NARWALFreo Z Ultra Robot Vacuum and Mop Combo, Dual RGB Cameras and Chips, AI Avoidance, 12000Pa Suction, Real-Time Decisions, Adaptive Hot-Water Self Wash & Self Emptying, Pet Hair, Quiet, White

I have owned a few robotic vacuums and a robotic mop over the years, so wanting to spend even more money on yet another device left me feeling more than skeptical. I have owned the Narwal for 6 months now, using it weekly to vacuum and mop multiple areas of my house, including both wood and tile floors, and I have no regrets on this purchase. To be able to push a button and this device literally does all the work of vacuuming and mopping the floors is amazing. It gets under furniture, in corners, and detects items lying on the floor and maneuvers around them so they don't become "dinner" for the Narwal. As a bonus, it also dusts the baseboards as it goes along with a soft attachment on the side. The only effort I need to do is add water and empty dirty water for the mop and occasionally replace the waste bag. The mop heads are self-cleaning and they actually clean really well. They are white cloth and the Narwal auto-detects when it is time to go back to the station for a cleaning. I didn't think it would actually keep the mop heads white, but after 6 months, they are as white as the day I first used them. It also auto dries the mop heads when it is done mopping so no mold or mildew after.Previous robotic vacuums I owned would get stuck and I had to hunt them down under furniture because there was no way to know where it got stuck unless you happened to see it or hear an alert. The Narwal, on the unusual occasion it does get stuck somewhere (which doesn't happen often), it tells you right on the app exactly where it is located, so no hunting. What a concept!The best part, it is quiet. When I read other reviews saying the Narwal was quiet, I thought, "No way". I had to pause every other vacuum I ever owned to talk on the phone or watch TV. Not the Narwal. It can vacuum and mop while I sleep and it doesn't disturb me at all. I have cats who hated my previous vacuums, beating on it and running from it because the device was so loud and the cats were "chased" by it. With the Narwal, the cats actually walk right up to it and aren't scared of it because of how quiet and predictable it is. When the Narwal detects a cat, it stops. When you first set up your Narwal on the app, it asks if you have any pets, so it can detect pets in your home during task completion.Predictability in performance is so important. Other vacuums drive around haphazardly, and you hope it happens to get every area of your home. They also need need to return to the base to charge, but it doesn't exactly know where the base is, so it drives around aimlessly until it gets within range and then tries to dock, but gets it wrong over and over and has to keep trying. Sound familiar? Yeah, not the Narwal. The Narwal always knows where the base is. When it needs to go back to the base it goes straight there, drives in to the base the first time like precision. You never realize how annoying other vacuums are until you get the Narwal and you don't have to settle for inadequacy anymore.Now you are probably thinking, this sounds great, but what are the drawbacks? If you want something that is the equivalent of scrubbing the floors on your hands and knees, this isn't it. It isn't 100% perfect. Yes, you will find the occasional crumb still on the floor after vacuuming and you aren't going to eat off your floor after it's done mopping. This isn't a professional cleaning service. It's a robotic device, so I would say manage your expectations. I didn't go into this expecting perfection, so I'm okay with this being really good, not absolutely perfect. It has saved me from a lot of labor, and that matters to me as a person with chronic health conditions. The app has a number of settings and it took me a while to figure out where all the settings are, but I appreciate that it has those customizations. If you don't feel comfortable with technology and app use, that might be a drawback for you. But you could just simply use the buttons on the Narwal unit itself rather than the app for operation. A pro tip: use the lock feature on the unit to lock the buttons. My cat started using the Narwal as a perch and accidentally started pressing buttons. He felt all powerful at his newfound skills in being able to launch the device all on his own!

I wanted to use this vacuuming and mopping robot for at least a month before I wrote a review, so I really could get to know how to properly use it and how it performs. It is so easy to use. Technically, you could get started immediately once you plug in the charging station and give it some time to charge. Out of box, the only assembly is popping on the cleaning 'whiskers', slipping the mop pads on, and popping in the detergent container which is already pre-filled. For a fast start, you just push the button on top of it and if it's the first time, it will go around and map out the rooms in your home. Once mapped, you can just start him manually by pushing the button and use all the defaults set up or better yet, add the app to your phone and you can see all the settings and modes you can use. For instance, you can do regular vacuum suction or super-powerful suction. Or, for area rugs (or any rug actually), you can tell it to vacuum it, cross over it (skip it), or don't even get on it at all- side step it entirely. Each run, he's (I named him Wally) constantly updating his surroundings so your map will get better each time. He will do one room at a time and do the outside boundary first including baseboards if you want him too, then he goes back and fills it all in. He will stop on occasion to go back to his base to either recharge (although he carries a charge for at least 2 hours at full force capacity and mopping.), empty his dust tray (it gets sucked up and compacted in the main dust bag in the base), or to rewet and clean his mop heads. There's a smart mode where you can just let the robot decide what to do- he knows if it's carpet, tile, hardwood, area rug, etc. He's very quiet, I usually cannot hear him at all when one room over or more. In fact, we had the football game on when he came into the family room and it didn't even bother us where we needed to turn up the volume. It's not a whisper, but it's not loud. Kind of like constant 'white noise' in the background. If he somehow gets stuck, he can call for help by making sounds. Or, if you don't know where he is, you can either just look at the app and you can see him moving or where he's stuck right on your map. If he does get stuck somehow, you can opt to receive a text. I do this, and it says exactly what's going on, error code, what room he's in, you can even see the path he took in each room for that particular cleaning cycle. Back to getting stuck, he does an excellent job of avoiding obstacles, but I initially forgot to mark certain areas where I want him to skip in the app. (This is easy to do, you just shade in the area on your map and he will avoid it, but make sure he has access to a path in or out or past it - he follows instructions so if for instance you block too much and cover the door way leading back out of a room, he will stop and send you a message. I forgot to mark under my bed as a no go zone, so once under there it was like an obstacle course, things shifted, there were wires and cords, etc so he got stuck. Not his fault, it was mine for not keeping him out of there. You can set up a schedule in the app where you decide which days of the week, how often, which tasks (mop, vacuum, or both), and which rooms or entire house). He's connected to your phone via a bluetooth connection so you need wifi. We had no dead spots or issues so this was a non-issue but I just wanted to bring that up. Also, if he's vacuuming and let's say he can't get it all in the first swoop, he'll go back and do it again. If he still doesn't have it all, he will repeat this multiple times until either it's cleaned up or it's just not gonna come out- this is for both mopping and vacuuming. His base takes up about as much room as a home office sized paper shredder. If you need help or have a question on how to do something a certain way, their customer support has always gotten back to me within 24 hours via email- or you can call. I hope you found all of this helpful. I would definitely recommend you get yourself this model (Freo Ultra Z).