What else do I need to get when buying clippers?

If you have nothing at home yet, here are the must-haves and essentials you need when buying clippers for your dog.

 

Clippers

Clippers first of course, which come in 4 levels. Light use, medium duty, heavy duty and super duty. Make sure you choose the right level to match your dog’s coat type and condition. This guide will help: Choosing the right clippers to match your dog’s coat type  

 

Blades and comb attachments

Most professional level clippers come with a blade included free, normally a size 10 blade, or in a Vet pack, sometimes a 40 (surgical length) blade.

A 10 is a ‘shave down’ length, around 2mm, short enough to go under badly knotted or matted coats when knots can't be removed before you clip. If you want the coat longer, you can either get longer blades, or get comb attachments and clip them on your 10 blade, but either way coat prep becomes more important.

To help you decide what blade length/s you might like, use this guide: Which blade size should I get for my dog? That guide also helps you decide if you want comb attachments and what lengths to get.

Blades go from size 50 (under 1mm) to size 3 (over 1cm) and comb attachments go from under 3mm to over 3cm coat lengths. When buying either blades or comb attachments, our website tells you the coat length in mm’s to make it easier to choose from the huge range available.

Oil

This is a must. You should never clip without applying oil. You must apply oil before using a blade, every time you use it. If you apply coolant during clipping (which you likely will need to if you only use one blade), and for storage.

Blades must be cleaned after every use and a blade should only be stored cleaned and oiled. Most clippers come with only a small starter amount of oil that should last one to four clips, so you will need oil sooner rather than later. Shop oil here 

If you’re a beginner groomer or home user, make sure to read the coat prep guide and the blade care guide before you clip for the first time, and as a refresher the first few times you clip.

Coolant

This is a nice to have, although some also consider it a must have. We highly recommend the use of coolant. If you get one of the multi-purpose coolants, they both cool and clean. You can also get coolant separately to cleaner. If you only use one or two blades, you will likely find your blade will get too hot running all the time.

Touch the blade every 10 minutes or so on high, or about every 15 minutes when running on a lower speed. Run your clipper on the lowest speed possible. Use the higher speeds only when the coat requires it. Metal moving fast heats up faster, than metal moving more slowly. If the blade is hot to the touch, stop using it. Do not risk burning your dog. Spray on coolant. Give it a minute and touch it again to check it’s now cool. Apply oil, and keep clipping.

Or without coolant, put the blade down for a few minutes and wait for it to cool. Apply oil and keep clipping. Or if you have more than one blade the same length, put a cool blade, oil it, and keep clipping using the new blade. You can continue to swap blades of the same length during the clip so you're always using a cool blade.

Do make sure to read the full blade care guide before you first start clipping as you may otherwise blunt your blade much faster than normal. You can shop coolants and cleaners here. 

Cleaner

Cleaner is another nice to have that we’d consider a must have, as not cleaning your blade properly, after every clip, will shorten the life of both your blade and your clipper, as well as cause issues such as the blade chewing or grabbing even when sharp.

You can get products that both clean and cool in one, or buy cleaner separately. Shop coolants and cleaners here and upskill on blade care here 

That covers what we’d consider essentials to buy with clippers. Of course there's a LOT more you could get.

There are all sorts of other products that will help you get better results when grooming that we also sell and can assist you with, including scissors, shampoo and conditioner, eye and ear care, brushes, combs and more.