Buying warehouse cages looks like pure price comparison, but many people fall into traps. The most common mistakes are comparing unit price alone, ignoring workmanship, and guessing at specs. Avoid these upfront, and the cages you buy will perform and last.
Mistake one: comparing unit price but not wire diameter and mesh opening. Two cages both labeled '5.8mm wire' may actually be 5.5mm or even 5.2mm; the unit price is 10 yuan cheaper but the load class drops a tier. The right move: write wire diameter, mesh opening and frame wall thickness into the contract, and sample-measure with a caliper on delivery.
Mistake two: judging by the mesh panel alone, ignoring welding and surface treatment. However dense the mesh spot welds, if the post-to-base welds are cold-welded, two layers of stacking crack; if the galvanized layer is too thin, white rust appears in six months. The right move: require full welding on key load-bearing points, and sample-check powder-coat or galvanizing thickness against the maker's spec.
Mistake three: buying the lightest spec but expecting to stack to the highest layer. Cage load and stacking layers are designed fixed; hard-stacking a light cage four layers tall will deform the bottom cage. The right move: reverse-select the load rating from 'max goods weight × max stack layers' and keep a 20% safety margin.
Mistake four: ignoring after-sales and spare parts. Hinges, door latches and casters are wear parts; if you don't ask at purchase whether spare parts are sold separately, a broken part means scrapping the whole cage. Nanjing Tongnuo Warehouse Equipment Manufacturing Co., Ltd. recommends writing wire diameter, load, surface treatment and spare-parts supply into the contract checklist before buying.