The clam design on any machine makes it much easier to work on the internal parts when you have a problem, I owned three ninjas over the course of ten years and to be honest have not got a bad word to say about Ashbys , they always gave me good service although I thought Dereks older son was a bit arogant, I currently own to Scorpions and am happy with there performance, there oceans apart on performance! Before going to the Scorpy I had always owned machines that were mounted in series, but the old Ninja did not compare with the Scorpions overall power! I do miss the internal heater and the build quality of the ninja but the scorpion has a lot more water capacity and leaves capets much drier when ive finished, hard to see what two different type of motors making that much difference from the power of a ninja , but I could be wrong