Narwal Freo X Ultra Review: A Hairodynamic Robot Vacuum With A Tangle-Free Brush
- Tangle-free roller brush prevents hair buildup
- Excellent obstacle avoidance and edge cleaning
- Powerful 8,200 Pa suction power
- Efficient mopping performance with smart features
- Built-in dust bin design is great for allergies
- Easy-to-use, customizable Narwal Freo app
- No self-emptying function could be a dealbreaker for some
- High price for less features compared to competition
- DirtSense technology isn’t perfect yet
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Robot vacuums have come a long way over the past decade or so, and they've become an integral part of the regular cleaning schedule in many households. Among the many new robot vacuums hitting the market, the Narwal Freo X Ultra stands out as a strong contender, especially for households with pets or people with long hair.
This robot's best feature is its tangle-free floating design for its main roller brush, which funnels all captured pet fur or hair off the brush and into the built-in dust bin, so you don't have to spend time cutting hair away from a stuck brush. In addition to its tangle-free brush, the Freo X Ultra is capable of 8,200 Pa of suction power, strong mopping, effective edge cleaning, and DirtSense technology that helps it recognize problem areas in your home.
Narwal provided a Freo X Ultra robot vacuum for this review.
Unboxing and setting up
Like many robot vacuums that come with a base station, the Narwal Freo X Ultra arrived in a very large box. Everything was well-packed inside, with the big pieces separated by styrofoam and covered with a protective plastic sleeve.
Inside the clean water tank, there was a bubble-wrapped bottle of Narwal's Lemon and Basil floor cleaner. Most of the robot vacuums I've tried in the past that come with mopping features also sell a floor cleaner and advise you to buy it, but don't include even a small sample of the cleaner with your purchase. Despite the fact that this floor cleaner is quite expensive at $40, I consider it an absolute win that Narwal includes a full bottle of the floor cleaner for you to try.
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There was a first-time setup guide inside the base station to make the process simple. To get the vacuum ready, you remove the anti-collision foam from the top of the vacuum and flip it over to install the two color-coordinated side brushes. Then, you find an optimal spot for the base station with plenty of room in front, plug it in, and push the vacuum inside the base station.
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After the base station beeps to indicate charging has started, the vacuum turns on and the rest of the setup is done in the app. After downloading the app, you have to connect it to a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi band, create an account, and continue through a set of on-screen steps. From unboxing to pairing the vacuum with the app, the setup process will likely only take you about 15 minutes.
Innovative design with a tangle-free brush
Many of Narwal's vacuums, including the Freo X Ultra, are white, which gives them a sleek and modern look. Plus, it's often easier to see when a white vacuum needs to be wiped down compared to a black vacuum. The base station is also white, and it looks quite futuristic, with smooth curves rather than straight lines.
The Freo X Ultra is a pretty standard size, measuring 35 x 35 x 10.7 centimeters, and it's thin enough to fit under most beds and couches. Because the base station only needs to house clean and dirty water tanks, it's fairly small at 41.5 x 37 x 43.4 centimeters. There's no auto-empty feature for dust in the base station because the Narwal Freo X Ultra takes care of dust in other ways.
One of the new features Narwal's Freo X Ultra boasts is a larger 1L dust bin (or disposable dust bag) inside the vacuum itself rather than the base station. Depending on how dusty or dirty your home gets, the dust bin or bag can hold up to 60 days worth of debris. The robot is able to compress the dust inside the bin to make room for more and the base station air-drys it to prevent bacterial growth.
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If you're a pet owner or you live in a household with long-haired people, the most exciting design feature of the Freo X Ultra is its "world's first tangle-free floating brush." For anyone who's had to painstakingly cut through hair wrapped around the main brush on a robot vacuum, the Freo X Ultra's tangle-free brush is a lifesaver. It actually works, and I haven't had to manually remove any hair from the main brush yet, but more on this later.
Docking station and its features
The Freo X Ultra docking station takes care of some regular maintenance tasks for you. It automatically washes the mop heads at the beginning and end of a clean, as well as in between rooms if you specify or use the Freo Mode smart cleaning feature. If you have floor cleaner liquid properly filled in the base station, the station can intelligently dispense the right amount of cleaner to the vacuum.
When the station cleans the mop pads, it's also cleaning the station below the mop pads. The area where the mop pads are washed is metal rather than plastic, which helps keep it more sanitary and smell-free in between more thorough washes enacted by you.
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The base station can air-dry the robot vacuum's dust bag contents for 45 minutes and dry the mop pads at 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Every time I checked the mop pads after a drying cycle was completed, they were fully dry, and the station didn't hold any strong odors.
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On top of the docking station, there's an LCD touch control pad. With this pad, you can easily start and stop a task, completely end a task, turn the smart Freo Mode on and off, and more. As someone with a cat who loves to accidentally start robot vacuums via buttons on top of the base station, the most useful feature of this touchpad was quickly toggling Child Lock on and off. With a two-second hold, I can turn Child Lock off and stop the vacuum's current task a bit faster than I can using the app.
In-app mapping features
Mapping out a 720-square-foot apartment (with 450 square feet of reachable space mapped) was an easy task for Narwal's Freo X Ultra vacuum. It only took nine minutes to complete the mapping process, and the end result looked great.
Editing the map in the Narwal Freo app wasn't as easy. Most map editing processes within robot vacuum apps can be a bit finicky, often forcing you to divide, merge, and divide rooms again to get the exact layout you want. Compared to the robot vacuum apps I've used in the past (including Roborock, Ecovacs, and SwitchBot), this process was slightly more confusing.
With other apps, it's possible to drag a line across the entire floor plan to create custom divisions, even if the line is in the middle of the room. In the Narwal Freo app, when two rooms are divided, an imaginary threshold is placed between the two rooms, and your dividing line can't cross a threshold line. It's worth noting that the app gives you specific feedback, like "The split line cannot be over the threshold," so it was fairly easy to figure out why it wasn't working. Other apps often just make you guess until you get it right.
Eventually, I figured out that the app was capable of creating diagonal lines, and that you just needed to drag a line between two clearly defined walls to separate rooms. Sometimes, I would drag my finger to a wall and the line would appear solid blue, indicating a split could be made, but the line wouldn't stay when I'd lift my finger off the screen. Luckily, you can hold the line in place with one finger and use the other finger to tap the blue checkmark to complete a split.
In addition to splitting and merging rooms, you can name rooms, add furniture to each room, set up no-go zones, specify hard floor material, and personalize carpet settings.
Vacuuming performance and obstacle avoidance
Narwal's Freo X Ultra is a powerful robot vacuum, with strong 8,200 Pa suction, effective obstacle avoidance, and excellent performance with long hair and pet fur.
It's equipped with an industry-first U-shaped air duct that allows for better airflow, and therefore, stronger suction power. You can see how powerful the suction is by the fluffiness of rugs and carpet after it passes through, and you can feel a strong stream of cool air from the fans as the vacuum traverses your home.
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The Freo X Ultra navigates using tri-laser obstacle avoidance with LiDAR SLAM 4.0 integration. Narwal's lab data says the vacuum can recognize objects as low as 1 cubic centimeter, but that wasn't the case with real-world testing. The vacuum effectively navigated around a small stuffed animal, a pair of shoes, and multiple table and chair legs, but it wasn't able to detect and avoid a small cat toy that measured at least two centimeters in height.
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The Zero-Tangling Floating Brush inside the Freo X Ultra is easily my favorite thing about this vacuum. The brush is tilted and utilizes single-sided balancing technology to prevent hair from tangling at the brush's center and funnel it into the dust bag or bin.
Every time I send out our resident robot vacuum to clean the house, I have to stop the clean two to three times to detangle and cut away long hair from the main brush. With the Freo X Ultra, I didn't have to do that at all, and I've even been throwing clumps of hair on the ground after brushing it just to test the tangle-free claims of this brush. I did have to grab a few hairs off the side brushes, but there were no hairs to be found on the main floating brush.
Mopping performance
The Freo X Ultra's mopping ability is top-notch. With its powerful scrubbing pads, EdgeSwing mode to get right up next to baseboards, and the Lemon and Basil floor cleaner, the floors look and smell clean after this robot vacuum passes through.
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It's equipped with Reuleaux Triangular Scrubbing Mops that spin at 180 RPM and apply up to 12N of downward pressure, depending on your floor type, like tile or hardwood. Despite the strong applied pressure, there was no accidental damage to floors while cleaning.
While mopping, the vacuum does "The Twist" by swiveling back and forth, which helps it push the mop pads right up next to corners and edges. Narwal calls this EdgeSwing mode, and seeing it in action was impressive. The vacuum moves away from the wall, and then swings back into it with the triangular mop pads barely touching the baseboard.
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To test the Freo X Ultra's mopping capabilities, I spilled some soda on the floor and smeared some strawberry jam for it to clean up. Wiping up the soda was no problem, and there was no sticky residue left behind after the clean. The thin layer of jam, however, required three passes to clean, and the floor was still a little sticky after.
To be fair, most people wouldn't spill as much jam as I spread out. And even if a little jam was dropped, it might have a chance to dry somewhat before the vacuum is sent to mop it up. Trying to mop up freshly spread jam resulted in the sugary stickiness dispersing across the floor, and I later found some dried jam on the main roller brush.
Smart cleaning with Freo Mind
Freo Mind, also referred to as Freo Mode, is an AI-assisted cleaning mode for the Freo X Ultra. When it's turned on, the robot vacuum adjusts its cleaning strategies to your home's specific needs and flooring types.
For example, in Freo Mode, the vacuum might pick up on the fact that the area right by your front door is always extra dirty and needs to be cleaned twice. If the area by your door is tiled, the robot will automatically adjust the downward pressure of mopping pads to its max of 12N.
In regards to mopping specifically, the robot utilizes DirtSense technology — a first from Narwal — in Freo Mode, which can detect dirty areas of your floor based on the cleanliness of the water used while mopping. If the robot detects dirty floor areas, it's supposed to start another mopping cycle and return to the problem area. However, when I used Freo Mode to mop up the test jam I spread, it didn't automatically return to the scene of the crime.
Looking at the app, it's clear that the robot "detected a heavily soiled area" while cleaning, and it adjusted to a strong cleaning mode, but it didn't think the floors were dirty enough to warrant another mopping cycle. Because I could see it didn't get all the jam, I sent it out for two more mopping cycles in Freo Mode. On the additional mopping cycles, the vacuum remembered where the dirty area was and went over it more thoroughly than the rest of the kitchen.
The AI DirtSense technology is certainly working in some ways, and with a few firmware updates, it might just be as smart as Narwal is advertising it to be. In Freo Mode, the robot also returns to wash the mop pads after every room, utilizes Edge Mode efficiently, and adjusts wetness of the mop pads based on your home's current humidity levels.
In-app customization and scheduling features
If you don't want to use Freo Mode to automatically determine how much vacuuming and mopping your home needs, you turn it off and customize the clean to your preferences.
There are four cleaning modes available: Vacuum, Mop, Vacuum then Mop, and Vacuum and Mop. If you choose one and start the clean, it'll default to Freo Mode. Or, you can tap the mode again to bring up a menu that lets you turn off Freo Mode and personalize settings.
With both mopping and vacuuming, you can adjust coverage precision between Standard and Meticulous and choose between one, two, and three total cycles. If you choose two or more cycles, the robot will automatically vacuum in "Mesh Mode," which means it'll vacuum in one direction the first time and another direction the second time for more coverage.
For modes with vacuuming, you can adjust suction power between Quiet, Normal, Strong, and Super Powerful. For modes with mopping, you can set the mopping humidity to Low, Normal, or Wet Mopping.
The base station allows you to customize Drying Intensity for the mop pads, choosing between Silent Dry mode, Power Dry mode, or Smart Dry mode. You can also customize the base station's default cleaning mode that's initiated when you press the Start/Stop button on the touchpad.
The app allows you to set up one-time or repeating scheduled tasks, as well as Quick Tasks if you have multiple separate commands you want the vacuum to carry out right away. The Freo X Ultra is supposedly compatible with Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri, but the Narwal Freo app on my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra only shows third-party compatibility with Alexa right now.
Noise levels
By nature, vacuum cleaners aren't quiet, even robot vacuums that are typically quieter than upright vacuums. However, Narwal's Freo X Ultra vacuum is equipped with active noise-canceling bodies, noise insulation, and silent motors, all of which help the vacuum stay relatively quiet despite its powerful 8,200 Pa suction.
The company says that the Freo X Ultra can be as low as 48 dB when mopping, 50-59 dB when vacuuming, presumably at a standard suction power, and 33 dB during vacuuming at its lowest suction power setting of "Quiet." The industry average is somewhere between 65-80 dB, according to Narwal, which lines up with Ecovacs' estimate for its Deebot T20 Omni vacuum at 67 dB during sweeping and 69 dB during sweeping and mopping.
When comparing the Narwal Freo X Ultra and the Ecovacs Deebot T20 Omni at their highest and lowest suction power settings, the results were similar. The Freo X Ultra was slightly louder at its highest suction power setting, but with 2,200 Pa more suction power than the Deebot T20 Omni, this was pretty impressive. With each vacuum set to its lowest suction power, the Freo X Ultra was quieter than the Deebot T20 Omni, and still picked up everything in its path on hard flooring.
Because the Freo X Ultra doesn't have an auto-emptying feature for dust in its base station, there's also not the insanely loud noise associated with this feature. There's a slight amount of noise when the dust inside is being compressed and dried by the station, but it's not nearly as loud as a powerful base station sucking up all the dust inside the vacuum.
Plenty of battery life for small homes
With the powerful 8,200 Pa suction provided by the Freo X Ultra, it's unfortunate that the battery isn't larger. It's equipped with a 5,200 mAh battery, which is the same battery size you'll find in the Ecovacs Deebot T20 Omni with only 6,000 Pa of suction power.
If you're in a small home, you probably won't have any battery life issues. But if you're in a larger home with multiple stories, you might find the Freo X Ultra running out of steam when completing more intense vacuuming and mopping tasks.
After 27 minutes of mopping the 180 square feet of hard floor surfaces once with Normal mopping humidity and Standard coverage precision in my 720-square-foot apartment, the Freo X Ultra only lost 5% battery. A full vacuum and mop clean of almost 400 square feet at standard settings took the vacuum from 100% to 76%.
To drain the battery as much as possible, I ran the Vacuum then Mop mode with Meticulous coverage precision, one cycle of vacuuming at Super Powerful suction power, and one cycle of mopping at Normal mopping humidity. After cleaning 560 square feet with those settings over 1 hour and 21 minutes, the battery was just over 50%.
Overall maintenance is pretty standard
The Freo X Ultra takes care of a lot of regular maintenance for you, but there are still some maintenance tasks you'll have to do manually and parts that need to be replaced after a specified amount of time.
The vacuum contains a 1L dust bin or dust bag that you'll need to empty or replace regularly. In the app, Narwal recommends replacing the dust bag every month and cleaning the dust bin every week. Additionally, it's recommended that you clean the dust bin filter and wipe the robot's sensors every two weeks.
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The base station holds two large water tanks, one with clean water and one with dirty water. You should clean both tanks regularly, especially the dirty water tank, and plan to dump dirty water after every mopping cycle. The base station washes and dries the mop pads for you, and washes the metal cleaning tray in the process. Narwal recommends manually cleaning the tray every two to four weeks to kill built-up bacteria.
There's a filter sponge inside the clean water tank that should be cleaned every six months, and the caster wheel between the mop pads should be wiped every month. The floor cleaning detergent should last quite a long time, and when it needs to be replaced, you'll see a message that reads "Detergent used up."
Then, Narwal recommends replacing these parts after using the vacuum for a while:
- Roller brush — after 300 hours of use, should be cleaned every two weeks
- Mop pads — after 150 hours of use
- Side brushes — after 150 hours of use
- Filter — after 150 hours of use
Should you buy the Narwal Freo X Ultra robot vacuum?
If you constantly have to remove tangled hair from your existing vacuum by cutting it away and/or taking out the roller brush, the Freo X Ultra from Narwal would be a welcome upgrade. The company says this innovative brush is capable of sending 99% of hair to the dustbin, and after testing it out with lots of long hair, I'd say that's an accurate claim.
Mixing this seemingly magic tangle-free brush with the vacuum's other great features — 8,200 Pa of suction power, efficient mopping with smart features and edge cleaning, and excellent obstacle avoidance — creates a strong contender in the robot vacuum world.
The DirtSense technology could use a little work, but it's still decent as-is. The vacuum's price is also a bit high compared to other robot vacuums at the same price with more features, like an auto-emptying dust feature from a vacuum to its base station. For some, the Freo X Ultra not having an auto-empty feature for dust might be a dealbreaker, but others might find it preferable (including myself).
All the allergy-inducing dust is kept inside the vacuum until it's full, and there's more room for dust inside the Freo X Ultra compared to other vacuums. Because robot vacuums often won't empty dust until completing a task, sometimes they're full and not picking up anything else halfway through a clean — and I end up manually emptying the dust bin anyway. Plus, this robot vacuum didn't drop any debris or cat litter at thresholds when entering and exiting rooms, which I naturally attributed to its larger dust bin capacity.
Starting March 6, you can go to Narwal's online shop to buy Narwal's Freo X Ultra robot vacuum setup for a retail price of $1,399. It'll also be available for sale on Amazon.