Narwal Flow 2 experience – broken twice within 3 months
Bought the Flow 2 in early May. Wanted to share my experience here.
Shortly after purchase, the base station broke down with error code 2003 (“base station drainage abnormal”). Contacted customer service. Under German law (§ 439 BGB), consumers have the right to choose between repair and a replacement unit when a product is defective – the choice is legally the buyer's, not the seller's. I asked for a replacement. Instead, without any explanation, they just sent me a prepaid return label for repair.
After going back and forth by email, the repair happened. The robot came back, worked fine for exactly two cleaning cycles, then the exact same error (code 2003 again) came back. So I contacted them again and pushed for a replacement, since the repair had clearly failed.
Their response: German law (§ 440 BGB) allows the seller two repair attempts before a customer can insist on a replacement or refund. Quick explanation for anyone unfamiliar with this: § 439 BGB gives you the basic right to choose between repair and replacement. § 440 BGB then limits that right again – the seller can refuse your chosen option and insist on repair instead (usually up to two attempts) before the repair is legally considered "failed" and you can actually enforce a replacement. So legally correct, but it definitely felt like a stalling tactic, especially knowing how many similar complaints about "repairs" are out there. As a goodwill gesture, they offered either a one-month warranty extension or a replacement brush. For two shipments and weeks of back-and-forth, that felt like a bad joke.
Funny side note: right after this, I got an email from Narwal asking me to leave a review in exchange for a €50 voucher. The review section on the linked page doesn't show up for me, neither on desktop nor mobile – even though the same day supposedly saw 11 new reviews come in. Could be a coincidence, but it looked suspicious to me.
I'm now going through the second repair attempt, but honestly my trust in this device is pretty much gone.