Having been established in 2016, Narwal Robotics is a relative newcomer to the market for home robots. But based on the hardware of the company, you’d never know this was a novice attempt. Its first offering, the Narwal T10, is an incredible robot vacuum/mop hybrid that offers a number of characteristics that are unique to it.
However, using Narwal’s app to operate the gadget can be quite irritating and make you want to pull out your hair. No company should demand that a customer spend $1,199 for a product and then struggle to use it due to a poorly developed app, regardless of how amazing the hardware is.
Narwal launched a crowdsourcing initiative in April 2019 that led to the creation of the T10. Around that time, the firm gave us a reviewable prototype and stated that it would be available in stores starting in September of that year. learnt lesson We’re not completely sure why it took so long for the bot to reach retail given that the bot that is currently offered by Amazon doesn’t differ noticeably from that prototype. The software hasn’t changed much either; it’s still quite unpolished overall. The Narwal T10 is a brand-new product, and this review will treat it as such. However, we have kept our previous review on file for historical purposes.
Narwal T10 review: Design
The Narwal T10 robot vacuum cleaner might be exactly what you need if you are looking for one and have been thinking about how to keep your floors clean. With this new model, which resembles a “D” form instead of the company’s customary circular shapes, certain alterations have been made. Laser mapping algorithms that work with its LIDAR sensor at the back enable it to map out obstacles while also avoiding them if necessary.
The T10 vacuums have a straightforward design with two buttons: one to switch the machine on and another to pause or end the current cleaning job. The dust bin is likewise located here, but you will also find a hidden brush cutter that you can use to remove any hair or fibers that are stuck in the filters so they don’t wind up in your carpet. Turn the appliance over to view where the bristles are housed, and use the simple disposal option to replace them as needed.
Most cordless products today have this feature. The T10 is excellent at collecting dirt from surfaces and hard floors, but it is unable to clean carpets due to the absence of a brush roller. If you want your floor cleaned, you’ll need to make some compromises or invest in a separate module with different types of bristles.
Simply remove the cleaning module and snap on two triangle-shaped pads to do mopping duties. They have a few fibers on them that can quickly clean your floors. Though it is always so good when technology performs what we need without having to move anything heavy or dirty ourselves, the T10 will take care of all of that for us. One of the biggest basic units for a robot vacuum we’ve seen is the T10’s.
Make sure there is adequate room where it will be placed, and that you can quickly and simply remove both of the 1.1-gallon tanks from inside this station when it comes time to clean them (or refilling). With this enormous tank capacity, you’ll never have to worry about running out of clean water. There won’t be any more annoying notifications on your phone when it’s time for a refill or cleaning cycle because the robot will remind you.
Narwal T10 review: Mopping performance
The main objective and distinguishing characteristic of the Narwal T10 is to scrub your floors till they sparkle. It vacuums in the same way that it mop, starting with the corners of the room and moving toward the centre. It’s not a quick mopper because it must return to its base every few minutes to clean its mop heads, which takes about two minutes each.
My kitchen floor was cleaner after the Narwal finished cleaning it, but there was still a small filmy patch from where soy sauce had earlier poured. Although the T10 took longer than other hybrid robots, my floors were streak-free afterward. It was evident from the filthy water kept in the base tank how much crud it had accumulated. The hybrid Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra mop didn’t feel as clean as it did after using it, but the iRobot Braava jet m6 was a better, more reliable floor cleaner. I liked that the T10 didn’t merely push dirt across the floor because the mop head was cleaned frequently.
Getting the Narwal T10 to clean where you want it to is difficult. The app’s room-specific cleaning options are minimal at best, and there is no option for zone or area-specific cleaning. I set up a number of no-mop zones to prevent the Narwal from travelling outside of my kitchen and bathroom in order to prevent the mop from unintentionally washing a rug. I did, however, overlook a little patch when designing the app’s no-mop zones.
The T10 mopped exactly one straight, Narwal-width line in my dining room as a result of this mapping error. It adhered to the no-mop zone by clumsily backing itself out of the dining room rather than making its customary S-shaped exit. It took a long time to clean that particular region, almost leading me to believe something was amiss.
Narwal T10 review: Vacuuming performance
As a vacuum, the Narwal T10 is only marginally less exciting. The vacuum does a better job of cleaning the edges than vacuums with only one brush since it has spinning brushes on both the left and right sides of the vacuum. The Roborock S6 MaxV vac/mop hybrid, which costs $700, boasts 2,500Pa of suction force, but Narwal only claims a maximum suction power of 1,800Pa.
The device’s 5,800mAh battery is a sizable one from Narwal. The robot never required to go back to its base to recharge its battery while vacuuming my 2,800-square-foot house, which has a mixture of bamboo flooring, porcelain tile, wall-to-wall carpeting, and several area rugs, over the course of my several weeks of testing.
Only two power settings Normal and Power are available for the vacuum, but both are surprisingly quiet. The SLAM navigation system used by the T10 is based on LIDAR. The former abbreviation signifies “Light Detection and Ranging,” which means the robot utilises a pulsed laser to determine how far away obstacles are from it. The second abbreviation, “Simultaneous Localization and Mapping,” refers to the robot’s ability to simultaneously map its surroundings and track its location on that map.
My home was expertly mapped by the robot. It quickly picked up on the barriers it needed to avoid, and because of its physical lowness, it could fit below all but the tallest pieces of furniture in my home (it did get stuck under a china hutch on the far edge of a thick area rug, but I solved that problem by drawing a no-go line at that location).
Narwal T10 review: Battery Life
The T10’s enormous 5800 mAh battery, which enables it to operate for longer cleaning cycles than other robot vacuums, is one advantage. The battery life is estimated by Narwal to be three hours per charge, but it is not stated whether this is in mopping or vacuuming mode.
Our 600 square foot apartment required about two hours to vacuum and mop using the T10, which was more than capable of doing so. If your home is larger, the robot will recharge at the base station before continuing its cleaning tasks. You won’t have to wait long to get the T10 moving around your home once more because the recharge time to a full battery is only about two and a half hours.
Narwal T10 review: Price and availability
The self-cleaning base station is included in the $1,049 price of the Narwal T10, which is also available from Narwal directly and on Amazon. The base station does not have a self-emptying dustbin like other robot vacuums; it is solely used to clean the mop heads.
With this bot, that still requires physical labour. Two sets of mopping pads are included with the Narwal, and extra pads may be purchased for $14 each pair. Packs of 20 floor cleaner detergent sheets cost $19 and can be added to the clean water tank.
Final Words
I really wanted the Narwal T10 to wow me. It’s a genuinely inventive gadget that attempts to find a novel solution to the robotic mopping problem without continuously maintaining an onboard water tank. Unfortunately, its cumbersome app hinders it. Although there are ways to get around it, I still wouldn’t trust this equipment to clean my house on its own. For $1,049, the app should be improved and should give users more confidence to avoid carpets. The vacuum performance could also be improved.
The iRobot Braava jet m6 is a good option for half the price of the Narwal if you’re searching for reliable robotic mopping. If money is not an issue, do you want mopping and vacuuming? The Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra is worth a look. The Narwal T10 is a decent, albeit pricey, option if, on the other hand, your house is entirely made up of bare floors and you don’t need to worry about area rugs or cleaning certain rooms.
