Narwal Freo Z Ultra Robot Vacuum Review: powerful and stink-free

First of all, and apropos of nothing, I think Narwal is one of my favourite names for a robot vacuum brand. In the 5+ years that I have been reviewing robovacs I still can’t help but anthropomorphise each new model I test. Thinking of a chubby little narwhal slipping from room to room makes me smile.

Happily, this isn’t the only reason to love the Freo Z Ultra. My time with this vac has been speckled with pleasant surprises. Which is also to say that the Z Ultra doesn’t push this category forward in any evolutionary way, but it is an excellent example of a refined robot vacuum cleaner in 2024.

At the time of writing this review, there are just a few places to buy the Z Ultra, with the best price found on the official Narwal Australia website—$2,499. This prices the Z Ultra in line with many of the other robovacs offering similar features, like auto-bin emptying, self-cleaning mopping pads and hot air drying. Machines from competitors such as Ecovacs, Roborock, Eufy and Dreame all retail for between $2500 - $3000.

Alongside the vac and base station in the box you get one set of mopping pads, one dustbag for the base station, a bottle of floor cleaning detergent and four fluffy edge cleaners. These are all consumable products and need replacing, and an official accessories pack costs $399, which is a bit under 20-percent of what it costs the buy the whole machine.

One of the central selling points of the Freo Z Ultra is its powerful 12,000Pa suction which is on par with the suckiest suckers available today. When you set the vacuum to full power, the Z Ultra roars to life and did a solid job of finding the dirt and dust in the various rugs and runners I have scattered around my house.

However, most homes need Z Ultra sucking at full strength too often, and it’s at the other end of the spectrum that is more surprising. With the Z Ultra set to its most modest suction setting, the machine is one of the quietest robovacs I’ve tested. The hum produced as it moves around my house is noticeable but far from distracting.

I created a messy obstacle course of honey, tomato sauce, yoghurt and a dusting of icing sugar on the floating floorboards in my kitchen to test the mopping function and I was pleasantly surprised with the performance here too. Cleaning the mess wasn’t a quick task for the Z Ultra, but I certainly admired its tenacity. All up it took the vac 57 minutes to completely clean up all four substances, with at least 6 trips back and forth to the base station for mop cleaning, but at the end the floor was 95% clean, with just one small sticky spot of honey for me to finish up with paper towel.

Also worth a shout is the performance of the Narwal smartphone app which controls the Freo Z Ultra. I tested the Android build of the app on a Google Pixel 8 Pro and it is the first robovac app I’ve used that has worked flawlessly throughout my testing. Other apps lose connection with the machines or the floor maps are inexplicably deleted. I didn’t experience anything like this in the Narwal app.

As I mentioned earlier, the Narwal Freo Z Ultra is a refined example of a top-shelf robovac in 2024, but not one that introduces any radically new ideas. The design and build of the Z Ultra resembles most others in market; a large white plastic disc which parks itself in a white plastic garage. At 11mm tall, the Z Ultra isn’t the slimmest robot vacuum cleaner, and it’s worth measuring your furniture and the kickboards in the kitchen to make sure it can get under those important places.

I quite like the look and design of the Z Ultra base station. Again, it’s mostly unremarkable in size and shape, but I like the rounded edges which lean into the organic, narwhal-like shape I’m fond of.

Narwal has added new smarts to the self-cleaning functions and cleaning preparation modes in the base station worth paying attention to. As clean water is added to the vacuum cleaner before mopping, the base station electrolyses the water - a process in which a direct electrical current is applied to water mixed with sodium chloride, resulting in water that can be used as a disinfectant. I’ve longed worried about the efficacy of water-only mopping on robovacs, so this is a very welcomed addition.

This leads me to my favourite thing about the Z Ultra - it is entirely stink-free, even the dirty water bin in the base station. When testing competitor models, I’ve gotten into the habit of adding a splash of Pine-O-Clean to the empty dirty water container before install it to save myself from gagging when it’s time empty it. To my surprise, this isn’t necessary with the Freo Z Ultra. Even those the dirty water looks as funky when you empty it out, there is no unpleasant smell at all.

There are a few other hygiene-focused enhancements here too. The base station cleans and drys the mopping pads using hot water which it will heat to different temperatures based on the mess it has cleaned during its most recent run. The base station also auto-empties the dust-bin using heated compressed air which Narwal claims will compress the dust in the dust-bag so that you should need to replace the dust-bag less frequently.

As you’d expect at this price point, the Freo Z Ultra is packed to the gills with sensors and cameras to map its environment and avoid obstacles as it cruises around. Narwal advertises two front-facing RGB cameras working in tandem with sensors on the sides and top of the unit. The Freo Z Ultra also comes packing headlights, which only adds to my impression of it as more a pet than a vacuum cleaner.

With this battery of sensors at work, Narwal promises that the Freo Z Ultra can automatically detect obstacles as slim as just 5mm in height, which is precise enough to see and avoid electrical and device charging cables lying across the floor. This is impressive and I can report that I have interacted with the Z Ultra far less than any other robovac I’ve tested. It is common to stop a vac and untangled the brush once or twice every other run, but the AI in the Freo Z Ultra is clever enough to keep it out of harms way.

The other downside to all of these smarts is that the Freo Z Ultra is also one of the slower vacuums I’ve tested. It’s careful and thorough, and it returns to home base for mop cleaning numerous times each cycle. This also means you will need to empty the and refill the water tanks more often too. But considering that I rarely need to save it from a tangle or redirect it from having gotten stuck, I honestly don’t mind how long it takes to do a great cleaning job.

The robotic vacuum cleaner market is tough to stand out in and continues expanding each year. Which makes it all the more surprising to discover such a robust and high-performance robovac from one of the lesser known brands. The Narwal Freo Z Ultra is a great machine and certainly worth a look.

Of course, it’s not one of the cheaper machines, and it’s not supposed to be, but if you’re looking for a top-of-the-line model with a base station and all of the best features available today, then the Narwal Freo Z Ultra certainly seems like good value for money. It’s a shame that the official accessories are as expensive as they are, but there are usually cheaper alternatives to shop for when it is time to replace the consumables.