I too don’t particularly like the refusal of the Ninja to swivel easily, but I assumed that maybe with age and use it would loosen up. I saw ejvandalen’s suggestions to file down the notch and put WD-40 in there. I’m reluctant to “mod” my handle because it’s… well… so nice and pretty. I’m almost driven to follow ejvandalen’s idea - but I thought I’d ask (and here is the question) "Is it wearing down and loosening up naturally for you guys? Or after weeks of use - still stiff as ever?
Chris, We designed the Ninja swivel action to be tighter than our Swivel Loc’s. As the Ninja has a 30 degree head the primary reason to swivel the Ninja is on a pole - if you want to pull horizontally on a higher window. (Unless there are other reasons?) Normal hand use and control is better if the swivel is firm and not completely loose. We integrated a central male notch that lines up with the central arrow on the head. If you rarely swivel the handle, this notch will help keep the handle centered at all times. If you like to swivel the notch will eventually wear down and swiveling will become easier. Even if you loosen the screw the head wont rotate completely freely - this is by design. If you really want a free swivel squeegee try our Swivel Loc’s - 30 and 0 degree. Especially the 0 degree is made especially for pole work. Thanks for the question.
Thanks Mark for the explanation, I appreciate it. It helps to know what Unger had in mind for the Ninja when designing it, and how it will likely behave over time. I actually do really like the Ninja… I guess I’ve just been demanding too much from the little fella.
Thanks Mark, I was a little concerned when I first received mine last week. But as I get used to it I really, really love it! I use a 30" a lot for commercial and it fans so easily, way better than S***o! In fact as I looked at my BOB I realized we have gone almost exclusively to Unger. The 0 degree became a fave years ago, yet I keep finding new uses for it. (Are we going to get a quick release soon on that? Or do we all have to keep modifying them? ) and as soon as the Ergo-tech came out used them as well.
Anyway, thank you for spending the time and $ on a product we can truly use!! Great job!
Glad I can help and thanks for the great comments - we design with allot of input from pros like you and its nice to hear that you are happy and making $$. My father introduced the stainless, clip-less squeegee into Germany in 1964 and changed the way window cleaners worked - from a chamoix to a squeegee. That saved huge time. He introduced the Strip washer in 1966 and the telescopic pole a few years later. No more Boars hair brushes and ladders. Since my Dad was a window cleaner in CA before he moved to Germany he knew the business and had an innovative mind that helped him build his company. We continue in this tradition today. I am very happy with the response to the Ninja - it was a 4 year project to develop. I was a window cleaner in High School and always remember those days of cash and rainy days off. If there is interest I can go into more detail on some of our products that many of you may not know about. I appreciate all the comments.
Hey Mark, I also was a little worried about the tightness of the handle. However, after doing an afternoon of 3rd story half moon windows, I am glad it holds its angle as tight as it does. These new channels have been nothing short of amazing. They work and feel awesome. We have had no trouble with the clips coming undone at all. The unger soft rubber for houses is not only durable, but gives a good feel as good as and if not better than the. Had told my guy today that i lost a clip and he started to come over and help me look for it. Lol Almost had him. Looking very much forward to the boab to match the channels and handles. Congrats on a very fine design.
I have a 35 cm Ninja… i dont think the weight of the Clips is a big problem. i just feel that they should have invented something smaller or use just normal clips like on other Alloy channels… the big advantage with this squeegee is you can use soft or hard rubber blades …
Theres no doubt this thing is built like a tank… i used it on a Resi House yest… its an excellent squeegee… i dont know what the upper channel placing for the Squeegee rubber is maybe for squeegeeing your swimming pool out…
i should think this thing will last you a life time… you might have to change the channel blade clips every now and then…
and if you was on the job and getting attacked for some reason from all the squeegees i have in my bucket… the first i would reach for would be the Ninja and clobber him with that. !
I couldn’t agree more. The Ninja’s are fantastic squeegees but I wish they just had regular end clips like other squeegees. I use Ettore rubber and the end clips are a hassle because the bead on Ettore rubber is too large to fit into the end clips without dousing in solution to make it slippery. I’ve ordered some Unger rubber from WCR to try out. I hope it’s much better quality than the Unger rubber that came in my Ninja channels and better than the Unger rubber I bought at the local janitorial supply store.
From what I remember when I used Unger rubber long ago it has a nice smooth glide but poor quality control. Maybe quality control has improved over time and Unger rubber can be bought without nicks all over it.
I got the Unger rubber from WCR this past Monday. After using it with the Ninja squeegee I think I’m going to switch to Unger rubber instead of the Ettore rubber I’ve been using. The Unger rubber seems to be just fine and fits the Ninja channel better than Ettore rubber does. Nothing against Ettore rubber at all, the Unger rubber is a better fit for the Ninja.
Thank you for sharing this with us. I think its pretty awesome really what your father was able to design and come up with in the early days. I am interested in knowing a little more and sure others are too, please share.
BTW, people had mentioned the squeegee rubber “falling out” of the channel, I have not nor the guy who works for me seen this. I did check the clips when they arrived and they were not locked all the way, maybe had I used it before checking that it might have happed.
I changed the rubber to the upper slot and like even more! The Unger Ninja is nothing short of engineering genius
We really are using them a lot, I just need to order different size channels now.
for smaller windows ( frenchies IE ) i would highly recommend the The normal unger ergo tech 12 " and smaller …
the Unger ninja 45 cm ( 18 Inch ) is really good. its better than using the normal Unger ergo 45 cm or 55 cm i can see these being sold much less in the future… but for smaller glass the normal unger ettore cust better into the windows and leaves much less water. plus they are lighter…they slice into the soap much better this is what i a have found anyway
so any thing with big glass ( where you use a 45 cm or larger squeegee ) this is where the Ninja comes into its own and it handles the big glass really well
John, When I got my Ninja 12" I didn’t think it was going to be right for me but the more I used it I found that it works as well as my other 12" squeegees.
I’m using the Ninjas in size 12", 18", and 24" and they all work really well for me. But these things do seem to take more time to get used to than any other brand of squeegees I’ve ever tried.
The Ninja 12" works as well as my Ettore stainless, Sorbeau, Unger Ergotec, and Steccone in the same size. They all work great but I guess it’s just a matter of what you get used to and personal preference.
I still use Steccones in size 6 and 8 inch I guess because that’s what I’ve used since I first started. They are great for transoms, side lites, and French panes.
Ok, so perhaps I’m naive or just lame, but I’ve only ever used Ettore rubbers in 9 years of window cleaning. Actually i think I’ve only ever used Ettore squeegees too. Hmmm, so for someone who’s used many types of squeegees and rubbers what (in your opinion) are the biggest differences? By the way, I’ve ordered 2 Ninjas recently myself (12’’ and 36") and am curious to see how they work differently. Do they just come with the soft Unger rubber then? And what difference does the Unger hard rubber make in comparison? Anybody… please educate me. Thanks.
You’re certainly not lame for sticking by a great brand of tools that allows you to rake in plenty of dough throughout all those years you’ve been in this business. Although I could’ve done the same thing and stuck with pretty much any brand of squeegees that I own, I have instead tried many different ones because I suffer from an illness known as GAS. Gear Aquisition Syndrome is apparently pretty rampant amongst a large number of WCR members. I’m not sure if it’s curable or not but I’m hoping to get it somewhat under control at some point in my career. If not curable maybe it’s at least treatable.
Maybe we can get a support group organized for those of us WCR members who suffer from this terrible disease. I have suffered from this disease since my earliest days of window cleaning. The supply house catalogs would come in the mail and I just couldn’t help myself. The supply house websites were all bookmarked on my computer and I’d try to spend as much as I could on any and all window cleaning tools that I had not tried. I was like a kid in a candy store with a little red wagon full of money to buy as much candy as I wanted. I really lost control. All of these squeegees laying around and I could actually only use one at a time. It really didn’t make sense at all because they all do the same thing. They remove window cleaning solution from the glass after it has been scrubbed.
Looking back at my history of wrecklessly buying brand after brand of this squeegee or that scrubber, this rubber or that rubber, I have been able to actually come to terms with my illness and admit that I have a problem.
I thought I had finally gained a bit of control with my problem then they come out with this massive add campaign about this fancy schmancy squeegee made by Unger called the Ninja. I was really weak and just could not resist the temptation to try yet another line of squeegees. I aquired three of the Ninjas and immediately had that euphoric feeling of having some brand new shiny squeegees to play with.
I keep telling myself that these Ninjas are the last squeegees that I’ll ever need unless I have to replace them if they get broken, worn out, lost or perhaps stolen. I’m really enjoying this feeling I have that I will finally be able to at least control my Gear Aquisition Syndrome. But what if Ettore comes out with a new line of squeegees…What wil I do???
If there are any others out there suffering from GAS I would love to hear from you. It’s always a good thing to confide with others who have the same weaknesses. Simply discussing it would probably be a tremendous help. Hell…we know that there is no best squeegee and they all do the exact same thing. There’s got to be a way to get this GAS thing under control. I NEED HELP!
I would think that the Ninja would be mainly used for the large sized channels since
the shorter channels track well enough and work well enough. The larger channels seem to work better with more
weight and thickness. The longer the channel is the more likely it is to be bent out of shape and
to track unevenly.
I find it kind of strange that I see a lot of reference to the small channels but maybe that is just
me.
Hi…uh…mmmm my name is (are we using our real names here?) Mark and i’ve been suffering from GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) since 2007. When I first started window cleaning I bought an 18" and 12 squeegee plus a t-bar/scrubber and thought that I had everything required to clean windows. At one point I thought Unger’s Ergotec was sufficient but then I tried some Ettore gear like the contour pro and the backflip. Now I had everything to tackle any job for sure. After a short while the word out on the street was that a new, revolutionary tool set was turning heads and changing the way window cleaners use a scrubber/squeegee. It was the Wagtail and I just had to have one, well actually I have a few…5 to be exact. It also came with a strange RED rubber that seemed to last for ever but because it’s a hard rubber it isn’t suitable during my winter season.
So at this point I was pretty sure there wasn’t another squeegee that would grab my attention unless it was perhaps attached to a robots arm or something but then I started to hear a buzz about something called the Ninja. Now I had never tried a wide body channel design before, all my other squeegees seemed to do the trick for me plus getting a wide body channel came with the extra price tag associated with the special rubber you needed to buy for it. But the Ninja uses standard rubber which is very attractive. And the rubber can be used in either the lower or upper position. Now as mentioned by others, the Ninja (like the wagtail) takes a bit of getting used to but once you get it dialed in, it is a truly fine tool.
There are some consistencies with my tool usage tho. No matter what squeegee I’m using (ergo tec, backflip, wagtail, ninja, etc.) I find using Ettore rubber in them produces best result.
So am I done acquiring new tools? Only if you all tell me that you don’t want anymore Tool Talk episodes.
I agree that the advantage of the thicker wide body channel is more pronounced in the longer lengths like the 18" and up. But I like using the same handle for the 12" and 18" inch squeegees. The channel change is super quick with the Ninja handle and that makes carrying just one handle for both the 12" and 18" very efficient. Besides, the Ninja 12" is a killer squeegee once you get used to it.
) and as soon as the Ergo-tech came out used them as well.
