Buying Comac Equipment? 6-Step Checklist to Avoid Costly Mistakes

Quick heads-up before I start: if "Comac" in your search meant the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China—or you're trying to find the C919 price per unit—this page covers a different Comac entirely. I can't help with aircraft pricing. I can help with the other Comac: the one that makes floor scrubbers, sweepers, and dust collection equipment.

I've been ordering this kind of machinery for facilities for six years. In that time, I've personally made and documented nine significant buying mistakes. Total wasted budget: roughly $34,000. That number includes a sweeper that didn't fit through the door, a dust collector with the wrong filter, and a battery system that didn't match our shift schedule.

So now, every equipment order goes through a checklist. This article is that checklist, in the order I run it. Six steps.

Step 1: Name the Problem Before You Name the Machine

Get this wrong and nothing else on the list matters.

The first real disaster happened in 2019. We had a production area generating fine mineral dust. I ordered a walk-behind floor sweeper—right brand, right price, right delivery time. Wrong machine. The dust was too fine; it blew straight through the filter and back into the air. Within a week, the operators had stopped using it and went back to brooms.

What we needed was extraction, not sweeping. An X-FLO dust collector would have handled the fine dust properly. Instead, we bought the sweeper first ($14,800), then an X-FLO unit six months later ($17,200), plus installation accessories. The sweeper got reassigned to outdoor lot cleaning. If we'd named the problem first—"fine mineral dust needs collection"—we'd have ordered one machine, not two.

Write down three things before you contact any dealer:

• What exactly are you removing? (wood, mineral dust, metal shavings, liquid—and how fine is it?)
• What's the floor area, and how often does it need cleaning?
• Is the dust coming from stationary equipment, or is it spread across the floor?

Step 2: Cut the Battery Runtime Spec by 25%

If you're looking at a battery operated walk behind floor sweeper, the spec sheet gives you a runtime number. It does not give you the real-world runtime.

In 2021, we ordered a battery operated walk behind floor sweeper for an area that needed about six hours of sweeping per day. The spec sheet said "up to four hours." Sounded fine—two charging cycles? No. Four hours on the spec meant about three hours of actual sweeping before the machine slowed noticeably. We adjusted the cleaning schedule twice before admitting the math didn't work.

We ended up buying a second battery and a fast charger. The charger needed a different electrical input than the warehouse connection. Another unexpected $700 for an electrician to run a new circuit. The machine we budgeted at $16,000 actually landed around $19,500.

What I check now:

• Spec runtime × 0.75 = realistic continuous runtime
• Charging time vs. shift pattern (can you charge during a break?)
• Electrical requirements of the charger at your site—not at the vendor's showroom

Step 3: The Filter Is the Machine

For dust collection equipment, the filter is the product. The rest is a box wrapped around it.

Everyone told me to verify the filter class before approving an order. I only believed it after skipping that step and eating the cost. In September 2022, we ordered an X-FLO dust collector for a workshop cutting composite materials. I saw "filter included" on the quote and moved on. The included filter was the entry-level option—fine for wood shavings, not fine enough for fine composite dust.

We noticed within a day. Visible dust around the unit's exhaust, a gray haze under the workshop lights. The X-FLO unit itself was fine. The filter was wrong. Replacing it cost $1,100 plus downtime, plus a conversation with operations about why the "new dust collector" let dust escape.

Not my finest quarter.

The rule now: send the dealer the safety data sheet for every material you're collecting, and ask them to confirm the filter class on the quote. If the filter class isn't listed, it's not confirmed.

Step 4: Ask What "Unit" Means in "Unit Dust Collector"

This is a language trap. "Unit dust collector" sounds like one self-contained box. It is. But the price might cover only the box.

I want to say the quote was clear. It wasn't. When we ordered an X-FLO unit last year, the base price covered the main body with a standard cartridge filter. It didn't include the connection kit for the compressed-air filter cleaning system, the duct adapter, or the stand. The extras added roughly 18% to the quote, and they showed up as change orders after I approved the PO.

To be fair, part of that is on me. The dealer's quote had option lines I didn't ask about. I assumed the unit was complete because it was described as a unit.

Ask these three questions on any dust collector quote:

• What's physically included in the base price?
• What's needed for operation but not included?
• What's the lead time on replacement filters?

Step 5: The Price of Certainty Is Worth Paying

This one I preach about now.

In March 2024, we needed a replacement filter for an X-FLO unit before a client audit. The dealer said, "Should be about two weeks." Two words I now treat as a red flag: should be.

The filter arrived in four weeks. The audit wasn't rescheduled. We lost some of that client's confidence and took a finding on the official report. The expediting fee—had we asked for a guaranteed date—would have been maybe $350. The audit finding cost far more in remediation and relationship repair.

The flip side: we once paid $400 extra for rush delivery on a part. The alternative was missing a $15,000 event contract. Worth every dollar. Not because the part arrived fast—because we knew it would arrive.

Since then, every PO includes a written delivery date and what happens if the vendor misses it. For routine consumables, maybe it's overkill. For anything that stops a deadline, it's essential.

Step 6: Order Spare Consumables in the Same PO

When you buy the machine, buy the parts that wear out. Do it at the same time.

I still kick myself for the $12,000 sweeper that sat idle for ten days because we didn't order spare brushes with it. The main brush wore faster than expected on rough concrete—no way to predict that from any spec sheet. The replacement had to ship from Italy. Ten days of zero productivity from a machine we'd bought specifically to save labor.

The consumable kit varies by machine type: for floor sweepers, a main brush, side brush, and filter; for scrubbers, squeegee blades and a spare pad; for dust collectors, a spare filter and gaskets. It adds roughly 10–15% to the order. It's the difference between a one-day interruption and a ten-day one.

Common Mistakes I Still Watch For

The six steps above cover the purchase. These are the mistakes that show up around the edges:

• Measuring the door after ordering, not before. We paid part of our $34,000 lesson with a sweeper that didn't fit through a 32-inch doorway. Measure everything. Then measure again.
• Choosing on quote alone without service terms. I get why people go with the cheapest option—budgets are real. But if the dealer can't commit to a delivery date or a service lead time, that "savings" can evaporate fast.
• Assuming the charger plugs into any wall. Refer back to Step 2. The machine runs on batteries; the charger runs on your building's power. Make sure they speak the same language.
• Not asking who stocks filters locally. A filter in a warehouse 20 miles away arrives tomorrow. A filter that ships from the factory arrives "probably next week." The difference is worth asking about.

Honestly, I'm not sure why these lessons are so often learned the hard way. My best guess: most buyers order equipment once every few years, so each mistake feels like a one-off. It isn't. We've caught 34 potential errors with this checklist in the past 18 months. That's the real value—not the cost avoided, but the interruptions prevented.

My experience is based on about 40 equipment orders in warehouses and production facilities. If your setting is very different—a hospital, a food plant, a distribution center—you'll need to add to this checklist. But these six steps cover the mistakes that cost me $34,000. I hope they save you the same.