Track mop and hot water wiping: Narwal Flow robot vacuum review

Overall, the Narwhal Flow left a solid to good impression in the test. Among other things, the navigation is exemplary. The design and workmanship are also impressive.

In addition, the cleaning performance is decent, although according to our test impressions it is not quite at flagship level. This undoubtedly also applies to obstacle detection of our test device. There is still room for improvement here, but this can primarily be improved by software.

Overall, the Narwal Flow delivers a somewhat mixed result. For it recommended retail price of $1,499, there are many other candidates on the market in this price range, some of which are even more convincing.

The recommended retail price for the Narwhal Flow is $1,499 euros. However, at moment it is available at a significantly lower price of $1.299 directly from the manufacturer. It is also available on Amazon.

In 2025, not only Dreame but also Narwal is using a different mopping technology to the classic two mops for the first time. The Narwal Flow uses the so-called FlowWash mopping system, in which a mop cloth rotates across the floor in the shape of a track.

This is the same mopping technology as in the Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Track, the sister model of the Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Roller Complete with mop roller. But how good is the wiping technology? And what else characterizes the new flagship from Narwal? Our Narwal Flow review provides the answer.

Narwhal has packed numerous features into its new Flow. Firstly, there is the special mopping technology. For the first time, the manufacturer has left the rotating mops of the Freo models behind and is now using the mop roller, which is becoming increasingly popular with more and more models and which even wipes with hot water of up to 45°C here. It is also not round here, but shaped in the form of a track, which per se provides even more contact with the floor (approx. 27 x 5 cm) and should therefore benefit the cleaning performance. We will clarify whether this is the case in our Narwal Flow test below.

With a suction force of 22,000 Pa, the Flow cannot quite keep up with other top models, which have up to 30,000 Pa. However, the figure alone is not decisive. The manufacturer uses CarpetFocus technology. Here, an adaptive pressure plate surrounds the main brush and is designed to ensure that less airflow escapes to the sides and suction power is lost.

The Narwal Flow is also equipped with two side brushes. Although these are not extendable, their special design should still reach into corners. There are also all kinds of AI features for the intelligent adaptation of cleaning.

Navigation and obstacle detection are carried out completely without a laser tower, but with the NarMind Pro autonomous system using lasers in the front and rear as well as two RGB cameras and an AI chip. According to the manufacturer, it can overcome obstacles up to 4 cm. At 9.5 cm, the Narwal Flow is slightly flatter than the competition, which is also equipped with a mopping roller, such as the Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Roller Complete or the Ecovacs Deebot X11 OmniCyclone ($1,499 on Amazon).

The included cleaning station no longer has an integrated display, as was previously the case with the Narwal Freo models. However, there is an integrated button for starting the robot directly. In addition to dust extraction for up to 120 days (according to the manufacturer), the station offers AI-adaptive hot water wipe cleaning with 60°C tempered water. This is followed by 45°C hot air drying. The station also has a hot water self-cleaning function and a replaceable cleaning filter. Detergent can be poured directly into the water tank, which is somewhat less convenient.

A positive feature is that the mop cleaning tray is removable. The side handles for lifting the rounded and stylishly designed station are also practical. However, we were less pleased that there is no cable management on the back for the rather short power cable.

Work can be planned directly on the overview screen on the left and previous cleaning processes can be viewed on the right. Many other settings are also available in the menu to adapt the behavior of the robot hoover to your own wishes. In addition to firmware updates, these include obstacle detection and language.

Overall, we don't like the Narwal app quite as much as some other manufacturers. On the negative side, we noticed that the app sometimes takes a few moments to load. On the positive side, however, the localization has been significantly improved, whereas it was sometimes horrible in previous models when the German language was set. However, it is still not perfect. Matter support is also still missing, but will be added later.

What did not work so well with our test device, however, was obstacle avoidance. It reliably detected larger obstacles. However, this is the minimum standard, especially in this price range. Smaller obstacles such as shoelaces, cables and Lego bricks were obviously also detected by the Narwhal Flow in "Intelligent" obstacle mode and stopped in front of them. However, it still managed to run over some of them or at least push them around while avoiding them.

We would have expected more here, especially as the manufacturer diligently advertises artificial intelligence. According to our test impressions, the Narwhal Flow lags behind other top models in this point. We installed the latest firmware for our test. We are unable to say for sure whether the test sample we provided before the launch is a pre-production model that may not yet be fully developed and whether this point of criticism will be improved by the official launch.

The Narwal Flow is also at a good level in terms of mopping performance. The mopping technology of a wide mopping roller is a good and thorough thing per se - especially in combination with the constant rinsing of heated water. This allows the model to remove many types of dirt without any problems.

Only in the one or other endurance test, in which many other competitors have also reached their limits, some residues remained on the floor. The intelligent cleaning control mostly did a good job here, but not always. However, the Narwhal Flow is more than adequately equipped for everyday dirt.

After 50 square meters of vacuuming and mopping with the standard settings, the Narwal Flow still had around 70 percent battery power. This means that even larger households can be cleaned on a single charge. Here, the Narwal Flow performs significantly better than the Dreame Aqua10 Ultra Roller Complete. However, the Flow also charges very slowly and takes several hours.

To compare the energy consumption, we had the robot hoovers and mopping robots in the test clean 50 square meters with vacuuming and mopping in standard settings and then run the station's usual cleaning program every day. Here, the Narwal Flow consumed a good 12 kWh over the course of a month. This makes it slightly more economical than its competitor from Dreame, for example, which has already been mentioned more frequently.

The Narwal Flow robot is no louder or quieter than other models when cleaning. When drying the mopping unit, however, the station makes a clearly audible noise, which we found more unpleasant than with other models.