diff --git a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/TestCloudPivotFacet.java b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/TestCloudPivotFacet.java
index adbaf2b72a9..97ae487dc4a 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/TestCloudPivotFacet.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/cloud/TestCloudPivotFacet.java
@@ -81,6 +81,11 @@ public class TestCloudPivotFacet extends AbstractFullDistribZkTestBase {
 
   private static final Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(MethodHandles.lookup().lookupClass());
 
+  // because floating point addition can depende on the order of operations, we ignore
+  // any stats that can be lossy -- the purpose of testing stats here is just to sanity check
+  // that the basic hooks between pivot faceting and stats.field work, and these let us do that
+  private static final String USE_STATS = "count=true missing=true min=true max=true";
+  
   // param used by test purely for tracing & validation
   private static String TRACE_MIN = "_test_min";
   // param used by test purely for tracing & validation
@@ -110,8 +115,6 @@ public class TestCloudPivotFacet extends AbstractFullDistribZkTestBase {
   //commented 2-Aug-2018 @BadApple(bugUrl="https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/SOLR-12028") // 28-June-2018
   public void test() throws Exception {
 
-    sanityCheckAssertNumerics();
-
     waitForThingsToLevelOut(30000); // TODO: why would we have to wait?
     // 
     handle.clear();
@@ -141,7 +144,6 @@ public class TestCloudPivotFacet extends AbstractFullDistribZkTestBase {
     final String[] fieldNames = fieldNameSet.toArray(new String[fieldNameSet.size()]);
     Arrays.sort(fieldNames); // need determinism when picking random fields
 
-
     for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
 
       String q = "*:*";
@@ -161,11 +163,11 @@ public class TestCloudPivotFacet extends AbstractFullDistribZkTestBase {
         // if we are doing stats, then always generated the same # of STATS_FIELD
         // params, using multiple tags from a fixed set, but with diff fieldName values.
         // later, each pivot will randomly pick a tag.
-        baseP.add(StatsParams.STATS_FIELD, "{!key=sk1 tag=st1,st2}" +
+        baseP.add(StatsParams.STATS_FIELD, "{!key=sk1 tag=st1,st2 "+USE_STATS+"}" +
                   pickRandomStatsFields(fieldNames));
-        baseP.add(StatsParams.STATS_FIELD, "{!key=sk2 tag=st2,st3}" +
+        baseP.add(StatsParams.STATS_FIELD, "{!key=sk2 tag=st2,st3 "+USE_STATS+"}" +
                   pickRandomStatsFields(fieldNames));
-        baseP.add(StatsParams.STATS_FIELD, "{!key=sk3 tag=st3,st4}" +
+        baseP.add(StatsParams.STATS_FIELD, "{!key=sk3 tag=st3,st4 "+USE_STATS+"}" +
                   pickRandomStatsFields(fieldNames));
         // NOTE: there's a chance that some of those stats field names
         // will be the same, but if so, all the better to test that edge case
@@ -387,21 +389,18 @@ public class TestCloudPivotFacet extends AbstractFullDistribZkTestBase {
         // regular stats, compare everything...
 
         assert actualStats != null;
-        String msg = " of " + statsKey + " => " + message;
+        try {
+          String msg = " of " + statsKey;
+          
+          // no wiggle room, these should always be exactly equals, regardless of field type
+          assertEquals("Count" + msg, pivotStats.getCount(), actualStats.getCount());
+          assertEquals("Missing" + msg, pivotStats.getMissing(), actualStats.getMissing());
+          assertEquals("Min" + msg, pivotStats.getMin(), actualStats.getMin());
+          assertEquals("Max" + msg, pivotStats.getMax(), actualStats.getMax());
 
-        // no wiggle room, these should always be exactly equals, regardless of field type
-        assertEquals("Count" + msg, pivotStats.getCount(), actualStats.getCount());
-        assertEquals("Missing" + msg, pivotStats.getMissing(), actualStats.getMissing());
-        assertEquals("Min" + msg, pivotStats.getMin(), actualStats.getMin());
-        assertEquals("Max" + msg, pivotStats.getMax(), actualStats.getMax());
-
-        // precision loss can affect these in some field types depending on shards used
-        // and the order that values are accumulated
-        assertNumerics("Sum" + msg, pivotStats.getSum(), actualStats.getSum());
-        assertNumerics("Mean" + msg, pivotStats.getMean(), actualStats.getMean());
-        assertNumerics("Stddev" + msg, pivotStats.getStddev(), actualStats.getStddev());
-        assertNumerics("SumOfSquares" + msg, 
-                      pivotStats.getSumOfSquares(), actualStats.getSumOfSquares());
+        } catch (AssertionError e) {
+          throw new AssertionError("Stats: Pivot[" + pivotStats + "] <==> Actual[" + actualStats + "]  => " + message, e);
+        }
       }
     }
 
@@ -690,147 +689,6 @@ public class TestCloudPivotFacet extends AbstractFullDistribZkTestBase {
     assertEquals(msg, expected, response.getResults().getNumFound());
   }
 
-  /**
-   * Given two objects returned as stat values asserts that they are they are either both <code>null</code> 
-   * or all of the following are true:
-   * <ul>
-   *  <li>They have the exact same class</li>
-   *  <li>They are both Numbers or they are both Dates -- in the later case, their millisecond's 
-   *      since epoch are used for all subsequent comparisons
-   *  </li>
-   *  <li>Either:
-   *   <ul>
-   *    <li>They are Integer or Long objects with the exact same <code>longValue()</code></li>
-   *    <li>They are Float or Double objects and their <code>doubleValue()</code>s
-   *        are equally-ish with a "small" epsilon (relative to the scale of the expected value)
-   *    </li>
-   *   </ul>
-   *  </li>
-   * <ul>
-   *
-   * @see Date#getTime
-   * @see Number#doubleValue
-   * @see Number#longValue
-   * @see #assertEquals(String,double,double,double)
-   */
-  private void assertNumerics(String msg, Object expected, Object actual) {
-    if (null == expected || null == actual) {
-      assertEquals(msg, expected, actual);
-      return;
-    }
-    
-    assertEquals(msg + " ... values do not have the same type: " + expected + " vs " + actual,
-                 expected.getClass(), actual.getClass());
-
-    if (expected instanceof Date) {
-      expected = ((Date)expected).getTime();
-      actual = ((Date)actual).getTime();
-      msg = msg + " (w/dates converted to ms)";
-    }
-    
-    assertTrue(msg + " ... expected is not a Number: " + 
-               expected + "=>" + expected.getClass(),
-               expected instanceof Number);
-        
-    if (expected instanceof Long || expected instanceof Integer) {
-      assertEquals(msg, ((Number)expected).longValue(), ((Number)actual).longValue());
-      
-    } else if (expected instanceof Float || expected instanceof Double) {
-      // compute an epsilon relative to the size of the expected value
-      double expect = ((Number)expected).doubleValue();
-      double epsilon = Math.abs(expect * 0.1E-7D);
-
-      assertEquals(msg, expect, ((Number)actual).doubleValue(), epsilon);
-      
-    } else {
-      fail(msg + " ... where did this come from: " + expected.getClass());
-    }
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * test the test
-   */
-  private void sanityCheckAssertNumerics() {
-    
-    assertNumerics("Null?", null, null);
-    assertNumerics("large a",
-        2.3005390038169265E9,
-        2.300539003816927E9);
-    assertNumerics("large b",
-        1.2722582464444444E9,
-        1.2722582464444442E9);
-    assertNumerics("small",
-        2.3005390038169265E-9,
-        2.300539003816927E-9);
-    
-    assertNumerics("large a negative",
-        -2.3005390038169265E9,
-        -2.300539003816927E9);
-    assertNumerics("large b negative",
-        -1.2722582464444444E9,
-        -1.2722582464444442E9);
-    assertNumerics("small negative",
-        -2.3005390038169265E-9,
-        -2.300539003816927E-9);
-    
-    assertNumerics("high long", Long.MAX_VALUE, Long.MAX_VALUE);
-    assertNumerics("high int", Integer.MAX_VALUE, Integer.MAX_VALUE);
-    assertNumerics("low long", Long.MIN_VALUE, Long.MIN_VALUE);
-    assertNumerics("low int", Integer.MIN_VALUE, Integer.MIN_VALUE);
-
-    // NOTE: can't use 'fail' in these try blocks, because we are catching AssertionError
-    // (ie: the code we are expecting to 'fail' is an actual test assertion generator)
-    
-    for (Object num : new Object[] { new Date(42), 42, 42L, 42.0F }) {
-      try {
-        assertNumerics("non-null", null, num);
-        throw new RuntimeException("did not get assertion failure when expected was null");
-      } catch (AssertionError e) {}
-      
-      try {
-        assertNumerics("non-null", num, null);
-        throw new RuntimeException("did not get assertion failure when actual was null");
-      } catch (AssertionError e) {}
-    }
-  
-    try {
-      assertNumerics("non-number", "foo", 42);
-      throw new RuntimeException("did not get assertion failure when expected was non-number");
-    } catch (AssertionError e) {}
-
-    try {
-      assertNumerics("non-number", 42, "foo");
-      throw new RuntimeException("did not get assertion failure when actual was non-number");
-    } catch (AssertionError e) {}
-  
-    try {
-      assertNumerics("diff",
-          2.3005390038169265E9,
-          2.267272520100462E9);
-      throw new RuntimeException("did not get assertion failure when args are big & too diff");
-    } catch (AssertionError e) {}
-    try {
-      assertNumerics("diff",
-          2.3005390038169265E-9,
-          2.267272520100462E-9);
-      throw new RuntimeException("did not get assertion failure when args are small & too diff");
-    } catch (AssertionError e) {}
-  
-    try {
-      assertNumerics("diff long", Long.MAX_VALUE, Long.MAX_VALUE-1);
-      throw new RuntimeException("did not get assertion failure when args are diff longs");
-    } catch (AssertionError e) {}
-    try {
-      assertNumerics("diff int", Integer.MAX_VALUE, Integer.MAX_VALUE-1);
-      throw new RuntimeException("did not get assertion failure when args are diff ints");
-    } catch (AssertionError e) {}
-    try {
-      assertNumerics("diff date", new Date(42), new Date(43));
-      throw new RuntimeException("did not get assertion failure when args are diff dates");
-    } catch (AssertionError e) {}
-
-  }
-
   /**
    * @see #assertNumFound
    * @see #assertPivotCountsAreCorrect(SolrParams,SolrParams)