A window cleaning robot is a strange product to import. It hangs on glass by suction, it sprays water, and the buyer will hold it against a competitor's website before your invoice.
Our manufacturing base is in Chongqing. For years our product went mainly to domestic customers. This year we decided to sell window cleaning robots globally and to publish how we work. These are the questions we would want a serious buyer to ask.
Question 1: What compliance documentation actually exists?
Ask for the document, not the assurance. A supplier saying the product is "fully compliant" is telling you nothing. One who shows which platforms the product is in preparation for, and says when IDs will be issued, is telling you something you can plan around.
Our position: we are preparing export platforms for CE, UKCA and FCC, with IDs issued when released. We hold no certificate today, and will not print a number we cannot produce the report behind. What we can give you now is the full specification and manual for factory model ZF10, every figure traceable.
Question 2: What happens at end-of-line inspection?
Every factory has an inspection station. Fewer have one you can audit. The useful question is what the station physically checks, and whether the record is per-unit or per-batch.
On our line in Chongqing, each unit goes through a powered function check before it is boxed. The fan spins up and holds on a vertical glass panel. Every nozzle is verified for spray, one by one, on a card. The remote and app pairing are confirmed, and the rope, buckle and label are checked against the packing list. The unit is weighed, because a missing accessory shows up there. Ask for the checklist, and confirmation it runs per serial number, not per carton.
Question 3: How do you lock the delivery date?
A brochure figure is not a commitment. You want a date written into the purchase order.
Our terms are explicit: samples ready in 7 days, production 15 days from an approved sample, FOB Chongqing. The approval step matters, because the schedule risk often sits in the approval loop, not the factory. Approve the golden sample quickly and the 15 days holds; argue about carton artwork for a week and it does not. Put the date in the contract, not the email thread.
Question 4: What is the MOQ, and how does payment work?
A low MOQ is not charity. It is a signal about how much stock a supplier will commit to a new market.
We work on wholesale, OEM, ODM and distribution only. We do not run direct-to-consumer retail, so there is no channel conflict between us and the people who buy from us. A trial order starts at 50 units, ODM projects start at 500 units. On equivalent specification we sit 15% to 25% below tier-one brands. Ask about payment structure and tooling costs together; setup fees discovered later are not a discount.
Question 5: What can actually be customized?
Every factory says yes to customization. The useful question is what happens when you ask for something outside the mould.
There are three layers. Packaging, carton artwork, manual language, label content and the accessory bundle are configuration. A different shell colour, logo treatment or product name needs a mould change and new tooling. A change to the machine's behaviour, meaning spray layout, sensor logic or app, is an engineering project with its own timeline. For the J10 we will move packaging, manual and bundle against the published specification, and say which changes need tooling.
Question 6: What happens when a unit fails in your customer's hands?
This is where a lot of supplier relationships end badly. Ask what the failure process is, who pays the freight, and how long it takes. Then ask for it in writing.
Our position costs us money if we get it wrong: a fault reported against a unit we supplied gets a replacement decision from us, not from your customer's patience. The spares that get consumed are the ones on the packing list, and we quote them as an ongoing list so your aftersales cost is predictable.
Question 7: How is the spray system verified, and can I watch it?
Ask to see the test. Any factory can show you a unit spraying on a clean window on your visit day. The question is whether the test runs on a dirty window, because that is where spray systems fail.
Our answer is a spray endurance station with a pattern card. Every production batch runs the sprayer continuously against a collection card under a controlled load of glass dust and dried residue. Every one of the six nozzles has to wet the card, no nozzle may show a dry centre inside its own pattern, and the pattern must stay symmetric. You can watch that test on a video call.
From the factory floor: the station that decides whether we ship
Between the last packing step and the loading dock there is one station that decides whether a unit leaves Chongqing.
The unit arrives with a full tank and a fitted cloth, because a dry cloth or an empty tank looks like a fault on the first pane. The technician runs the spray system against the card until all six nozzles wet it evenly, then runs it again under a load of glass dust and dried residue. Every nozzle has to wet the card, none may show a dry centre inside its own pattern, and the pattern has to stay symmetric. A unit that fails here is opened and corrected on our floor, where the fix is cheap. It never reaches the loading dock.
Nobody signs a unit off on appearance. The card is the evidence, and it is filed against the serial number with the inspection record.
The two questions buyers forget
Two questions go unasked, and both tell you more about your next few years than any datasheet.
| Question | Weak answer | Acceptable answer |
|---|---|---|
| Spare-parts cost in two years? | "We will support you" | A parts list and quoted lead time |
| Who answers on a Friday in another time zone? | "Contact your rep" | A named technical contact and a response path |
Our answer to the first is a spare-parts list for the J10. To the second, one technical contact who knows the machine.
Sources
- JIAJINGCAT AutoWipeBot J10 Product Manual (English edition), factory model ZF10 — https://autowipebot.com
- ECOVACS WINBOT product pages and specification tables — https://www.ecovacs.com/uk/campaign/ces-robot-window-cleaner-winbot
- HOBOT SP10 product page — https://www.hobot.com.tw/category/product/hobot/
- HUTT official site and W10 product documentation — https://www.huttwisdom.com
- Dreame C1 product page — https://global.dreametech.com/products/dreame-c1
What we can prove, and what we can't
We can prove the published specification of the J10 and the source of every figure: 8000 Pa peak suction, a 35-minute power-cut backup, 60 mm body thickness in a 220 x 220 x 60 mm envelope, 1.4 kg net weight, a 100 ml tank with bidirectional six-nozzle ultrasonic atomisation and no water pump, five cleaning modes, Tuya app control with 2.4G remote redundancy, a 5 m safety rope rated to 130 kg, and the packing list.
We can also describe our process precisely: what the end-of-line station checks, what the spray endurance card must show, and how the 7-day sample and 15-day production schedule runs.
We are preparing export platforms for CE, UKCA and FCC, with IDs issued when released. We hold no certificate to quote today.
What we cannot prove is how a competitor's factory operates, their yield, or their aftersales in your market. Ask them the same seven questions and write the answers down. We rank third globally by composite strength and first on safety experience, and we would rather win on answers than adjectives.