Sponsored
Thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign launched back in 2020, which raised over $1.1 million in funding thanks to over 1,900 backers. Narwal has taken its concept of a fully-featured automatic cleaning robot mop and vacuum cleaner into production. Creating an award-winning automatic robot cleaner capable of both mopping and vacuuming your floors using precise LiDAR positioning technology.
Since the crowdfunding campaign successfully finished, the engineers at Narwal have been refining their auto-cleaning robot mop and vacuum cleaner. Together with its companion app that provides full control over your cleaner, its schedules, and settings, as well as providing detailed reports when cleaning is complete.
Narwal launched their new robot cleaner throughout the United States during June 2021, after winning several prestigious awards, including a Red Dot Design Award, CES Innovation Award, Edison Award, and more.
Narwal has kindly sent us a review unit of their T10 robotic cleaner to try out and if you are looking for help mopping your hard floor surfaces, the Narwal series of mopping robots is definitely worth checking out. The Narwal robot cleaner provides the ability to both mop and vacuum, but as soon as you remove it from the box, you instantly know this machine has predominantly been designed to mop hard floors.
The main robot is approximately the size of most robot vacuum cleaners, however, the docking station is where the water mopping system excels. Equipped with two large removable tanks, one for clean water (blue) and one for dirty water (clear white). Allowing it to autonomously mop extensive areas of flooring.
The intelligent navigation system housed in a turret on top of the robot uses LiDar to scan and map its surroundings, allowing the robot to efficiently clean any room. Thanks to 26 sensors, obstacle avoidance technology, and the ability to add your very own no-go areas easily using the Narwal phone app. When the battery is fully charged, the Narwal is capable of cleaning for up to 2.5 hours before returning to its dock to recharge.
Narwal auto cleaning floor mop
Most robot hybrid cleaners focus more on vacuuming rather than mopping and are normally equipped with a small mop section at the back of the robot. Which they drag around, to provide a so-called “mopping feature” which then needs to be cleaned by hand after every cycle. The Narwal, on the other hand, is equipped with two large removable triangular, spinning mop heads positioned asymmetrically at the front of the robot. Making cleaning far more efficient.
Made from 5mm wool polyester strands, the mop cleaning heads spin in opposite directions to clean your floors efficiently. Spinning at 375 revolutions per minute (approximately 6 times per second) and applying 10N vertical pressure to your floor. To make sure cleaning is effective even on dried stains. In fact, the robot has been specifically designed to simulate the “ hand mopping process to leave no stubborn stain” says Narwal. Carrying out its cleaning quietly and creating only ~45 dB of sound during the process. After a short clean the Narwal will return to its docking station to automatically clean its mop heads. Making sure that they are always as clean as possible to not spread dirt throughout the rest of your house. Restarting from the point where it left off once the automatic cleaning processes are complete. Also, after it finishes a cleaning cycle, the robot mop heads will self-dry to prevent germs and bacteria. Other features include a Breakpoint Resume Operation System, bilateral dust filtration system, non-linear flow inside the dustbin, and more.
The fresh water tank on the right side of the docking station allows the robot to clean and re-wet the mop heads. As the dirty mop heads are cleaned, the dirty water is automatically removed and stored in a second tank on the left side of the dock ready for disposal. It is worth mentioning that these tanks are not small, and can hold up to 1.3 gallons of water. Making the dock much larger than most other robot cleaners on the market. This is a significant design feature, as the larger dual water tank and automatic washing system allows the mop to clean extensive areas with no assistance. When full with clean water, the robot mop can clean up to 3,000 square feet of flooring depending on your floor covering and settings. When the dirty water tank is full, the robot will automatically notify you via the companion app.
Setting up your Narwal out of the box.
The main docking station comprises two main parts: a base and water tank storage area section, which are bolted together using three supplied screws. The main robot slots into the base of the dock and takes approximately 3 hours to charge from flat to full. Narwal has designed a phone app that is continually receiving new updates and tweaks to improve functionality. Providing full instructions to guide you through the setup process, together with voice commands from the robot itself to help at every stage. I am not sure whether it was the review unit I had been sent or the app, but I need to manually select the Narwal robot from the Wi-Fi list on my iPhone during the setup process. This wasn’t a problem and I think later robots will have a scannable QR code to take you through this process. Narwal has recently released a new version of their app 2.0 adding more features requested by the community of Narwal users.
Narwal Robot Vacuum
The Narwal comes with both a vacuum head and mop heads, which need to be manually changed depending on the clean you would like to carry out. Unfortunately, the robot cannot carry out both types of cleaning simultaneously. So you need to choose between either a mopping head or a vacuum. To be honest, this functionality works very well and keeps wet cleans away from dry clean areas, great for several reasons. Using a z-zag cleaning motion, the robot maps out and cleans the designated floor area systematically.
When vacuuming, the robot uses its 1800 PA suction motor and two triangular side brushes to clean into every corner. Offering wide converge when tackling corners and moving dust and dirt into the mouth of the suction inlet. The side brushes also help to prevent tangles from hair and other string type debris. Two vacuum modes are available, creating only 55dB or 65dB of noise even on the strongest suction setting. The dirt hopper for vacuuming debut is quite small and needs to be emptied manually.
The robot is not able to automatically clean out its dust hopper and in comparison to the large water cleaning system, the vacuum option is really only good for hard floors. During testing, the vacuum struggled a little to collect everything from carpets and rugs but excelled at mopping our hard floors. One other point mentioned is that the robot also can’t currently recognize the difference between carpet/rugs and hard floors. So when mopping, make sure you make your beautiful white rug has been designated as a no-go area using the companion app.
Once your Narwal is set up, you will need to let the LiDAR scanning technology map out the area before any cleaning can begin. I thought this was going to take a long time, but the process was complete in just a few minutes, even in fairly large rooms. Once complete, you can easily set no-go areas in the app. Useful for marking out rugs when moping and stairs and small rooms that perhaps don’t need to be cleaned.
Due to the nature of wet cleaning, the robot dock will need to be cleaned every once in a while. This is made easier thanks to the removable plastic tray that allows easy rinsing and wiping. If like us, you have an enormous expanse of hard flooring downstairs, the Narwal offers a perfect dual cleaning solution and heavy duty dual automatic wet cleaning solution for homes.
Narwal Companion application
To control your Narwal robot mop and vacuum cleaner, the company has created a companion application that is available for both Android and iOS devices. During the setup process, you simply need to enter your home network’s details and scan a QR code on the bottom of your robot to initialize and tag it to the application. Several robots can be added to your network and Narwal has recently rolled out a new version of the app to streamline the setup process. Providing a wealth of features allowing to control every aspect of both mopping and vacuuming.
The control application allows you to schedule cleaning, create detailed maps of each room or floor. Allowing you to then add extra no-go zones by simply using touch controls to mark off the areas you do not wish cleaned. After walking you through the setup of the robot and connecting to your home network, you can then control your Narwal remotely and receive notifications once cleaning is complete or perhaps the dirty water tank needs emptying.
As mopping or vacuuming is being carried out, you can see the exact location of your robot and its docking station, allowing you to monitor its cleaning process if desired. Although I soon let the robot automatically manage everything and simply emptied the tank of dirty water when notified. Once a cleaning pattern is finished, the app will provide you with a detailed cleaning report and more than one robot can be controlled using the application at any time. There is also the ability to adjust suction power, mop moisture levels, or clean just specific rooms within your home. Even a child lock feature has been provided to stop unwanted exploration by the younger members of your family.
The Narwal auto cleaning 2-in-1 robot mop and the vacuum cleaner is now available to purchase directly from the official website and also worldwide resellers online such as Amazon priced at $949 for a limited time providing a discount off the recommended retail price of $1099. For more information on full specifications, jump over to the company’s official website.
Disclosure: “This is a sponsored post. Geeky Gadgets has been compensated for this post.”
Latest Geeky Gadgets Deals
Disclosure: Some of our articles include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, Geeky Gadgets may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more.