As a mum who’s recently given birth to my second child, running on less sleep than should be humanly possible, and juggling the demands of a toddler and a newborn, I was hugely appreciative of the opportunity to review the new Narwal Flow 2 robot vacuum and mop. Arriving towards the end of my third trimester, when I was feeling increasingly more uncomfortable and tired, it felt like the perfect timing. What I wasn’t prepared for though was how much easier it was about to make the daily cleaning routine.

We’re no strangers to the Narwal here at Mums Lounge. Our editor reviewed the original Flow earlier this year, so it’s fair to say the Flow 2 had a lot to live up to.

Narwal Flow 2: Full features and Specs

Before I get into how it performed in my house, here’s what Narwal has changed since the original Flow.

Design

A glass front panel, Rational Arc Design and a Status Light Bar give the robot a noticeably more premium look than the original Flow, paired with an Easy-Lift Tank Design on the dock.

FlowWash™ Hot Water Mopping

A 26.6cm wide track mop applies 12N of downward pressure and washes the floor with water heated to 60°C, sanitising as it goes. Narwal rates this at seven times the cleaning efficiency of a conventional round-mop robot. The mop pad itself is washed in water up to 100°C between passes, dried with a 60°C hot air, and cleaned by a built-in scraper, without any manual intervention.

Suction and Carpet Care

31,000Pa of Turbo Force suction, up from the original Flow’s 22,000Pa, is paired with an upgraded CarpetFocus™ system that adjusts performance automatically when it detects carpet versus hard flooring.

NavoPower™ AI Battery Care

A 7,000mAh, 99Wh battery covers approximately 250m² per charge and is rated for 800+ charge cycles. AI-optimised charging is designed to learn usage patterns and protect long-term battery health, with Full Lifecycle Battery Health Monitoring, Proactive Risk Alerts and Wide-Temperature Stable Charging from 0°C to 40°C.

NarMind™ Pro Autonomous System 2.0

This is the navigation brain behind the robot, combining the TwinAI Dodge™ Obstacle Avoidance 2.0, the VLM OmniVision Model and TrueColor #D Mapping, an upgrade on the 2D mapping the original Flow used. It’s built to recognise more than 200 real-world objects, map the home in full 3D, and navigate confidently around everyday clutter, cables and pets.

Cleaning Modes

Pet Mode lets you define zones where pets tend to rest to hang out for extra cleaning attention and can monitor pets via two-way audio. Baby Care Mode switches to quiet cleaning near cots and notifies you if it spots misplaced toys nearby. AI FloorTag recognises valuable items like jewellery, avoids them and alerts you rather than trying to clean around them blindly. These are all new additions since the original Flow.

Connectivity

Compatible with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Apple Siri for voice control.

Unboxing and Setup

Setup was incredibly easy. It’s a sleek, good looking unit that isn’t too bulk, and we were able to fit it in our small utility room. We had it up and running for its first time within ten minutes.

It mapped everything quickly, correctly identifying the rugs and carpet from the start. I was able to map the general living areas and set up a separate whole house map that included the bedrooms. When I moved some furniture around and removed a rug a few days after setting it up, it only took me five minutes on the app to remap the living spaces.

The Mess We Threw at It

My toddler is still a very messy eater. Mealtimes mean plenty of food on the floor, either from tantrums or just from missing her mouth. My dog is good at getting the bigger stuff but not so good with smaller crumbs, which means she’s often liking the floor, which obviously isn’t super hygienic. On top of that we get a lot of sand brought into the house on my toddler’s shoes from the sandpit at daycare.

My dog also loves to swim, so we take her to the dog beach every few days, which can mean…you guessed it…more sand! We also take her to the park first thing in the morning when the grass tends to still be dewy, which means often she comes home with muddy footprints or wet grass on her paws. While she’s not a hug shedder, we do also get clumps of wispy black fur throughout the house.

Before the Flow 2, I would have to vacuum every day with the stick vacuum, and it would take me about 30 minutes to do the whole house. I would always aim to mop but didn’t always have the time or the energy. Physically, mopping got difficult towards the end of my pregnancy and was impossible post c-section. That’s why we were paying for a cleaner to come in who would mop once a fortnight. The robot mops so well though, we’ve been able to cancel the cleaner and save ourselves the ongoing cost. As an added bonus, I no longer have to do that ridiculous hour of pre-cleaner cleaning, you know the one, where you tidy the house before the person who cleans you house arrives, purely so they don’t judge you!

How it Handles the Daily Mess

It handles dirt, sand and pet hair very easily, and the hair doesn’t get stuck in the wheels or rollers. The mopping feature is incredible and can get dried food and dried mud up easily too, which is something I’d often struggle to do with a handheld mop.

One thing I picked up through trial and error: if there’s a lot of pet hair or debris on the floor, running the vacuum first and then the mop as a separate pass is much more effective than the vacuum-and-mop setting together. With the vacuum and mop combined, it seems to wet the hair and dirt, causing some clumps of it to be missed.

I’ve still used my handheld vacuum for small messes during the day, but it’s replaced my entire general vacuum routine.

Dock Automation: How Hands Off Is It Really

If the size of robot cleaner dock puts you off from getting one, don’t let it, it’s a crucial part taking more off your plate. The dock self-empties the dust bin and washes and dries the mop pads after every use. This means the only maintenance I have to do is empty the dirty water and refill the clean water tank in the docking station, and I’ve only had to do this once since we started using it, with the ap telling me when it was due.

The App

The app is very easy and intuitive to use, although I haven’t had need to use some features, like scheduling, no go-zones or voice control. I find it just as easy to start the robot whenever I need to. Also, having the two separate maps has been great.

What Surprised Us, Good and Bad

My dog Winnie is terrified of our stick vacuum but doesn’t seem bothered in the slightest by the robot. It slows down if it sees her coming and doesn’t run into her. It’s great at avoiding cables and any toys that may have accidentally been left under the couch too, and we haven’t had any incidents where things have been caught up in it.

It’s very quiet too. The only time I can hear it is when it’s on high suction mode on the rug.

I will say though, that it’s not perfect. When vacuuming it does miss some debris right in the corners or close to table and couch legs. I also left the balcony door open once and it rolled straight over the 60mm step down onto the balcony. The balcony isn’t on the map though, so I thought it would know not to go out there. I have made sure to keep the door closed since, but I could also set the balcony as a no-go zone on the app to prevent this from happening again.

What’s Changed Day to Day

Honestly, its saved me at least half an hour every day just on vacuuming alone. I still have to pick everything up off the floor, chairs and so on, but I’ve been doing it before bed, then running the robot overnight so the floors are nice and clean the next morning. It just starts the day off on a real positive when you wake up feeling like your home is clean and fresh.

For me, it’s more than just the time it saves me though. It’s the peace of mind too. Knowing the floors are sanitised means I can put my baby down on them and not worry about my toddler playing on them either. It’s early days yet, but I know it won’t be too  long before my little one is crawling around down there too, so having the floors properly cleaned rather than just vacuumed matters more to be now than it ever has.  The mental load of cleaning the floors has genuinely been lightened.

Is It Worth It?

I admit, I didn’t think getting a robot vacuum for our small space would be worth it, but it really is. Not having to think about cleaning the floors has been such a relief, and we’ve saved money on cleaners too. Knowing what I know now, I’d genuinely buy this myself if it hadn’t been sent to me for a review.

Price and Availability

The Narwal Flow 2 Complete, which includes the robot and an accessory bundle, retails for $2,999 AUD and is available through the official Narwal website and Amazon.