Broken Dump Valve On Ninja

Is anyone else having a problem cracking off the rear dump valve on their Ninja (new style)? The valve sticks out a bit far from the rest of the machine making it vulnerable to damage. I have busted off two valves already. I believe the first was when I was loading or unloading the unit into my van. The second time I’m pretty sure it was when I was dumping dirty solution into a 5 gallon bucket. I have a habit of tilting the machine backwards to get every last drop of solution out and I think I may have banged the dump valve against the top edge of the bucket.

Regardless, this seems like a poorly designed and weak part of the machine. If this valve fails in a home when the recovery tank is full the results could be disatrous. To make matters worse, once the valve is broken off, the remaining (threaded) portion of the valve is still in the machine and very difficult t o remove! I had to fabricate my own “extractor” to remove it without damaging the female threaded fitting that is glued in the machine.

The new replacement valve came with a thick neoprene gasket, however my machine came from the factory without this gasket installed – they just used clear silicone to seal it. I found this a bit odd and got me to thinking that maybe they left the gasket off because using it would make the valve stick out even further??

Anyway, if anyone needs help/advice when replacing the valve, I now consider myself an expert at this repair (unfortunately) and would be glad to help.