REVIEW – Robot vacuums are great, but there is often a trade off. Sure, you get a clean floor – but you have to remember to make sure the robot is ready to go for the next time it needs to clean by emptying it’s dust bin. Narwal is continuing to improve on their impressive Freo line by automating this routine maintenance, and making their newest Freo Z Ultra as close to fully automatic as it gets.
What is it?
The latest iteration on the Freo line, the Freo Z Ultra is the newest flagship robot vac/mop system from Narwal. Building further on the improvements of the original Freo and the Freo X Ultra, the Freo Z delivers an almost completely automated cleaning experience. I’ve had the good fortune to review the previous iterations, and fellow Gadgeteer Howard Sneider covered their budget friendly Freo X Plus – which have all performed well in our testing.
Narwal has been in the floor care space for a while, with the Freo replacing their T-series robot vacuums. Alongside their robot army, Narwal also has a manual vacuum mop in the S10.
What’s included?
- Narwal Freo Z Ultra robot
- Base station
- Base station dust bags
- Floor cleaner solution
- Baseboard dusters x3
- Extra robot dustbin and filter
Tech specs
Click to expand
| Robot | |
| Suction power | 12000Pa |
| Carpet recognition | Ultrasonic + Vision |
| Brush lift | Yes |
| Side brush | Dual |
| Mopping mechanism | Dual rotating mop |
| Mopping pressure | 7N/12N – adjustable |
| Baseboard cleaning | Yes |
| Dust collection | Onboard, and base station |
| Robot height | 107 mm |
| Battery | 5200mAh |
| Base Station | |
| Dimensions | 18″ (H) x 17″ (W) x 14″ (D) |
| Mop Self Cleaning | Yes, hot water |
| Mop drying | Yes, hot air |
| Dust collection | 2.5L |
| Dust bag drying | Yes |
| Dust bag UV | Yes |
| Base station self cleaning | Yes |
| Water tank capacity | 4.5L |
Design and features
The Freo Z robot vacuum is a familiar round body design, with dual sweep arms to feed the tangle-free brush. Triangle shaped mop pads are found towards the back. Rounding out the business side of the vacuum is a new addition of a baseboard duster. This mounts to the bottom and attaches to the dust pads by way of a hook and loop fastener.
At the top, the LiDAR turret is ever present, and flanks the power/home button. The front bumper panel is equipped with side view sensors, and front and center are two RGB cameras with LED light. The top panel is fully removable, exposing the removable dustbin system with filter and dust box.
Moving on to the base station, this iteration is slightly deeper and taller to accommodate the dust bag. The robot sits slightly higher in the Freo Z base station as the ducting for the self emptying dust bin traverses through the bottom.
I’m a big fan of the two-tone finish, with a matte grey used on the front access panel. On the top of the base station we have the touch screen controls, and on each side are carry handles.
Going into the base station from the top we have the clean and dirty water tanks. The Freo Z Ultra is compatible with Narwal’s water exchange system, which is worth a look if you’re able to place the base station somewhere that has access to your water lines and a drain.
From the front panel, we have access to the dust bag and the floor mopping solution. The bottle shape has been completely redesigned for the Freo Z.
Finally, at the bottom is where the robot lives, and where we find the removable mop cleaning tray.
Notable upgrades to the Freo X include:
| Freo Z Ultra | Freo X Ultra | |
| Remote control with video | Yes | No |
| Suction Power | 12000Pa | 8200Pa |
| Carpet Recognition | Ultrasonic + Vision | Utrasonic |
| Baseboard Cleaning | Yes | No |
| Mop Cleaning | AI adaptive hot water | Room temp water |
| Base Station Dust Collection | Yes | No |
| Electrolyzed Water System | Yes | No |
Assembly, Installation, Setup
Narwal packages the Freo Z very well, and it takes little effort to get cleaning. Assembly consists of attaching the sweep brushes, baseboard duster and mop pads to the robot. On the base station, all you need to do is insert the mopping solution and plug it into power.
You’ll want to use the app to use the majority of the Freo Z features. Narwal’s app will helpfully guide you through getting connected, and doing a mapping run. The previous Freo models did a fine job with mapping, but the Z is on a different level. It identified furniture and low hanging cables, and accurately separated my kitchen and dining room – a space that typically gets merged together during mapping.
With the mapping run complete, you can edit the map to set no-go zones, carpet settings, re-define rooms, etc.
Performance
We rely on our automaton fleet to keep things in check throughout the week, so that when the weekend rolls in we have less cleaning to deal with. The Freo Z Ultra is about as close to a fully automated system as I think I’ll get now that it has the dust bag in the base station, and some really intuitive algorithms to support it. It easily keeps up with our four person, two pet home during the week and even a month in, I feel like I’m still discovering new tricks up it’s sleeve.
A typical cleaning run for our first floor with vacuum and mopping takes 90 – 120 minutes, depending on what the Dirtsense AI identifies. It’s usually not wrong, and it’s always interesting how it will often spend more time in our high traffic areas. I’ve been sticking with the Freo mode cleanings which bring the full gamut of AI features to bear, along with the edge cleaning swing in mopping mode to bring the mop pads close to the baseboards.
The cameras do a really good job at identifying obstacles, but it’s not perfect. On a couple of runs, I broke my usual protocol and did literally no tidying… just hit ‘Go’. Obstacle avoidance was better than anything I’ve seen yet, but anything low to the ground such as a kids sock or piece of paper still got run through with reckless abandon. The robot will phone home to the app with where it sees potential problems. In this cleaning cycle it accurately identified three out of four table legs, almost all of our low hanging power cords in the living room and office, and the office chair/desk leg.
Mopping wise, this also does well for light dust and dirt, but don’t expect anything stuck on to be scrubbed away. For our kitchen tile, I’ve found that agitating or scraping a stuck on mess prior to running the cleaning cycle is the happy medium.
There is no onboard water tank in the robot, so the mop pads are regularly refreshed by the base station. The frequency of this is adjustable in the app, and you can also dial in how wet you want the mop pads for when it heads out to clean. I am never comfortable with how the dirty water tank looks after each mopping run, so it’s definitely doing something – and the floors always feel nicer underfoot.
One of the new features on the Freo Z is the baseboard cleaner, which is effectively a microfiber/faux fur dusting pad. It’s meant to make contact with the baseboards to lightly dust them. It’s simple, effective way to add some vertical cleaning capability while not changing how the robot approaches these areas.
Another interesting new feature on the Freo Z Ultra is the ability to remotely control the robot, and see the robot’s POV through the onboard cameras. It’s a neat feature which would allow you to remotely clean a mess or even communicate through the robot. I tried this out a couple times and found it to be novel, but not sure when I’d ever use this feature in practical terms.
At the end of the cleaning cycle the robot returns to the base station, and the base station gets to work in setting up the robot for it’s next job. The mop pads are washed and heat dried, and the onboard dust bin is dried as well. The dust bin drying is in case any of the detritus in the bin happens to be damp. The drying routine ensures that it doesn’t turn into mud on its way through the ducting for the self-emptying dust bag. The robot will empty its dust bin before starting its next cleaning cycle, so no worries about it firing off that process at 2am (unless you’re starting your vacuum at that time). That process, while brief, can be a bit loud – I wouldn’t want to have my mic unmuted while on a Zoom call in the same room.
Narwal has some genuinely thoughtful algorithms packed into the workflow logic for their Freo bots. I mentioned before how it dries the dust bin in the bot before emptying the dust bin as one example. Others I have observed include how it will work it’s way towards the base station to preserve the cleanliness of a room and not have to cut through it after it’s been cleaned. Watching the robot work, it will attempt different ways to get around obstacles. It’s also very durable to environment changes and disruption. I’ve had other robots refuse to leave our office/laundry room due to seeing a pile of clothes on the floor, but the Narwal takes it all in stride.
I would be remiss to not discuss that the new tech packed into the Freo Z comes with some privacy implications. While Narwal asserts that the data it captures is processed locally on the robot, the fact remains that this device roams your house with onboard cameras and a mic. You could use the Freo Z without the app to avoid connecting it to the internet, but you lose many of the automation benefits in doing so. If this is a bridge too far, I would recommend the Freo X Ultra as an alternative.
Lastly, maintenance. For day to day cleaning there isn’t much to keep on top of – refreshing the mop water tanks is about as intense as it gets. Officially, Narwal recommends the following based on the maintenance information I found in the app. Prices for replacements are still TBD as these are not available yet on Narwal’s website. I would also suggest using these as guidelines… the mop pads for example are pretty durable and I probably wouldn’t replace them unless mopping performance was impaired.
| Freo Z Ultra Suggested Maintenance | |
| What | When |
| Robot dust bin | Replace as needed |
| Robot dust bin filter | Replace as needed |
| Mop pads | 150 hours |
| Side brush | 150 hours |
| Roller brush | 300 hours |
| Base station dust bag | 90 days |
| Base station mop cleaning tray | Clean as needed |
| Baseboard rag | Replace as needed |
| Sensors | Clean regularly |
| Robot caster | Clean regularly |
| Sponge filter | Clean regularly |
What I like about the Narwal Freo Z Ultra robot vacuum
- Narwal is continuing to iterate on a proven line with useful features
- Self-emptying dust bin
- Obstacle avoidance is excellent
What needs to be improved?
- Better visibility and control over data collected
- While obstacle avoidance is excellent, obstacle detection still needs some work
Final thoughts
In a word, the Freo Z Ultra is excellent. It is a significant iteration on the Freo lineup that finally gives us automated dust bin emptying in the base station. It still manages to get the basics right as a very capable vacuum, and an acceptable mop – all while packing in a ton of meaningful algorithms to support the hardware. I’d love to see Narwal be more clear about data usage and privacy with their new cameras, but otherwise have no hesitation in recommending this automated floor cleaning system. If this is the Freo Z, I’m very interested to see what comes next from Narwal. Unlike the Enterprise-E in Star Trek: First Contact, we can no longer say there are “plenty of letters left in the alphabet”.
Price: $1499
Where to buy: Narwal
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by Narwal. Narwal did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
