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I have been borrowing clippers for years. Doesn’t matter who my trainer is or who the horse belongs to, I haven’t ever bought a pair of clippers for one really big reason – I’m intimidated. I look at a page of clipping stuff online and I go…ummm… and end up finding myself buying some horse shampoo instead. Why? I don’t know. Too much technical details and not enough fun? Not sure. I know how to clip a horse. I’ve done hunter clips, full clips, creative type clips (not like art…but not exactly your typical clip jobs either), and of course faces, ears and back in the day before I knew better, delicate muzzles. I no longer clip ears or muzzles because I think it’s cruel, but I love nothing more than a freshly trimmed, clean horse ready for a show! Anyways…back to my clipper terror. I really just never knew what I wanted or needed. Of the ones I’ve borrowed…I either hated them…or I liked them but they were so old there wasn’t anything comparable on the market anymore. Not helpful!
That’s where Andis comes in. I had good experiences with some Andis ones I’ve borrowed before, so I asked them if they would be interested in working with me on an article. I told them what kind of clipping I do most and what I was looking for and a few weeks later the Andis Pulse ZRII clippers in the beautiful limited edition floral print showed up at my door. They also sent some extra goodies (a rubber grip – which is genius and an absolute must have IMO, some clipper oil and an adorable pin). Thank you Andis! I will say right off…these did not disappoint me whatsoever and I’m so thankful that they wanted to work with me and were able to decipher from my emails what clippers would work well for me.
Now lets get back to the clippers…the design is so cute! I love florals…so these are absolutely spot on for me. SO cute. And I’m not going to lose them or have them get mixed up with anyone else’s clippers at the barn. They do have an all black one if you’re the more “serious” clipper, but I personally love this colorful floral one. There’s also a pretty “galaxy” one for those that like purple!
I am an instruction reader…so I read the whole booklet, but these are SUPER easy to set up and to charge. It didn’t take long for them to charge to full (I didn’t time it, but it was less than an hour). There’s also a nice long battery life (they advertise 3 hours…but I didn’t use them this long). I used them on and off for about an hour and they had plenty of charge left. Even better, the battery is removable and you can buy another so you can charge and rotate in batteries for long clip jobs/clip days if you need to do that. I admit I was a little worried before I used them, as the chargeable ones I’d borrowed from someone before would go dead after a bridle path and two fetlocks. Not a thing with these. No worries.
There is an on off switch and then also a second switch with an easy soft touch up/down mechanism to slow down and speed up your motor (5 speeds). Being able to easily adjust while clipping with no fiddling was very convenient. I never even knew that was something that bothered me, but this made the clip smooth and easy.
The Ceramic Edge Blade cut SO smooth (better than any other brand new blade I’ve ever tried). I had used Andis blades in the past on trainer clippers, and even bought new ones…but these clip a lot better. I have no idea on longevity for sharpness, but I’ll add that to the review in the future when I wear through these. Of course these clippers have detachable blades, and they’re easy to switch out which will be great for body clipping time (of course that’s not right now…but give it a few months…it will be here before you know it).
I didn’t have any issue with these getting hot and didn’t need to take a “cool down break” like I do with my trainers old Andis plug ins I usually use. I did oil them before use and used the Blade Care Plus a couple of times while clipping just out of good maintenance because that’s what you SHOULD do…but I didn’t need to use coolant on them to cool them down.
I (naughty naughty) clipped both clean and dirty areas (just for testing sake of course) and these handled the dirty areas well without showing track marks! They were also able to handle the long “goat” hairs on Jax’s bum, belly and face and made him look neat and tidy for the show without showing any clip marks or clipping into his coat at all. They were super easy to use on delicate and hard to reach areas.
They are a little heavy maybe…but I personally prefer that. They feel solid in your hand and the quality is very much there. How do I know the quality is good after just a little show trimming? Well Jax body slammed me off of the mounting block (yeah…I know I’ve mentioned his bad ground manners before) and these went flying a good 8 feet and hit the hard ground. I gasped and ran over to them and was like… “Oh God please be okay…please be okay…” And they were totally fine. Not a scratch. Turned back on like nothing ever happened. Exactly what you want when working with large, quick moving animals.
They are a little noisier than some I’ve used, but they also do a better job… so that’s a trade off. Jax didn’t react to them badly until I went to do his bridle path…and he does that with all clippers.
I am extremely happy with these clippers and I’m so thankful to Andis for sending me the exact ones I’ve always needed! I would absolutely purchase these full price in the future if something ever happened to these…and I’m not sure I’ll ever buy the regular blades again…these ceramic ones are so nice! If you want a better clip, but don’t want to buy new clippers…go buy some of the Ceramic Edge blades. I’m super impressed with them.
