23 Questions to Ask a Vending Machine Factory Before You Pay

There are 23 questions worth asking a vending machine factory before you pay anything, and six of them belong in a written document rather than a chat thread. The list below is the one we get asked, grouped by subject, with the answer you should be listening for and ours next to it. Use it on every supplier you are considering, including us. A factory that has built the capability answers in specifics; one that has not answers in adjectives, and that difference is the whole point of the exercise.

The company: 1 to 4

These come first because everything after them is worthless if the company is not what it says. The full method is in the factory verification walkthrough; here are the four questions in short form.

The machine: 5 to 10

• 5. What are the exact dimensions and the crated dimensions? You need both. The machine fits the venue; the crate fits the door and the lift. Our published figures are factory-verified per model, and the crate size comes with the packing list.
• 6. What is the power draw at what voltage? A cotton candy robot pulls 2,488 W, which is 23 A at 110 V and 11 A at 220 V. That is a circuit conversation with the venue, not a footnote.
• 7. What is the real capacity per fill? Ask in servings, not in litres. 200 servings on the cotton candy robot, 70 cups on the popcorn machine, 1,000+ sprays on the perfume station.
• 8. How long does one cycle take? This decides queue length at peak. Three minutes for spun cotton candy, 90 seconds for popcorn, 15 seconds for a photo print.
• 9. What are the consumables and where do I buy them? Tied supply is a legitimate business model but you should know before, not after.
• 10. Can I see this exact model running on video, today? Not a render, not a sibling model.

Certification and compliance: 11 to 13

Question 11: which certifications does this model carry, and can I see the certificate with the model number on it. Question 12: if my market needs something you do not have, who pays for it. Question 13: what documentation comes with the shipment for customs.

Ours: CE on all machines, some with additional country-specific certificates. Anything else can be obtained on request, with the client covering the cost, or us covering it on a large order. The trap to avoid is a supplier who claims every certification for every model and produces no paperwork. What CE actually means for an imported machine is worth reading before you ask.

Money and terms: 14 to 17

These four belong in writing. Every one of them is something buyers and suppliers argue about after the fact.

Question 15 is the one that protects you most and gets asked least. A balance due on a calendar date pays for a machine you have not seen; a balance due after QC pays for one you have. The deposit safety guide covers the sequence in full, and the Incoterms explainer covers why two quotes are rarely comparable as written.

Production and delivery: 18 to 20

Question 18: how long is production for this model, from cleared deposit. Question 19: what happens between the machine being finished and it leaving. Question 20: what do I receive when it ships.

Our sequence, for reference: deposit clears, production runs under 30 days, then a video call showing your finished machine, then US-level QC, then the balance, then packing and shipping handled by us with tracking shared throughout, then installation and training videos, then support through the install itself. If a supplier cannot describe their equivalent of that sequence step by step, they have not done it often.

After the sale: 21 to 23

• 21. What does the warranty cover, in a list, and for how long? Ours is a full year: free support, free spare parts, and replacement of whole components that burned out or failed from an internal fault. Unlike most factories we treat that as included rather than as something to argue about.
• 22. How do spare parts reach me and how fast? Ours ship from Guangzhou in 7 to 14 days depending on country, a free starter parts kit comes in the crate, and we recommend buying an extra kit upfront for wear items.
• 23. What happens if the machine arrives faulty? The question that separates suppliers. Around 1 in 75 of ours arrives with a fault, against an industry pattern closer to 1 in 10 in our experience, and when it happens we take responsibility rather than start a conversation about who is to blame.

Support is also where most faults are resolved without a part moving at all. We run live chat and video calls with English-speaking technicians, can connect to a machine remotely to diagnose it, and put complex issues on a ticket system so they do not vanish into a chat thread. The full after-sales standard spells out what good looks like line by line.

The six answers to get in a document

If you do nothing else on this page, get these written down and signed: the price with its Incoterm (14), the deposit and balance trigger (15), the production window (18), the warranty scope and length (21), spare parts cost and delivery time (22), and the arrival-damage process (23). Everything else can live in a call summary. Those six are where money gets lost.

Before you send the list

Make sure the company is real first, or you will be collecting careful answers from a website. Start with the six verification checks, then shortlist using the survey of Chinese manufacturers. If durability is your specific worry, we wrote an honest answer on what actually fails and how often. Prices for every model we build are in the published price list.