NARWAL Freo Pro Robot Vacuum and Mop review - The stormtrooper vacuum

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REVIEW – Robot vacuums are one of those things that you really do not need, but are oh so nice to have. So when we got our first one about 4 years ago it went over really well in your household. Cut to about 4 months ago, and that original one has just worn out its welcome. It only runs for about 20 minutes now before the battery is depleted and it goes back to its base. And when it gets back there it doesn’t even connect to said base and charge itself. I think the contacts are faulty or something. In comes the opportunity to review the NARWAL Freo Pro, and I just had to jump at it.

⬇︎ Jump to summary (pros/cons)
Price: $699.99
Where to buy: Narwal and Amazon

What is it?

The NARWAL Freo Pro is a robot vacuum and mop all in one. The Base comes with water tanks to house the clean soapy water and dirty water. It also uses a connected app for increased functionality.

What’s included?

NARWAL Freo Pro Robot Vacuum
Base station
User manuals
One disposable dust bin

Tech specs

8,500Pa Powerful Suction
DualFlow Tangle-Free System
All-in-One Base Station
High-Pressured Dual Scrubbing Mops
AI DirtSense & EdgeSwing
Millimeter-Level Obstacle Avoidance
LiDAR4.0 navigation
AI dirtsence
Zero-Tangle Floating Brush
Dynamic Auto De-Tangling Side Brush
Forward structured light Infrared Ultrasonic
1L disposable bag / 7-Week Dust Storage (1 Liter)
Auto Mop Washing
12mm Auto Mop Lifting
Auto Detergent Dispensing
Dust Bin Drying
7-12n Mopping Pressure
180 minute run time
Alexa, Google, Siri controlled
App controlled
55 dB noise level
Robot Dimensions – 35.0*35.0*10.7 cm
Robot Weight – 4250±100 g
Robot Battery – 5200mAh Li-ion battery
Base Station Dimensions – 41.5*37.0*43.4 cm
Base Station Weight – 8500±100 g

Design and features

Let’s start with the design of this thing. It looks like the stormtrooper of robot vacuums. Only this one doesn’t miss all its targets. The base station is large, but for good reason as it houses the vacuum itself and the water reservoirs for the mopping function. It is very sleek and does not look out of place in most any setting.

There is a top plate that you take off to get at the dust bin when it’s time to empty it. And that top plate is held on with magnets! I love magnets. Put magnets in all the things, and I’m going to have a positive outlook going in. The dust bin is also very easy to get out with the push of a button. They not only sent the hard plastic dustbin that comes in the unit, but also a “disposable” one that you can just throw in the garbage when you’re done. I’m not really sure how different this is from the hard one, or why you would want this. It seems like a waste as it still has a lot of plastic where it slots in and attaches to the inside of the vacuum, and then a flexible bag attached to that. It just seems too wasteful. I know I already said that, but it’s a big negative mark against any product in my book. But you don’t have to use the disposable ones so it’s not a huge deal.

Of course, there is a connected app. Everything has a connected app. On the plus side, I did not have to create a profile to use it. Which is just absolutely amazing. It also only connects through the 2.4 GHz network. I used to get annoyed about this until I did a tiny bit of research and found that not only are 2.4GHz chips cheaper to buy, they also allow for a longer range and better signal through walls. So what I once thought was a negative is actually a positive (you learn something new every day, I guess).

When you first start the app and power up the vacuum, it is going to map your house. Or at least the floor you are going to use the device on. You can have it map out different floors as well. This took about 6 minutes total for our main floor. At that point you can actually see the map of the floor in the app from a top down view. If you like, you can also switch to a 3D view as well. I don’t think it’s all that much more useful over the top-down view, but it’s very cool nonetheless.

The app is fine for the most part, but some unintuitive nuances. I accidentally started a vacuum and mop session, but it would not start because the water bin was not full. So I tried to cancel the session, but there was no cancel button. I had to long press the start/pause button, and then it gave me the option to cancel. There is just no way to know that’s how it’s done unless you are not only randomly clicking on things, but also long clicking on things. Is everyone going to think of doing that? I’m not so sure.

You can set a schedule as well in case you want it to run in the middle of the night or during the day if you’re out of the house. However, because we have a dog, and both my wife and I work from home, I don’t think we will use this much. It can’t really run throughout the day unless we put all the dining room chairs on top of the table. And it can’t run at night because I think the dog would get spooked and bark, and I don’t need the kids waking up in the middle of the night. But it is a really nice feature for those that can utilize it.

You can also set “shortcuts” in the app. It’s basically a one-click customizable command to tell it to vacuum just room one, or room two. Or the entire floor/house. Or even vacuum and mop the entire house. Or better yet just mop the kitchen because that is really the only room in the house that we have that doesn’t have rugs in it. I set up one to just vacuum our first floor.

Another nice feature of the NARWAL Freo Pro Robot Vacuum and Mop is a child lock in the event that you have little kids running around that might get button-happy clicking the start button on the unit itself. I turned this off in the app so that we can just walk up and push the button on the base station and start the vacuum feature quickly.

As it cleans, it shows you in real time where it is on the map, and all that it has cleaned. It’s very satisfying watching it move along the map.

To use the mop feature, you need to use Narwal cleaning tablets. But they didn’t send any. I’m a bit surprised that they didn’t send at least one tablet to let you try it out. And not because I’m reviewing it. I feel like with any customer, they should send at the very least one so you can try the function. I could order some from Amazon, but I’m a firm believer in reviewing only what the company sends. Just as you should never judge an electronic device on the promise of functionality or software to come in the future, I’m not sure I should have to buy additional items in order to thoroughly review a product. I’m not saying Narwal should provide a lifetime supply of cleaning products with the purchase of this device, but they should at least include everything you need in order to get an idea of how the product functions out of the box. As it stands now, I can only use this for 50% of what it’s supposed to do. It just seems like an oversight.

Performance

The first thing I noticed when starting a vacuum session for the first time was that it almost looked like it was “seeing” things in front of it, and “watching” where it was going. The old one we had would basically just go straight until it hit something, make a slight turn, and keep going until it hit something else. On repeat. I assume it has something to do with the initial scan it made of the house (first floor) as well as I’m sure many more sensors.

The NARWAL Freo Pro Robot Vacuum and Mop is much quieter than our old one. The noise coming out of the old one would seriously give me a bit of anxiety listening to it. This one still makes noise, but it’s much lower, and almost soothing in comparison. And if I really wanted to I could change this in the app. There is a section to change the suction power between Normal, Quiet, Strong, and Super Powerful. I like this a lot!

It will still get hung up on things, though. At one point, one of the mop attachments on the bottom got caught in a cord and was pulled off. The whole thing stopped, and the power button on top of the unit started blinking red. It was an easy fix: just reattach the mop pad and hit the power button once, and it resumed cleaning.

We did try out the mop function with water and no soap. It’s great and I’m sure would work quite well if it in fact had soap. But again, none ships with the unit itself. It fills up with water, head out to mop, and will return when its runs through the water to deposit the dirty water, get clean water, and then heads back out. Very cool.

Final thoughts

At the end of the day, I really don’t have a lot of negative things to say about the vacuum itself. It is quiet and effective at cleaning up your house, with some nice bells and whistles to boot. But know what you are getting into, I guess, and if you are considering this robot vacuum, I’m sure you will like it. Just know that if you plan to use the mop function, you will have to purchase their tablets from the start to even try it out. There are some small negatives in regard to the app, but things that once you get the hang of them will fade into the background of having cleaner floors.

What I like about NARWAL Freo Pro Robot Vacuum and Mop

Love magnets!
Its quiet when in operation
Very thorough cleaning
Long runtime
App shows you a map of the cleaning in real time

What needs to be improved?

Send soap pods so you can use the mop function
A clearer way to cancel a job in the app

Price: $699.99
Where to buy: Narwal and Amazon
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.