Narwal T10 Review

Narwal products are clearly focused on their mopping ability, something we've seen popping up in more robot vacuum models these days. That may be to the detriment of some of the more traditional features we tested.

Performance Comparison

Navigation

We start with an assessment of the T10's navigation, which was one of its stronger facets, particularly with how it handled furniture avoidance and its consistent ability to dock (not a given with other models). Yet it outright failed with another significant pet-centric test.

The Narwal is surprisingly quite nimble with respect to how it treats your home's furniture. Robot vacuums tend to ram thinner, less noticeable obstacles like stool legs, and the Narwal had its fair share of blind rams. But overall, the T10 kept consistent speeds and performed impressively tight turns around almost everything it encountered. We were also impressed with how little it seemed to get stuck and how consistently it could find its home base and dock itself to charge without error. Unfortunately, the Narwal did not recognize or avoid our simulated playdough poo, small or large.

Home Coverage

The Narwal features a multi-room setting, which is nice for setting up manageable cleaning sessions. It also seems to respect our designated virtual barriers and no-go zones well. Although it doesn't include a spot-cleaning feature — a major oversight.

The algorithmic coverage of the room is admittedly decent. It first takes a perimeter sweep of the room as it learns and does not often seem to miss a spot as it methodically sweeps the center afterward. We did notice some puzzling jagged paths, with frequent backing up and re-approaching from different angles around furniture legs — but this wasn't especially concerning. The T10 would often not even attempt to reach corners and frequently cruised several inches away from a wall.

Carpet Cleaning

There was very little to redeem the T10 on carpeting. To be fair, many robot vacuums available today don't do well with high-pile carpeting, but even on low-pile carpets, the Narwal T10 missed nearly every grain of rice and oats and happily whisked around our pile of spilled coffee grounds. It performed slightly better on high pile carpeting, likely because the carpet helped keep the debris in place, resisting the Narwal's efforts to brush them around haphazardly.

Surprisingly, it did best with our cereal tests, even on our fluffier carpet. The Narwal's redeeming quality is its impressive suction. Although, it has trouble moving the debris to the right spot before it can use its suction power.

Hard Surface Cleaning

For this metric, we pit the Narwal against common household foes like oats, rice, flour, and Frosted Mini Wheats. The T10 ultimately performs better on hard surfaces, though it was mediocre at best.

The more granular items were a bright spot for the Narwal. Although it seemed to aimlessly brush much of the flower around, the path directly under its mop head was much better. The Narwal's clearance was too low to corral most of the larger Mini Wheat's (a fairly common limitation of robot vacuums in general).

We should note that the Narwal has a glaring lack of a center roller brush — a strange design choice considering the main roller is central to the design of nearly all types of vacuums.

Pet Hair

While testing the T10's removal of pet hair, we placed a pre-weighed amount of hair on our high-pile carpeting, then took a roller and pushed the hair into the fibers, mimicking the motion of walking and grinding it in. The Narwal T10 performed so badly that we were able to recover less than 1% of the material. Strangely, test after test, it protested that its dustbin was full. Even after cleaning its filters thoroughly, it would only run cleanly for a minute before throwing the error again.

Convenience

The Narwal is definitely easy to use. Press the button on top and it will get to work without further input, though you can dial things in further on the app. The app has some useful features touched on above, but do know that a smartphone is needed — the Narwal does not come with a remote.

The nicest feature of this model is that it has a disposal/refill tower dock. The tank is an impressively large 5 liters, meaning the Narwal can refill itself many times over (the manufacturer's site claims an average room requires only 16oz, which seemed pretty accurate to us). Even better, it has an autocleaning feature for its mop — truly a rare aspect among other models we tested.

Should You Buy the Narwal T10?

Is the T10 worth its heftier price tag? Unless your primary need is a mopping-focused assistant that doesn't need to be refilled often — probably not. It's aesthetically pleasing and easy to use, which for some is a good enough reason to purchase, but ultimately it's not an especially great vacuum.

What Other Robot Vacuums Should You Consider?