r/NARWAL

Had a Flow 1 since last December. The inability to handle black rugs aside, it’s been working very well. Occasionally it gets stuck under a piece of furniture whose legs are almost the exact same height as the Flow, but always recovers when I rescue it and put it back in the dock.

However, yesterday it got stuck there again. After I rescued it and put it back in the dock, the app still says Offline many hours later. I’ve tried:

- Removed the bot from the dock and put it back in until it beeped (charging contacts made)
- Turning the Flow off and back on via the power button on top of the bot
- Unplugged the base for 30 seconds and plugged it back in

It is now the next day, and the app still says Offline. On a whim, I tried hitting the button on top of the dock. The bot exited the dock as if to start a vacuum session, and said “Start mapping the room” (or something to that effect). I hit the dock button again and the bot stopped and said “Task paused.” So the bot is alive and the dock can talk to it.

What would cause this, and how do I recover from it? The last resort is to delete the bot from the app and try to set it up again. But I wanted to see if there is anything easier I can do to recover.

Anyone have issues with the Narwal Flow 2 not emptying the dust/dirt part when it docks? I just hit the button to run mine, and when I walked past the dock, there was a huge clump of stuff that it vacuumed up, just sitting on the dock.

I’m looking for a no scent cleaning solution for the narwal s30 pro. Tired of my house smelling like “lemon and basil”. Any alternatives that are neutral ph, non toxic, non scent, zero VOC that are safe for crawling babies?

I'm looking at the Narwal models that auto-empty, self-clean and have detergent slots. I've looked up the Narwal and Amazon listings but I've not got clarity on detergents.

My questions to anyone who knows:

1. Do these machines run only on Narwal-manufactured detergents or are there third party vendors as well?
2. If I want to run the machines without detergents (let's say the detergent cartridge is empty), will the mop work on just water or no?
3. Is the detergent mandatory for the machine to work?

Thanks in advance.

My Roborock S8 Pro Ultra has lasted about 5 to 6 years. It’s still running, but it’s definitely not in top shape anymore. At least once or twice a week it stops halfway through cleaning the house. Sometimes it gets stuck on rugs for no obvious reason, and occasionally it fails to dock. None of this used to happen, so I think it’s finally time to replace it.

I’ve owned other Roborocks in the past, and before that I had a Neato D5 that lasted around 3 to 4 years, so longevity is pretty important to me.

For my next vacuum, obstacle detection is probably at the top of the list. I have a small Yorkie who occasionally sneaks into a corner and leaves a little surprise behind. There are also kids’ toys and charging cables around the house, so I want something that is genuinely good at identifying and avoiding objects.

Another thing that drives me crazy is cleaning around the edges of kitchen runners and area rugs. My current vacuum tends to push debris onto the edge of the rug instead of picking it up. The same thing happens around the transition strips between rooms.

I’m not too worried about suction power or heated mopping. Most of the newer high-end models seem pretty good in those areas. My house is roughly 80% hardwood and 20% area rugs.

Right now I’m debating between the Dreame L60 Ultra Pro, Roborock Saros S20, and Narwal Flow 2. They seem to be in roughly the same price range and have similar feature sets.

My other big concern is longevity and support. I keep hearing that Dreame’s customer service isn’t great. With Roborock, I also wonder about the long-term situation in the US since they’re a Chinese manufacturer and we’ve already seen regulatory issues affect other robot vacuum companies. One thing I do love about Roborock is how cheap and easy replacement parts are to find on AliExpress.

How is the parts situation with Dreame and Narwal? Are replacement brushes, rollers, mop pads, pumps, batteries, wheels, sensors, etc. easy and inexpensive to find a few years down the road?

For anyone who has owned one of these brands for a while, I’d especially like to hear about obstacle detection, rug-edge cleaning, reliability, replacement parts, and customer service.

Hello people!

I got the flow 2 in July and has been using it since then. It performs well for the most part. It mops good too, which is the feature I’m looking as most valuable.
However, I want to ask why is the replacement kit for parts so costly? Do people get parts from any other third party? Are there any other options for cheaper parts?

Thanks!

I have had the Flow 2 for two months. Cleaning this robot vacuum is the easiest of any vacuum I have owned, and i have owned a robot vacuum since the very first Roomba.

My vacuum before this was the Mova z60 complete and it was horrible to clean - I had caked on dirt in every place possible on that vacuum! Even the brushes got caked on dirty that had to be scrubbed off.

The Flow 2 is well designed and really cleans itself. I thought I would dislike the fact that it emptied the dust bin at the beginning of a run instead of the end of a run. But this small change allows the dirt to dry and really prevents dirt from caking on the vacuum and in the dust bin. It still gets some dirt caking, but it is so much less than other vacuums.

The mop washing is the best I have used on a roller-style mop. And the design makes it simple to clean the area where the mop is housed.

Narwal really put some thought into the design and made it easy to clean! Thanks.

This is a follow up to: https://www.reddit.com/r/NARWAL/comments/1u21c6x/narwal_flow_rewashes_the_mop_every_10_ft_and/

And its not a good one...

But I want to be fair to the product, because this isn't a "the robot sucks" post. The robot was great. Narwal wasn't even my top pick, it was my second choice, and I picked it anyway because I liked the idea of backing the "smaller company" trying to break into the market. Solid build, mopping that worked really well, and I recommended it to basically everyone who walked into my house!

Then in May, after a firmware update, the mopping broke. The robot started driving back to rewash the mop every ~10 feet, ignoring every setting, unable to finish a single room (see link at the top). That's when I met the ugly side of Narwal.

Eleven weeks. Nine different reps. A three-week "repair" at their service center that changed nothing. Their own troubleshooting then turned up a second defect (dock button doesn't work), confirmed live on a call with their rep. They said the dock was the issue (which I doubted) offered a replacement dock but refused to put in writing what happens if it didn't fix anything. I did every step, shipped it to them.

A week after they received it, (surprise) they tell me the replacement dock is out of stock with no restock timeline.

They required the dock, took it, and then admitted they can't replace it. The robot can't even charge now. Their final offer was about ~40% of what I paid, prorated for "months of use" that include the months the robot sat at their service center. Talk about a slap in the face.

But the absolute worst part is I work in AI, so I could recognize exactly what was happening in that support thread. Every reply very politely/plausibly drawing the process out, offering the same non-solutions in a loop - a process that seems designed to outlast you until you give up. I didn't give up, but I suspect that most people would.

Their warranty lists repair, equivalent exchange, or an upgraded-model exchange. I asked them to honor their warranty; management declined. So I've filed a JAMS consumer arbitration (PROTIP: their own terms name JAMS, costs a consumer $250 to file) and a complaint with the PA Attorney General. I'll update with how it goes.

The product deserved better owners of its customer experience. If you buy one, you better hope you never need support

I was looking for Narwal’s floor cleaner to buy from Costco as it was cheaper there, but seems like Costco is completely removing Narwal from its online availability. No more floor cleaner in stock and even the robot vacuum are showing not available for delivery anymore that were there till yesterday (been checking every day for floor cleaner to be available)..

Is it going away from Costco forever?? ☹️

I am having an issue with my Narwal Freo X10 Pro docking station. I just got it yesterday.

The dock base drainage button in the app appears to function normally. When I press the drainage button, water drains from the base into the dirty water tank as expected. However, whenever I start a mop job, the base station overflows water onto the floor.

I had the mop do a cycle last night and there was no water in the dirty water tank but the clean reservoir water had all spilled onto the floor.

How can I add a room besides remap?

My Narwal Flow keeps rebooting in the dock and the base cannot connect to the robot. It definitely makes contact because the lights turn themselves on when docked, but when I take it out it's completely dead.

I didn't got any error messages before.

I'm thinking the battery is dead, did anyone had a similar problem?

A couple of months ago I had the battery replaced by the warranty because of overheating but I had an error message and the robot kept functioning.

Sent my Narwal for repair over a week ago. No update? Is this normal?

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.