … I guess it is better than regular water? Theoretically? Maybe? It shone and looked cool, anyway. After the MOPs were saturated, the robot left his dock and went straight to a carpet corner of my bedroom. It then meandered slightly without stinging or emptying. It just continued to turn in a corner next to my bed. Finally it started to empty and made some strange zigzag pattern that didn’t feel much. It went back and emptied that place again later, apparently for no reason.

It also pushed one section of the floor near my bathroom, then returned and emptied it, which is the opposite order in which it must do so. Then it moped it again. Then emptied it again, then reworked it. Understand yourself, there was no debtable dirt or waste in this place. It was just a little obsessed with it, and pay attention to you, this was still before it went into my kitchen or cleaned the apartment or elsewhere. The template it chose to clean my apartment seemed almost comically ineffective.

I will say it did enough decent work on cleaning areas after it reached them. It picked up many hair and dirt from my bare floor, and it also did a good enough job to get sand out of my mid-pile. It was also beautiful and still what I appreciated. The MOPS made a nice, fast work to clean some poured milk on my kitchen floor. But when I laid down my slanderer (made of golden fish biscuits, pistachio shells, some bar, some tic-taces, and some dry, ground oregano leaf), it did well. It tended to choke on the Pistachio shells and disgusts them elsewhere. Occasionally, it would catch the goldfish, but other times, it would smash it and spread the rubbish around the floor. I found a few almost-many golden fish on the other side of my apartment, from where I left them. It did well with the TIC-TACS, but had a difficult time with the Oregano, especially on my hard wood. There was only so much on the floor after it thought it was done.

For comparison, I tested it against the Roborock Qrevo Curv. The Roborock formed a much more effective cleaning pattern and seemed to be much more powerful. It did a quick job of the Snack Gauntlet, missing only one goldfish, but the Oregano and everything else was completely gone. I also found that the Roborock mopes are much closer to the edges than the Narwal. One of Roborock’s MOP extends out to clean under small overflows. In contrast, the Narwal must reach right by the wall and make some 90-degree rush to reach its mop to the edge. Not only does that make it much slower (you would also be slower if you had to stop and empty every few second), but there were spots where the Narwal left three-inch gaps between the wall and where it cleaned. Not great.

The one place the Narwal strikes, the Roborock is in avoiding objects. It seemed to use his binocular vision and did a much better job avoiding dangers, which I put out for it, like the odd slipper or sock that the Roborock was prone to sucking and drag. The Narwal could use their AI to correctly identify and avoid charging cables when meets them on the bare floor, which was more than the Roborock could manage. However, it still sucked a few load ropes when it met them on my template rugs. I suspect the camera needs more contrast (which the bare floor provides). It also did a good job to navigate through the labyrinth of a table and chair legs in my dining room. It didn’t rush, but it always made its way in and out.

One strange thing is that this bot returns to its dock to clean his mop a lot. It seemed to go and mop a section of my floor (maybe 3-feet 5 feet) and then return to clean the mop before returning to the same area. Not only does this make cleaning lasts much longer, but it runs through water pretty fast. In the midst of cleaning my apartment for the second time, it warned me that the base was from freshwater. Quite sure, it was dry, and the dirty water pipe was full. But my apartment was clean enough, and only 161 square feet of hard wood were not covered with carpets. I could also see that the water was not very dirty. I thought this was supposed to go four months without care, but when I looked at the excellent printing, it just mentioned that there was no need to change the vacuum bag. Again, the Roborock was much more effective, allowing me to go through several cleanses before treating the water.

I liked that the robot’s AI could recognize when a spot was still dirty and needed more cleaning, and it would generally go back and handle it, but ultimately, when it was done, almost never as clean as the Roborock left it. Its app also doesn’t give you so much granular control, and the base closet, while clever, made it difficult to return to his dock. Occasionally, it would take five attempts before it could insert itself, and, as I mentioned, it tries to insert itself constantly. This is all amounts to a slower, awkward apparent robot.

Narwal Freo Z Ultra Review: verdict

Finally, there is a lot to like here. It does enough decent work on cleaning, and because its avoidance of objects is so good, it may be a better choice if you have a pet prone to accidents. Unfortunately, I just tested the Roborock Qrevo Curv, and Narwal’s Freo Z Ultra doesn’t clean so well, costing almost the same (the Narwal is $ 1,500, while the Roborock is $ 1,600). During testing, I often wanted for the best of both worlds. It would be inaccessible if I could put the vision and obstacle recognition of Freo Z on the performance and power of Qrevo Curgeon. Nowadays, however, I stay with the Roborock.