The NARWAL S20 Pro is a cordless, self-propelled vacuum mop for hard floors, weighing 9.41 lb with a 0.79-litre clean-water tank and a self-cleaning, hot-air-drying dock. Vacuum Wars measured top-tier mopping, 151 points in its stain test and a combined score of 175 that tied for first, while noting low usable suction and a smaller-than-average tank. Business Insider found it picked up everything from flour to syrup in a single forward pass, cleaned flush to walls and left the brush roll dry after its self-clean cycle, but did a poor job when pulled backwards. It suits buyers who want mopping results close to flagship machines in a lighter package; anyone who cleans with long back-and-forth strokes or has rugs should look elsewhere.
Full review
Flagship-level mopping in a mid-range machine
Vacuum Wars bought the S20 Pro itself and put it through its standard tests. On dried coffee stains it scored 151 points against a 140-point average, and it left 0.44 g of water on the floor against a 1 g average, giving a combined mopping score of 175 that tied for first among the hard floor cleaners it had evaluated. Business Insider spread coffee, flour, cereal, barbecue sauce, dried ketchup, soda and syrup over historic hardwood and laminate and found the S20 Pro cleared every one in a single pass when moving forwards. Its reviewer was also struck by the edge cleaning, which left no dry gap against a wall and reached to about a quarter-inch from the front of the head.
Light, self-propelled and lays flat under furniture
At 9.41 lb, per Business Insider, the S20 Pro is lighter than the 10.1 lb average Vacuum Wars records for the category, and its self-propel drive does not lock users into a fixed speed. The handle lowers all the way to the floor for reaching under beds, and in that position it raises suction and water output automatically. Five modes are selectable from the handle, including a Smart mode whose LCD ring turns yellow when it detects dirt and blue when the floor is clean. Voice prompts flag a full dirty-water tank or a misplaced roller. Business Insider measured 58 minutes in Quiet mode, 39 in Smart mode and 36 in Turbo.
Reverse strokes and suction are the weak points
Business Insider calls poor reverse cleaning the biggest drawback: pulled backwards, the S20 Pro left coffee, cereal, flour, leaves and dried mud behind its wheels, so messes had to be tackled with forward strokes. Vacuum Wars measured usable suction at the floor head of 0.55 kPa against a 1 kPa average, though it noted this did not seem to hurt stain removal. The clean-water tank holds 0.79 litres against a 1-litre average, Business Insider found the dirty-water tank needed emptying after 21 minutes in Smart mode, and neither review found an LED light on the head. It is intended for hard floors, not deep rug cleaning.
A self-clean cycle that actually dries the roller
Both reviews single out maintenance. The dock flushes the brush and internal tubing, and Vacuum Wars reports hot-air drying of the roller at up to about 149°F. Business Insider timed self-cleaning at three to five minutes and drying at 30 minutes or more, found the brush roll dry afterwards and no debris under the head, and noted that a cage in the dirty-water tank separates solid debris from water, though the debris comes out wet. Vacuum Wars described it as the hard floor cleaner it most enjoyed using, offering most flagship features at about half the price of premium models; at its $323.99 listing it undercuts the steam-equipped flagships by a wide margin.
Strengths
- +Tied first in Vacuum Wars' combined mopping test with 175 points, against a 138 average
- +Cleans flush to walls, with no dry gap left at the edge in Business Insider's test
- +Self-cleaning and hot-air drying left the brush roll fully dry
- +Light for the class at 9.41 lb, with a self-propelled, swivelling head
- +Ran 58 minutes in Quiet mode and 36 minutes in Turbo in Business Insider's runs
Watch-outs
- −Cleans poorly in reverse; coffee and cereal caught behind the wheels
- −Usable suction measured 0.55 kPa, well below the 1 kPa category average
- −No LED headlight on the floor head to show up debris in dim areas
How it compares
Listed at $323.99, the S20 Pro is a lighter, lower-priced alternative to the Bissell CrossWave Edge, the DREAME H12 PRO and the Tineco Floor ONE i5 Stretch, weighing 9.41 lb with a self-propelled head. Its measured strengths are mopping and edge cleaning; buyers who clean in long back-and-forth strokes should weigh its weak reverse pickup.
Rating sources
Counts as 3.65/5 in our score — this publisher's 1 scores on the site average 4.50, so its scores are adjusted down to compare fairly with other publishers.
“Narwal S20 Pro Vacuum Wars Stars 3.72”
Not in the average — we derived this score from the review's words, and a publisher printed a score for this product, so the printed number counts instead.
Our 3.6 score is the average of 1 of the scored reviews above, each adjusted for how strictly its publisher scores. 1 derived score above is not in the average because a publisher printed a score for this product. Ratings marked * were derived from the reviewer’s written analysis or video transcript — the publisher didn’t print an explicit numeric score, so we inferred one from their own words. Click through to verify. More about methodology.
