Narwal Freo Z Ultra the floor cleaning robot that you will love unconditionally!
At the beginning of April this year I radically changed my opinion on floor-cleaning robots which until then I considered to be decidedly less performing than manual floor-cleaning vacuum cleaners (i.e. the classic cordless ones). The reason? I had the opportunity to test the Narwal Freo, the first robot that I DID NOT sell after the review. With difficulty I found some very small defects in that product and today I can tell you about its successor, the Narwal Freo Z Ultra. Let's see if those little flaws have been ironed out and if there's anything noteworthy new!
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PACKAGE Narwal Freo Z Ultra
The product will arrive in a fairly large box that will contain the actual sales box. Here's what we'll find inside:
- Robot Narwal Freo Z Ultra
- N. 2 mops already installed
- Mop charging and self-cleaning base
- Clean water and dirty water tanks
- N.1 Reusable dust container
- N.1 Replacement dust container filter
- N.3 skirting board dusters
- N.1 Replaceable dust container insert
- Climbing ramp
- Narwal cleaner
- Shucko charging cable
- Instruction manual
TECHNICAL FEATURES ROBOT Narwal Freo
Let's start as always from aesthetics and I must say that this time too narwhal is not wrong, in fact the color of this Z Ultra is nothing short of captivating. It is a truly beautiful dark gray and its feature that had excited me, namely the upper cover formed by a single block and magnetically attached, has been maintained. It takes a second flat to remove it and the same to put it back. One thing I feared was the increase in size compared to the X Ultra, especially the height which is essential to allow the Robot to pass under furniture (in my case the sofa). Fortunately the dimensions have remained more or less unchanged as regards the height and even decreased the others: 340mm (diameter) x 109mm (height), weight 4.5Kg
Let's now come to its technical characteristics. The first thing that catches the eye, taking a look at the technical data sheet, is certainly the suction power which even reaches 12000Pa. For those less knowledgeable about the subject, this value indicates how strong the robot's suction pressure is, which allows it to vacuum up dust. It goes without saying that the higher this value is, the greater its capacity to vacuum up every single grain of dust found on the floor. To give you an idea, today a good robot reaches around 5000Pa while the Freo X already exceeded 8000. With its 12 Kpa Our Z Ultra is definitely one of the most powerful on the market.
If this value is fundamental for dust extraction, we have another very important one to help us understand how much the mops will be "crushed" on the ground and will consequently be able to wash even the most persistent stains, which are usually the oldest. Our Narwhal Freo Ultra Z arrives at 12N which turns out to be double and even quadruple pressure compared to competitors, a value unchanged compared to the X Ultra. In combination we find a rotation frequency of the mops that reaches 180 rpm, even in this case the value remains unchanged compared to its predecessor. These 3 values, at least on paper, make the Z Ultra the best robot, currently on the market.
Another important detail is its completely rubberized dust collection brush.zero-tangling 2.0″, or zero tangles, which guarantees 0% of hair/fur tangled on it. Here is an exhaustive example:
Absolutely new are the 2 Full HD cameras which we find on the front of the robot, accompanied by a LED light which will allow the cams to work even in critical lighting situations. We will go into more detail on this topic in the navigation section.
The vocal feedback that will accompany us in the various cleaning operations is present, also in Italian.
MOCI
Reuleaux mops are triangular in shape and this is essential to not leave a single mm of unwashed floor (the rotating movement with triangular mops allows a perfect fit between the 2). Together with the particular movement Smart EdgeSwing™ which performs in the areas close to the walls, allows an edge to edge washing that reaches almost all of our floor, with a precision that reaches up to 8mm away from the wall itself. For the first time we then find a side brush that will clean the skirting board.
The mops are sprayed with clean water and washed at regular intervals (set by us) so that you always wash with clean mops. An important innovation is the washing with hot water up to 75° and sterilization of the same. All this in a completely automatic way, it will in fact be the basis to evaluate how dirty the mops and the cleaning station itself are and wash/wash with water at the correct temperature. At the end of the washing session, the mops will be dried with hot air at 40°
Another fundamental aspect is the possibility of lifting the mops well 12 mm, a fundamental operation for those who own carpets. In fact, with automatic recognition, the robot will proceed to lift them precisely when it detects the presence of a carpet to avoid wetting it and will increase the suction power to obtain optimal cleaning.
DUST COLLECTION
With regard to the dust collection of the Narwal Freo Z Ultra we have a clear improvement over the X Ultra. I was in fact skeptical about the system of its predecessor which did not presuppose an automatic emptying of the dust. It must be said that with the proprietary Narwal compression technology, the container inserted in the robot had to be emptied very rarely, but the solution that the Z integrates is certainly better. Here in fact we will have a bag from 2.5L in the base and when the robot's container needs to be emptied (so not always) the base will do it automatically. Here, but also in the robot, at the end of each cleaning session it will be sterilized by hot air at 45° which will kill bacteria and will not allow mold to grow. The removable plastic container in the robot's dust container is also very good. With this we will also have the possibility of emptying it directly from the robot without getting our hands dirty.
NAVIGATION SYSTEM Narwal Freo Z Ultra
The navigation system of the Narwhal Freo Ultra Z it has changed and of course improved further. TwinAI Dodge presupposes, in addition to the well-tested system LiDAR 4.0 the addition of well 2 FullHD front cameras RGB with very wide viewing angle up to 136°The footage from these cameras is processed by the AI dual chip and all this translates into a millimetric mapping of the environment to be cleaned and the recognition of every minimal obstacle present on the floor, even smaller than a single centimeter. In this way, with this precision, our Z Ultra will be able to avoid them all and at the same time pass just a few millimeters from the obstacle, therefore cleaning more floor. The AI Chips allow the recognition of up to 120 people, animals and objects in real time. There is a powerful LED light near the cameras, this will serve to allow it to have optimal vision even in low light situations. In fact, if the LidDAR laser system does not require ambient lighting, the cameras obviously do. So the advice is to always use it with good lighting to obtain perfect results. During washing the obstacles will be photographed and you will be able to see them on the map of the house, which is not very useful but certainly "cool".
Narwal Freo Z Ultra CHARGING AND WASHING BASE
The charging and mop washing base contains the 2 clean water tanks and the dirty water, the dust bag, the detergent compartment and a touch display for direct access to some functions and the mop washing system. The water tanks are good 5L that of'clean water e 4.5L that of theDirty water. But how does it work? Very simple, you just need to fill the clean water tank with water and detergent (or directly insert the Narwal detergent container supplied into the base, but we will see this later). At this point, when a cleaning session is launched that includes washing, the robot will go to the station and its mops washed with water and detergent. Through the application (which we will see later) we have the possibility of setting every how many cleaned m² the robot will have to return to the station to wash the mops (8-10-12m²). We can also set the return to the station at the end of cleaning each room. In this way the Narwal will be able to wash the floor with always clean mops and this is a fundamental thing to obtain optimal cleaning. Naturally after each washing of the mops, the station will clean the bulk of the dirt left on the washing base (removable) and suck up all the dirty water in the dedicated tank. At the end of the cleaning session, the robot will return to the base for the last cleaning of the mops and related drying. This too can be managed through application in the ways and times we prefer. Worth noting is the incredible noise of the drying operation even in the “powerful” mode
The front of the base is magnetically attached (I love this solution) and therefore we can put it on and take it off in an instant, inside we find on the left the dust collection bag and on the right the detergent bottle housing. This is a clear improvement over its predecessor which did NOT have an automatic dust collection bag and had the detergent housing in a decidedly uncomfortable position.
The suction and washing system, Proactive AI DirtSense™ 2.0 combined with double AI CHIP, allows the robot to quickly and in real time recognize the difference between dry dirt and wet stains, applying the most suitable cleaning strategy, increasing or decreasing the suction power and pressure of the mops, so whether it's vacuuming dust or washing stains. When it detects heavy dirt, it can perform targeted and intense cleaning, focusing only on the affected area until the dirt is completely removed. This intelligent dirt detection function prevents
the spread of bacteria and bad odors in the home.
As for the tray and the cleaning base, which together form the washing base, my advice is to remove them and wash them manually at least every 4/5 washing sessions. As mentioned above, they will be automatically cleaned from the bulk of dirt but obviously some residue will remain and if you are a cleanliness maniac, it would be useful to proceed with a manual and thorough washing.
We will even have the possibility of loading clean water and discharging dirty water automatically. To do this, obviously, we will have to place the base in a point where we will have access to a drain and a water supply tap. So you will have to connect the dedicated KIT sold separately for loading and unloading and in this way the base will automatically manage this operation too. It is naturally not easy to have the house set up for this function, usually these "connections" are found in the bathroom but are normally used by the washing machine. In any case, if you had the chance, the base connections are located on the back. Just remove the plastic plate that covers them.
In the upper part of the station we have a comfortable Touch LCD display circular that will allow us to execute some commands directly from the station. To enable it, just touch it and the available commands are the following:
- Top icon: enable/disable FREO MIND
- Icon on the right: washing/drying mops
- Bottom icon: start/stop cleaning
- Icon on the left: call/exit to/from the station
- Central icon: child lock
As already mentioned, as far as the detergent is concerned, we will have the convenient possibility of directly inserting the container into the washing base in the appropriate frontal slot. In this way, the right amount of detergent will be automatically released without the annoying manual dosing operation (which is almost always wrong). It goes without saying that this feature is also an exclusive Narwal that you will not find in other devices.
APPLICATION Narwal Freo Z Ultra
At the time of writing this review, the Narwal app does NOT automatically detect the Z Ultra, so we will have to install it this way: go to your smartphone store and search for “Narwal”, install the app and register. Enable BT and location, grant permissions to the app. In the near future, clicking on “add device” will show the Freo Z Ultra, but currently you will only see the X Ultra, X Plus and Freo. In any case, try it, maybe when you are reading this it has already been added.
Open the robot's cover and underneath you will find a QR Code. Click on it and you will automatically be directed to the installation of the Z Ultra. Continue with the guided steps and you will find it on the Home of the app.
Unfortunately I had problems when I first started the robot. The first call to the base did not work, even if the robot receives the command it remains still where it is and after a few minutes it launches the local feedback of position error. The curious fact is that it also happened to me with the X Ultra. How did I solve it? I manually inserted the Robot into the base (be careful to insert it in the right direction, with the electrodes towards the bottom of the base), from here I launched the mapping of the house, an essential operation to use it and which is immediately proposed by the app. After a couple of errors, it finally started. I want to attribute this problem to the still immature firmware, but Narwal should fix these problems which for an inexperienced person could be quite serious.
HOUSE MAPPING
La mapping of the house I absolutely did not like it, in fact it left the 2 bedrooms as a single room, living room and kitchen as a single living room in addition to detecting a completely wrong size (my apartment is about 80m²). I do not understand how it could not have seen the dividing walls of these 4 separate rooms, or rather it saw them but evidently did not evaluate them as walls. Here too I suppose it depends on a firmware that needs improving.
We still have the ability to edit 360° maps, there are so many options! Just go into settings-edit the map. In this case I used the “divide” option and drew the right dividing lines for the various rooms. After that I renamed the rooms. Problem solved.
As you can see, there are a lot of options to customize your home map. You can divide or merge rooms, rename them, add furniture, change the floor material, add carpets (but it will detect them by itself), create no-go areas, add particularly dirty rooms, or edit the floor plan.
DEVICE HOME
Once the mapping is finished, we enter the heart of the application, from the home page we click "Enter the device home page" and we will find all the important menus. Once entered the device home page you will find the house map in the foreground, the various washing modes, link to the 3D map, map type, docking station, settings (hexagonal icon in the top right)
BASE STATION (MENU FROM MAP SCREEN)
From the maps screen we can access the base's "management" menu. In fact, we can manually manage:
- recall to the robot base
- Manual dust collection from the robot
- Drying and disinfecting the dust bag
- mop wash
- mop drying
Washing mode
There are 4 washing modes:
- Vacuum and wash: single pass to vacuum the dust and wash the floor
- Vacuum and then wash: first pass to vacuum the dust, second pass to wash
- Aspire: dust extraction only
- Lava: wash only
Obviously, if you have time to let the robot work, the best mode is "vacuum and then wash". However, if you have to hurry, “vacuum and wash” will halve the working time. These modes if not changed to custom mode, will be used for all rooms. If, however, you want to exclude some rooms from washing, for example, you will have to use the customized mode. By clicking on "personalization" you can decide how to clean room by room, in fact as soon as you click on it the rooms will be selected and a series of icons will appear in each room which will allow us to decide how to clean. By clicking on customization you will see what you have enabled in the various rooms, by clicking on the 2 dots you will enter the specific menu which will allow you to manually set the washing for each room.
The default mode of how rooms will be cleaned is FREO MODE, that is, the robot thanks to its AI will decide the most appropriate mode based on the dirt detected. Then it will adjust the suction power, the amount of water to release and how many passes to make. Obviously this is the recommended one, you won't have to worry about anything. However, there is the possibility of customizing everything by disabling the FREO MODE.
SELECTION OF ROOMS
If you do not select them individually, the robot will wash all the rooms. For convenience (to move objects that get in the way from one to another) I wash them one at a time. To do this, simply click on the room(s) you want to wash. Remember that the washing order will be the one you selected. You can also change it by clicking on the “2” icon at the bottom right.
Cleaning options
If you want to go manual you can change the following parameters:
- Suction and washing cycle – These are the sessions of passage of the robot on each area of the floor, you can set: X1, X2, X3. If you select X2 or X3 in the second and third pass, the washing pattern will also be changed (the application will visually explain how)
- Suction power – The power with which the robot will vacuum the dust can be set: silent, normal, strong, super powerful with obviously increasing power.
- Mop washing humidity – how much water will be released on the mops, 3 ever-increasing levels can be set.
- Accuracy level – how the robot will clean the floor, you can select: standard (for daily cleaning) or meticulous (for very dirty floors).
If we do not use the “customization” mode, as already mentioned, all the rooms will be cleaned with the same mode set. As for the “FREO MODE” there is also the possibility to customize this intelligent mode. In the screen where the FREO MODE is highlighted, click on “set” and you will find yourself in the configuration screen of the same. Here we will have the possibility to modify the cleaning parameters or leave them on “intelligent” so that the robot manages them by itself, by clicking on “set”. Well, this possibility of varying the parameters in an “automatic” mode I honestly did not understand it at all.. in fact my advice is to leave them all on “intelligent”. FREO MIND it can also be activated directly from the washing station display.
Exclusion zones
We also have the option to exclude individual zones or set a washing mode only for those. To access this function you will have to click on the icon under the “3D” icon, then on “edit map”, on “prohibited area” and finally on “+”. At this point a red square will appear that you can resize and move as you like, precisely to exclude certain areas from cleaning. The exclusion can be done for suction and washing, only suction or only washing. Once you have decided on the area, click on the green check and save by clicking save at the top right.
I remind you that our robot still has a automatic recognition of the carpets and if not excluded they will be cleaned by suction only, the mops will lift automatically to avoid wetting and ruining them.
CLEANING OF AREAS
If you only need to clean one area of your home, no problem. On the map screen, click on “areas” (by default it will be set to “rooms”). At this point, the entire house will appear and a “+” button at the bottom right. By clicking on it, a square will appear that will be the area to clean. Obviously, you can resize and move it as you like. You can add as many as you want.
General Settings
By clicking on the hexagonal icon at the top right we will enter the general settings menu. Here we will find very important settings to apply to obtain perfect cleaning according to our needs. Regarding the firmware you will be notified of new versions released. To install them, the robot must have a minimum recommended charge of 40%.
Clicking on Device you will enter the general settings of the robot. Here you can set the time zone, unit of measurement of the area, share the possibility of use with other family members, locate the robot (via voice feedback), restart it, reset the network, disconnect it.
In the menu "Clear” we will be able to configure the mop washing strategy (every 8-10-12m2 or at the end of each room. As for the mop washing, it will obviously be done in a completely automatic way. Based on the setting we have set, it will return to the base to wash the mops.
Let's now move on to the menu "General” where we can set other very important settings:
- Ladderless mode: enable it if you don't have ladders, this way obstacles will be overcome more precisely
- Do Not Disturb: If enabled will turn off voice feedback and base station indicators. It will intelligently regulate those noisier functions at night
- High Altitude Mode: Enable it if you live in areas above 2000m
- Child lock: enable it if you don't want to risk that your children cannot interact with the robot
- Family with pets: enable it if you have dogs or cats at home, in this way the system for compacting the collected dust will be optimized even further
- Automatic switch off: fundamental menu, if enabled it will turn off the robot if it is out of the base and therefore disconnected from the power supply. So I absolutely recommend that you keep it enabled to avoid the risk of finding the robot out of power when you need to use it. In the X Ultra this menu was not there and more than once I found the robot completely out of power.
Another decidedly important menu is that of base station where we can set:
- Automatically add detergent: you will have the possibility to directly insert the Narval detergent container into the washing base and by enabling this option, detergent will be added automatically.
- Automatic bacteria control: enable it to inhibit any bacteria/mites present in the dust bag/container via hot air at the end of cleaning
- Bag status: Here you can see when it is time to replace the dust bag
- Mop drying type: silent, powerful, intelligent according to our needs. My advice is always smart mode and don't keep the base station in the bedroom.
- Default cleaning mode: vacuum and mop, vacuum and then mop, vacuum, mop. On the base we have an LCD display with 4 controls. Among these we have the one to start the robot, and the robot will start in the mode that we have set here.
- Temperature-controlled cleaning system: When turned on, the water will be heated to an appropriate temperature based on the Dirty Sense results and the type of dirt to better wash the mops
- Automatic dust collection: Choose the option to collect dust from the robot's bin
- Dust collection mode: choose the mode according to your needs
We then find the menu dedicated to consumables and their status, manage accessories. Here you can check their status and know when it is time to replace or clean them.
In the menu language and voice You can set the volume of the robot's vocal feedback and set the language in which it will respond to you, including Italian.
Then we find AI Obstacle Avoidance. Here you can set how the robot should avoid obstacles and whether to enable photo capture of detected obstacles so you can then see them on the map.
Let's finish with the menu third party control which will allow you to add our Narval ad Alexa and manage it with voice commands.
HOW TO CLEAN Narwal Freo Z Ultra
But let's get to the fundamental point, how does our floor clean? Narwhal Freo Ultra Z. So, I have to say that the level is very high and has nothing to envy even to manual floor cleaners which are known to always have superior cleaning performances. Its 12000Pa of aspiration, i 12N of mop pressure and technology Proactive AI DirtSense™ 2.0 based on AI they do a nearly perfect job. In my tests I never found any dust residue or unwashed dirt stains. Of course, when it comes to stains, we have to keep in mind that we are talking about a robot and we cannot expect it to remove old or particularly smeared stains.
The obstacle detection, thanks to the dual FullHD RGB camera combined with the dual AI Chip and the LiDAR laser navigation system, is really very functional as is the cleaning around them. Obviously the advice is always to keep the area to be cleaned as clear as possible. Unfortunately I could not test its behavior on carpets, but I remember that the detection is automatic, the mops rise up to 12mm so as not to hinder them and the suction power increases to the maximum level to obtain the best cleaning.
Cleaning near walls is also very good thanks to Narval's proprietary algorithm EdgeSwing™, triangular mops and the “waddling” movement will leave only a few millimeters of unwashed floor and in addition we will have the cleaning of the skirting board thanks to the new dedicated cleaning module. It should be noted that the rotating mops are not extendable, so cleaning along the edge of the wall will not be perfectly on edge. Let's say it's a question of splitting hairs, but perhaps for the most picky it could be a problem. In my case it wasn't, also because we are in fact talking about a few millimeters.
Excellentmop car wash, which will always happen with sterilized water at the right temperature, which will therefore always wash the floor clean and will not take with them the dirt collected, perfect recognition of the dirt they have taken with them and therefore the temperature of the water with which they are washed will be properly regulated at the end of the session.
I must say, however, that it will probably need some firmware updates to achieve perfect optimization, equal to that achieved by the X Ultra. In fact, in the various washes carried out, I noticed small residues of dirt not collected. Let's be clear, I'm talking about absolutely negligible stuff, but being used to the perfect cleaning of its predecessor, the thing did not go unnoticed. It must be said that software updates always solve these small problems that probably concern the not very perfect mapping of the space to be cleaned.
The last positive aspect, among many, is the noisiness really limited. It stands around 55-58dB that compared to 70dB mediums of the competition is a big difference. You can therefore also use it in the evening while comfortably watching TV from the sofa, the noise disturbance will be minimal.
I remind you that the dust collection bag, located in the base, should be emptied approximately every 120 days, this is thanks to the dust compression system, and it will be sterilized with hot air at 45° to avoid the proliferation of bacteria. The base will also always be washed with sterilized water.
Finally, let's talk about aesthetics, which is always a personal and very subjective concept. I don't like the base very much, but very much. Beautiful, elegant, it hides the robot almost entirely and we remember its integrated LCD touch display which allows us to carry out some operations directly from there.
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
Il Narwal Freo Z Ultra coastline 949€ list price as I would say that it is very good if compared to that of competitors. In fact, other robots in the same segment, with even inferior features, cost up to €1500. So, like any product, the quality-price ratio becomes a fundamental parameter and the Z Ultra is certainly one of the best, if not the best on the market. Below you will find all our best offers, today with a free accessory pack. So if you are looking for a top-of-the-range floor-washing robot vacuum cleaner then don't miss out on this incredible offer. For those with a lower budget, I remind you that narwhal has a cheaper robot on its list, the Freo XPlus and the same X Ultra today it is available at a discounted price. Having said all this, the final choice is up to you. I can only recommend this fantastic Narwal Freo X Ultra which will certainly be worth the money spent.
THE LINK IS NOT FOR Z BUT FOR X.
Can you check again?
Now the right product appears, but I don't see the accessory packs indicated, or maybe I didn't see well.