Narwal Freo Z10 review: Sea legs

As the aquatic name might suggest, Narwal’s robot vacuum cleaners are water-focused. The Freo Z10 along with its predecessors are equipped with an arsenal of clever mopping technology from edge cleaning, to humidity controlled saturation, through to smart remopping. If you think of moisture, think Narwal.

However robot vacuum cleaners aren’t native to the water, they’re land dwellers first and foremost and the Freo Z10 neglects that. Alongside excellent mopping, robot vacuums need to have solid dry particle performance, and be able to handle the terrain without losing limbs. While this device has plenty of the right features and ideas, the execution is scrappy compared to others in the market.

All around the performance of the Freo Z10 is a bit of a mixed bag. Mopping is top tier while vacuuming is middle of the pack. Ultimately houses with primarily hard flooring will get the most out of Narwal’s range, but there are still likely to be foibles that make the experience frustrating.

You’d probably already expect that mopping is the Freo Z10’s forte. In our testing the device was able to clear over 95% of wet and sticky messes from hard flooring in a single pass. Using 8N of downward pressure, coupled with the dual rotating triangular mop heads the device was able to dislodge tomato sauce, water, and honey from a wooden floor with only small amounts of residue remaining. It is pretty much as good as it gets for this kind of mopping technology.

On top of the practical elements Narwal’s got a bunch of other fun features around mopping. At the base station the device assesses how dirty the water is and will automatically send the robovac to remop if it deems it too gross. When connected to your phone it can also check the humidity levels and adjust the mopping saturation to ensure you don’t end up with stagnant water sitting on the ground. These kind of features you don’t necessarily notice during daily cleaning, but that kind of intelligence is why you pay the big bucks for a robot vacuum. Blissful ignorance has a price.

Dry debris was a different story though. On average our testing showed an 80-85% clearance rate on dry messes like sprinkles and oats, but the edge cleaning was closer to 75%. While technically the Freo Z10 did remove these particles from the wall’s edge, it deposited a good chunk of them about 5cm away from the edge once again. I’ve tested a lot of robot vacuums but have never seen anything quite like that. It is unclear what exactly causes the issue but it seems like the debris gets stuck in the rotating mop heads and falls out rather than being sucked up. Our testing represents extreme cases when it comes to household mess so chances are these results are a little exaggerated compared to your usual day-to-day, but it is still a quirk worth considering.

On the plus side the robot vacuum is absolutely whisper quiet, provided it doesn’t have something stuck in its roller. Capping out at 55dB you’ll hardly notice the Z10 roaming the house until it heads back to the dock to auto empty, which it does with a roar. If something happens to get lodged in the roller then you’ll hear it, but that is easily fixed. 

Alongside the basics the Freo Z10 has some more advanced features like its Tangle-Free roller system. While this has become commonplace in high end robovacs, Narwal approaches it differently than others. First up it has a floating, conical brush with tight bristles which allows hair and fur to spiral and comb towards the open end to make it easier to detach and suck up. Its side brushes also change from an open V shape to a closed || shape to whip stuck hair into the roller. This approach does work, even in my household full of dog fur and human hair, but the dynamic side brushes may be too eager. They have a tendency to whip themselves clean off the robovac. Similarly the mop heads dislodge themselves quite easily on obstacles like cables and rugs. A little bit of a tighter fit would be nice.

The Freo Z10 has some excellent specs when it comes to object avoidance and intelligence but in practice these don’t quite live up to their claims. In the marketing material the device is said to recognise objects as low as 1cm high, and clean close to objects within 5mm. Practically that 1cm is closer to 2cm.

Robovacs rated to avoid objects at 1cm can usually steer clear of thick cables in our testing, not charging cords but power cords. With the Freo Z10 this isn’t the case. During testing it has gotten tangled up on cords, losing its mopping pads in the process, and gotten stuck trying to get across the leg of an indoor washing line. It isn’t the clumsiest robot vacuum I’ve tested, but it could do with some refining. As long as you’re okay with tossing your cables out of the way then you shouldn’t run into too many problems with the device, but you’ll want to do a quick sweep before you let it loose.

Mapping on the other hand is bareboned. While plenty of other apps will automatically show outlines of furniture or identify obstacles found along the cleaning journey, the Narwal app simply shows a bunch of rectangles with different flooring types. You can manually add in your furniture, change room layouts and set different zones but you’d need to commit some time to this.

None of this is a deal breaker per say, but it is a bit behind other robot vacuums at this pricepoint. If you prefer to have more oversight over the mapping aspect then you may be disappointed, but the functional intelligence is more than enough for a relatively independent robovac.

The Narwal Freo Z10 retails for $2,399 in Australia. You can still get a $300 discount on it until May 14th however, and an accessories pack valued at $219 with code Z10EarlyBird.

Narwal has the most innovative mopping features of any robovac manufacturer in the country and although the Freo Z10 is both a vacuum and a robot mop, it errs more towards the later. It concentrates on delivering excellent mopping performance, and centres most of its extras around the same thing. Hard floored homes will get the most value out of these devices. 

However, if you’re looking for an all rounder that can handle carpet and vacuuming with just as much flare, there are better options out there. The Z10 has the features required to bring it to a higher vacuuming standard but right now they’re a bit rough around the edges. More secure attachments, and reliable edge cleaning could carry the Freo Z10 to a spot as a top-tier vacuum alongside its mopping. For now it sits in the early stages of its evolution.