Which Dog Clipper Do I Choose?

In the current economic climate more and more people are considering clipping their own dog to save money. With an average price to clip a dog around 30 pounds and most dogs requiring a visit to the groomers every 6 weeks this equates to an average cost per dog of 240 pounds.

It's easy to see that investing in a good pair of quality clippers and buying the appropriate blade can be a great investment with a very short payback time of less than 12 months. So the burning question with so many to choose from is which dog clipper should you buy?

The main three brands on the market are 'Wahl', 'Oster' and 'Andis' all of which have been around for many years. As a company, we have been selling dog clippers for over 3 years now so we have a good understanding of all the different types of dog clippers available.

Wahl clippers are basically human hair clippers that have been rebranded as a pet clipper. Whilst this might have been a clever marketing ploy they didn't take into consideration that pet hair is a lot more aggressive than human hair and therefore this puts a lot more stress on the motor. Wahl dog clippers might be cheap but this is a false economy as we get so many customers that have wasted hard earned money on them. From our experience of Wahl clippers I would give these a wide berth and invest in a proper pair of professional clippers.

We sell both the Oster and Andis brands which are sold roughly in equal amounts as they both have good reputations for producing strong, robust machines. These American companies have for many years produced a clipper that has been sold to virtually every grooming salon in the country. These are the brands that your professional dog groomer would use on your dog so if you do want to have a go then you need to consider one of these.

Oster clippers tend to be heavier and certainly more noisy, the bodies of the clippers are not as ergonomic as Andis but many groomers have been raised on the classic Oster Golden A5 model so they stick to what they know. The Andis dog clippers are slightly lighter and certainly quieter and this is a feature if you have a more nervous dog for sure.
Personally whilst either of these brands are upto clipping even the heaviest of coats they are happy to run 8 hours a day seven days a week. The Andis Super 2 speed clipper is their flagship model and you won't go wrong by buying this fantastic product. Most significantly our experience is that Andis do tend to be more reliable than Oster so this is something to bear in mind. One other point worth noting is that once you have selected your clipper it is crucial that you do buy the right blade for your breed otherwise no matter how good the clipper it may not perform as you would like.