If you are ready to start grooming, you’re going to start building your grooming toolbox. And owning a Pet Grooming Clipper is absolutely one of the critical items to have in that toolbox. Grooming clippers are essential to maintain pets that require full body haircuts and trims. But clippers are also used to safely trim hair on many pets in places such as their paw pads and sanitary areas. As well as to safely remove matting that is close to the skin.
Understanding the 3 Types of Dog Grooming Clippers
So now that you know that you *need* a clipper to do pet grooming, now what? If you’ve gone shopping online to look for the perfect clipper, you are probably now in a vortex of confusion. There are so many options! All or most of them say “professional”. Most of them say they can do everything you need, and the price points range dramatically.
Need help! We are going to break down types of clippers into three main categories. Which we will explain which one applies to what kind of pet grooming job.
We are also available to help you through the comment section below! Meaning, that if you are stuck while looking at a clipper, send us a link to the product in a comment down below this post. With a brief description of what job you are looking to do (what kind of pet, how often you plan to groom, what kind of a haircut). And we will respond to you with our feedback as soon as possible!
Let’s jump right in and first tell you the three categories of clippers, and then we’ll drill down from there.
1st Category is Home Use Clippers, which usually come as a Clipper Kit
2nd Category is Professional Use, but because the word Professional is overused in the pet clipper space. We are going to refer to these as “OG Professional”, or OG Pros for the purposes of this post.
3rd Category is Specialty Clippers, and these guys range from all sorts of specialty uses.
Ok, are we good? We’ve got Home Use, Professional, and Specialty.
Let’s dig in…
…and start with Home Use Clippers.
Understanding Home Use Clipper Kits
Home use clippers are meant for occasional usage in your single or multiple dog households. This does not mean that they are bad in any way. The quality of each of these needs to be evaluated individually (and we can thank Amazon ratings for helping us out), and some of these Home Use Clippers are very good quality and can service your home grooming needs wonderfully.
In addition to typically having an affordable price point, Home Use Clippers usually come as part of a kit. Meaning that not only do you get a clipper equipped with a shaving blade (often slightly variable). You may also get a series of guide combs that either snap or slide on to the clipper, thus giving you the ability to do a variety of haircut lengths.
An important thing to note is that these types of kits are standalone and proprietary systems. Meaning that the blade on the clipper is made for that specific clipper, and the guide combs provided fit on that specific clipper. You typically cannot interchange what you get in the kit with any other system or kit.
And, as a bonus, some Home Use Clipper Kits come with some extras, like a clipper brush, clipper oil, and even sometimes a pair of basic scissors and/or a comb.
Here are some examples of Clipper Kits that are typically designed for home use:
So why are these units not typically used by Professionals? Let’s talk about:
Professional Grooming Clippers: Built for Power and Durability
Let’s start with what makes these machines different from your Home Use Clippers.
Difference 1 between Home Use and Pro: They are beefier machines. Groomers use their clippers for hours and hours, every workday, for years, and have to get through messes that if you are not a groomer, are hard to imagine. Thus, an OG Pro clipper has to be incredibly resilient.
Difference 2 between Home Use and Pro: Professional clippers have a true detachable blade that can fit into any other Professional machine. This first allows a pro groomer to switch out hot blades and continue to work. But more importantly, it allows pro groomers to replace or upgrade their clippers without having to re-purchase a whole new set of blades and guide combs. Basically, this system allows you to grow and upgrade throughout the years while building upon equipment that you’ve already invested in.
So, how does this work? A professional groomer can choose any true professional clipper that fits their needs. And guess what? Pro Groomers also have a ton of variables that can affect their choice. Including things like brand, weight, hand feel, if it is corded or cordless, how many speeds, what kind of a motor it has, price, and of course, just what turns you on, basically.
Most of these clippers are made by established manufacturers that are known in the industry. Although some new players are finding their way into the industry. But this name recognition also provides pro groomers with peace of mind that their device will be supported by a good brand and warranty.
Some brand names you’ll typically see are: Oster, Wahl, Laube, Andis, Heineger, Kenchii.
The Blade System Behind Professional Clippers
When you purchase an true Profeesional clipper, they usually come with one blade to use with that clipper. This, like with the Home Use clippers, is typically a shaving blade. The type of blade that can be used on these types of clippers fits an industry standard hinge, lock, and drive engagement system – let me repeat that, because it is important – Professional grooming blades can fit basically any professional clipper because of an industry standard hinge and locking system (keeping that blade in place) while engaging the blade (making it work) with a drive system that is industry standard (although manufacturers can enhance the performance of this drive system with unique attributes – but can still power the industry-standard blade).
So, what is this industry standard called? It’s technically called the A5 system within the industry, but very few people actually that term because there is a bit of weirdness there. Oster, a very good clipper brand, is the first to use the A5 term, so when you search for A5 clippers or blades, you’re going to get predominantly Oster choices – which makes things even more confusing, since so many other brands use this same industry standard.
The A5 Blade Standard in Dog Grooming Clipper Types
Because of this A5 standard, you can use any A5 professional blades, ranging from many manufacturers and many sizes on any A5 compatible clippers. For example, a Geib Buttercut #5 blade can fit on a Wahl KM clipper, a Heiniger #10 blade can fit on an Andis clipper, an Artero #7 wide blade can fit on a Heiniger clipper – and then Industry Standard guide combs can fit on any of the #10 or #30 blades, and now you can do major haircuts, all day long. In fact, once you get all the industry standard blades, combs and clippers, you can get through any job, considering you are trained properly and your equipment is maintained.
Let’s review before we move on. So far, we have our Home Use clippers that give you a basic range of functionality for a good price, and we have our Professional clippers that the OG Pros use, which give us power, performance and (variety), but require a substantial investment.
Here are some examples of Professional Clippers, Blades and Guide Combs that make up the toolbox that Professionals use in the grooming field:
And here we are. Our third category is our Specialty Clippers.
Specialty Clippers for Detail Grooming
Specialty Clippers can be used by Home Groomers or Pro Groomers to do Specialty or Detail shaving work, such as trimming paw pads, shaving around the sanitary areas, trimming in front of eyes or teensy little armpits – you get the point.
For instance, many groomers employ the use of a smaller clipper with a variable blade to use in conjunction with their Professional A5 system. This detail clipper with a variable blade allows a groomer to switch shaving blades on the fly (with a lever or button) so that they can go from shaving paw pads (typically with a shorter shaving blade #30 – .5 mm) to shaving around the sanitary areas (usually with a longer shaving blade #10 – 1.5mm) without having to change their clipper or having to change a blade on their larger, Professional clipper.
Examples of a variable blade Specialty Clipper are:
How Specialty Clippers Fit into Dog Grooming
Now as for doing major haircuts, even with the best quality Specialty Clipper and guide-combs, let’s be real. You may be able to get through a small, thin coat that is properly prepped, but there is no way to use these types of clippers to get through a haircut on something like a Doodle or Poodle with a thick coat properly.
Thus, Specialty Clippers are intended to complement your main grooming equipment, not take place of it, and they range from very simple little gadgets for specific uses to high quality little clippers that almost mimic their big cousins in the Pro OG camp. Just not as powerful, but sometimes come with some very helpful features.
Ok guys, that was a lot, but I hope this helps you to find the perfect clipper (or clippers) for your grooming journey! And don’t forget to leave us a comment below if you have questions on a specific clipper and if it would fit your needs! Happy Grooming!
More of a visual learner? Check out our videos on this subject here:
For details on how the Professional System works, check out our series of videos here:
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