Robot vacuum cleaners have come a long way over the past few years, with some of the most advanced models today doing well and beyond anything we thought they could do. However, in many cases, they still dazzle in your home. After spending a few months with the Narwal Flow 2, this is one of the biggest things that stands out – I actually like the way it looks better, and it doesn’t sacrifice high-end performance to do so.
Let’s start with the design here, as I think this might be one of the biggest things the Narwal Flow 2 has going for it.
The dock has this modern yet subdued gray design with a matte finish, sharp angles and some nice lighting effects on the front. Unlike Narwhal’s previous all-white design language, this new look blends into its surroundings away better still looks good. The Roborock Saros 20 I reviewed earlier this year it checks many of the same boxes, but I think the Narwhal wins on pure aesthetics. At the top, you’ll find two reservoirs – one for clean water, one for dirty water – and a trash can is neatly hidden beneath them.
The lights I mentioned serve a practical purpose – or at least they want to. Each key function shows a different lighting effect, but Narwal doesn’t explicitly tell you what these effects mean. A purple light turns on when the robot is positioned to assume it just says it’s charging. The orange light is on when the robot is docked after cleaning i guess is for heating and drying mops. I wish Narwhal did a better job of explaining this, but it’s a great effect nonetheless – it’s also completely optional and can be turned off. You can also turn it on full blast with the purple, fireplace and night light effects available in the app.
The robot itself matches the look of the dock, with its own ambient lights around the central ring. It’s a clean-looking machine that keeps all its sensors on the edges. There’s no central sensor column here, though at 3.7 inches I didn’t find the Flow 2 thin enough to fit under a lot of furniture beyond a bed or desk. It’s still in pretty good shape after about three months of use.
But how is the performance? In the end, this is what matters most.
In a word, great.
The Narwal Flow 2 has a suction power of 31,000 Pa to clean debris and has a rotary sweeper that applies pressure to clean floors, and you can also use the washing powder for deeper mopping. While I still find the dual brush head setup of other vacuums a little overpowering in some areas, the results speak for themselves here – I often find that the Flow 2 makes floors feel cleaner under my bare feet than other setups I’ve tried. Vacuum power is about the same as you’ll find in any other flagship-level robot vacuum, and I appreciate the Narwhal’s tangle-reducing brush. It’s been a set-it-and-forget-it system, aside from changing the mop water once a week.
With a huge 7000 mAh battery, it can clean for a while. It’s a vacuum that I’ve never seen stop its duty to fill, even when I send it on a full house run (about 1300 sqft) with multiple vacuum and wipe runs. Despite the fact that the sensors aren’t hugely visible for your viewing pleasure, the Narwhal’s obstacle avoidance is excellent – it never tried to pull a sock on the ground, but I’d still recommend moving the wires out of the way.
As well as the physical design, another thing I find is that the Flow 2 adapts a little better to everyday life. indeed quiet I usually plan to run my vacuum early in the morning or late at night so that I don’t need to hear it while I’m working in my home office, but the Flow 2 is quiet enough that even in the room directly next door, the sound doesn’t usually bother me. Narval reports that the Flow 2 operates at less than 56.5 dB – about the same volume as a normal conversation, or perhaps a standard dishwasher.
The same goes for the dock. The auto-empty bin is remarkably quiet, even able to empty the vacuum without waking me up in the next room on a late-night cleaning job.
Rounding things off, there’s the app. Narwhal’s app is simple to use, but as advanced as the one used by Roborock, which I personally have long considered to be the best of the best. After entering the robot, you can see a map of your home, choose a room or zoned cleaning and choose how you want to clean. All are intuitive and easily accessible, and you can customize the cleanse to add extra cycles or increase power very easily. Of course, you can also set an automated schedule for cleaning times.
The Narwal Flow 2 checks a lot of boxes. It’s quiet, looks good, performs well in both vacuum and mopping tasks, and has good software. And it does all this at a great price. At $1,499, it’s slightly more affordable than the Roborock Saros 20 I mentioned earlier, despite its performance approx on the same level – the Roborock’s advantage is its ability to really fit under furniture, and it’s slightly better at picking up small pet hair on carpeted surfaces.
Right now, the Narwal Flow 2 is an even better deal with a discount on Amazon and the Narwal website Up to $1,049. At this price, it’s bordering on unbeatable.
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