Robot stress test: Narwal’s $1,500 mop vs. my nightmare messes

The tests and method

I prepped 8 different tests, from easiest to toughest:

• Long hair
• Spilled coffee
• Coffee granules
• Ketchup
• Flour and syrup
• Raw egg
• Olive oil
• Wet and dry mud

I made each test representative of a real mess, not just an easy, flat, thin impression of the substance. I then had the Flow 2 perform its “vacuum and mop” routine over the area and see if it cleans well.

For each test, I graded the Flow 2 as either Success, Pass, or Fail. If it cleaned perfectly with little to nothing left behind, it’s a Success. If it mostly cleaned but left behind enough residue to warrant a manual clean afterwards, it’s a Pass. If it avoided the substance entirely, smeared it all over, or broke down in the process, it’s a Fail.

All tests were conducted on a stone tile floor with grouting. I used the smart Freo AI modes exclusively, using the defaults and whatever other settings the AI decided to use at the time.

Test #1: Long hair

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Long hair has been the bane of vacuums for decades, and robot vacuums haven’t escaped yet. Hair is a fine substance that’s hard to spot on AI-imaging camera feeds, and it’s easy for it to get tangled up in the vacuum’s brush. With a wife, a daughter, and a couple of mannequin heads (for practicing hair styles), it’s a consistent issue for us.

The Flow 2 did a decent enough job with both real and synthetic hair. It took a few passes and scooped up all the strands with its side brush, then passed it through its internal vacuum feed.

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But it doesn’t clear a Success grade because some of the hair had wrapped around one of the wheels, and the rest of the hair had tied itself up in a ball. That’s better than jamming up the mechanism, but it still requires manual removal after vacuuming is finished.

Pass

Test #2: Spilled coffee

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I’m a tea drinker myself, but for you latté-heads out there, I ran the Flow 2 over a half-dried coffee spill to see how it handled things. This one’s interesting because it tests the robot vacuum/mop’s ability to handle both liquid and hard-to-remove stains.

Although it mopped over a larger area, the Flow 2 seemed to immediately recognize the stain and target it with repeat passes. Most of the liquid coffee was cleaned on the first couple of passes, and the stains underneath came off right after. A very effective clean.

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The only caveat is that it didn’t quite clear out the grouting stain, but that proved to be something this robot just wasn’t suitable for as the tests continued. Perhaps in the future, the next Flow 3 could come with a specialized grouting brush and mop.

Success

Test #3: Instant coffee

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If the Flow 2 can handle wet coffee, what about instant coffee? I’m talking coffee granules that have been pressed into the floor. As the job was clearly a two-parter this time, I set the Flow 2 to vacuum and then mop (one after the other, not simultaneously).

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Like in the wet coffee test, the Flow 2 identified where the larger mess was and tactically addressed it. The side brush and vacuum vent did send some granules flying, but it almost completely vacuumed them up afterwards. The majority of leftover granules were pushed outside the defined cleaning zone for the test, but I suspect it would’ve gotten them eventually if it were cleaning the entire floor.

Jon Martindale / Foundry

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The mop pass afterwards took care of any residual staining from the coffee, leaving the floor pretty much spotless afterwards. It’s just those last few remaining granules that stop it from claiming a full Success.

Pass

Test #4: Ketchup

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For this test, I left the Flow 2 to figure out what it should do. I told it to vacuum and mop, and it successfully chose to mop up the wet splat of ketchup I’d left for it to find.

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There was some slight smearing at first—and I wondered if it might have been picked up by the wheel—but after a few passes, the Flow 2 cleaned it all up and left the floor almost spotless.

Success

Test #5: Flour and syrup

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Frequent spills and stains from weekend pancake-making often leave my kitchen floor with flour and syrup stains, so I combined them both into a double test. Could the robot vacuum/mop manage to detect each and clean them up effectively?

Yes, mostly. Setting it to mop and vacuum simultaneously, the Flow 2 effectively switched between modes as it picked up the different substances, even sticking to its preferred grid pattern.

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The only real issue was, again, the grouting. Although the vacuum function did manage to pick up a lot of the flour that ended up there, it didn’t quite get all of it. Close enough I think, but grout performance is definitely something that needs work in future versions.

Success

Test #6: Raw egg

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There’s another risk when baking with young kids: the very real chance that they’ll spill egg on the floor. It’s even worse when the shell gets mixed in. Normally it’s not as bad as I’ve done for the test, but I really wanted to see what the Flow 2 could do.

It handled the egg with absolute ease. Just a few passes with the mop and it was done. It gets bonus points for this being the most satisfying cleanup to watch—it removed all that egg in very clean lines.

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I must note that this was one substance where the Flow 2 had to return to its base station, replenish its water tank, and then come back for a second go-over just to make sure it was all gone.

Success

Test #7: Olive oil

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Here’s something I thought the Flow 2 would really struggle with: thick, greasy, hard-to-clean-up-even-manually olive oil. I splashed a tablespoon in a scattered pattern… and it proved to be a piece of cake.

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The Flow 2 mopped it up effectively, removing any visible trace of the oil. It did leave a slightly greasy feel afterwards, but it really wasn’t that bad—I’m nitpicking. The residue could likely be cleaned by telling the Flow 2 to use a more intensive mop routine, or perhaps creating a custom cleaning profile for particularly greasy stains.

I’d be happy to consider this a success, but since it left a light residue, it’s more half-and-half… technically a pass.

Pass

Test #8: Wet and dry mud

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I haven’t tried chunkier debris yet, so here we go: I wandered around in a flower bed outside, then stomped a few muddy footprints on the floor. I instructed the Flow 2 to have at it with vacuum and mop functions. Figure it out on your own, little guy!

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It did a pretty admirable job. It recognized the larger granules and sweeped those first with the vacuum, then came back for the wetter, muddier stains with the mop. The overall cleanup was strong—it just couldn’t quite get that last clump of mud in the grouting.

I suspect it’d struggle to clean up any mess that had larger chunks of mud than this, but for boot tracks and muddy stains, it did a fantastic job.

Pass

You still need to clean your robot

I was thoroughly impressed by the Narwal Flow 2’s performance against all the tests I threw at it. I fully expected it to fail with the raw egg and olive oil, but it handled them like a champ. My floor is now cleaner than it was before I tested this little guy.

But even luxury vacuum/mop robots like this one aren’t 100 percent autonomous and hands-off.

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The day after I conducted all these tests, I noticed a distinct smell coming from the Flow 2. Apparently, its mop just couldn’t dry properly after cleaning up all that oil and egg and everything else—there was some ketchup smeared inside, too. It smelled funky, to say the least.

Jon Martindale / Foundry

You’re supposed to clean these kinds of robots once a week, so no surprise there. I like how the Flow 2 makes manual cleaning easy—after a quick wash, rinse, and dry of its parts and compartment, it was good to go again, ready for more challenges. No matter what, you have to clean your robot vacuums and mops to keep them alive.

Is the Narwal Flow 2 worth $1,500?

The Narwal Flow 2 is an impressive vacuum and mop robot with strong cleaning performance. But it also has an eye-watering price tag. Is all that extra power and capability worth spending 4x to 10x what it’d cost for a budget or standard vacuum/mop?

Yeah, I think so, with one important caveat. The Flow 2 did so well with raw egg and oil that I’m seriously shocked, but it struggled to maintain its performance over grout. It too often left residue behind or even missed entire chunks, and it’s a clear weak point in the design. If I’m paying well over a grand for a vacuum/mop, I want it to kick butt on all surfaces. (Are cheap robot vacuums worth it?)

If you have $1,500 to burn, don’t have grouting on your floors, and cherish automated convenience, the Flow 2 is a strong value that I’d heartily recommend. But if you have tile or other flooring types with uneven surfaces, it will still leave you with work to do.

Further reading: Essential robot vacuum hacks you can’t ignore