Manual dog clippers are loved for their quietness but feared because they aren’t the safest option and they are slow. Silent dog clippers are favored when it comes to grooming anxious dogs but they do vibrate and emit more noise than manual dog hair clippers.
Many of our pets are getting extremely anxious as soon as they have to sit down on their dog grooming table. Just like at the vet, they know what is coming: noises, vibrations, handling, and so on. Grooming an anxious dog at home requires different grooming equipment than usual: you need to offer that silent treatment. The whirring noise of the regular best professional dog clippers tends to scare anxious dogs.
In this article we are going to review the best of both worlds:
- Manual dog clippers — completely silent, vibration-free, slow for bulk trims, and risk of accidental cuts
- Silent dog clippers — still emitting low vibrations and noises, much faster for trims, and no risk of accidental cuts
Both types of noise-free dog clippers are very good at what they are doing. I would naturally recommend you to own both: manual hair clippers for head work and finishing, and silent electric clippers for bulk trimming.
Without any further ado, here are the top 5 best quiet dog clippers:
| Product Name | Type | Price | Quality | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Scaredy Cut Silent Clippers | Manual | $ | A |  |
| 2. Oster Turbo A5 2-Speed | Electric (Cord) | $$$ | A+ | |
| 3. Wahl BravMini+ | Electric (Cordless) | $$$ | A- |  |
| 4. Andis Professional Animal Clipper | Electric (Cord) | $$ | B+ |  |
| 5. Sminiker Low Noise Cordless | Electric (Cordless) | $ | C |  |
Of course, to make the cut as smooth as possible, you must take care of the blade and invest in a dog clipper blade that is suitable for your dog’s particular coat.
Clippers Noises and Vibrations Cause Anxiety
Speak for a minute to any groomer and they will confirm this to you: there is nothing worse than trimming and clipping an anxious dog’s hair. It’s a constant struggle because as a dog owner or groomer, you just don’t want to deepen the dog’s anxiety but you still have to groom it.
Finding the root cause of hair clipper related anxiety in dogs is very easy.
These anxious dogs have not been accustomed to such sudden high levels of vibration and noise during their first months of life. This lack of socialization and grooming experiences in their youth directly translates into a full-blown fear of the unknown. Especially when the unknown is loud, moves around their body, gets very close to the ears and head, and vibrates like an earthquake.
Some dogs even get further stressed with a cable moving around and these pets will favor cordless dog clippers, like the pricey Andis Super AGR+ Cordless Clippers. So you grasp what makes dogs stressed during grooming: a mix of noise, vibration, and all of that very close to their body and head.
Solutions to Reduce a Dog’s Grooming Anxiety
The solutions are simple. Get your dog slowly and gradually accustomed to the noise and vibrations of dog clippers, even your current ones. You must start by getting them used to these at a distance, first, to then get closer and closer to the body, and eventually to their head.
[pullquote-right]There are no electric dog clippers that are fully and completely silent and vibration-free. Some clippers, however, are much quieter than others.[/pullquote-right]
We may be talking of several weeks or months of training, depending on how noisy your current clippers are and how stressed out your dog is. Because results can widely vary relying on your training skills, patience, and determination, you can quicken the process by buying the best silent grooming clippers.
Quiet Dog Clippers — not 100% silent and still vibrate, but definitely quieter than regular grooming hair clippers.
Manual Hair Clippers — fully silent but manual scissors so time-consuming, especially for larger breeds.
5 Best Low-Noise and Silent Dog Clippers
We are starting with the Scaredy Cut clippers because they are the best manual dog hair clippers and the only product we do recommend. Other options grind away the hair rather than sharply cut it, so they aren’t worth any mention here. We then follow with electric versions of very quiet dog clippers.
1. Scaredy Cut Silent (Manual Dog Clippers)
Ideal for toy breeds, the Scaredy Cut Silent hair trimmers are very easy to use: they are regular grooming scissors with add-on combs. Obviously, they are totally silent and free of any sort of vibration. However, it will take you ages to bulk trim a full dog (really.)
To offer a comfortable experience, these manual dog hair clippers have two removable gel inserts in each ring to fit perfectly. There is also a knob used for tension adjustment. For the perfectionists reading this, Scaredy Cut is being generous by including seven attachment combs so you can go for a variety of lengths from 1/2″ to 1″.
In terms of bulk trimming or even with larger breeds, you won’t have enough time to do it all with just scissors. They boast a unique concept by being combed grooming scissors so after few minutes of getting used to, you will definitely adopt them.
I don’t recommend them as a replacement of one of the below quiet pet clippers — they just aren’t in the same lane! These totally silent manually hair clippers are perfect for sensitive areas such as paws, genitals and head work. They perform well for the finishing tasks too!
This is the reason why we are flooded with pet trimmers making dubious claims of silent cuts but in fact are $30 cheap Chinese imports found on popular e-commerce websites. Stay away from them. Although it is very tempting to try your luck buying such cheap products, their build won’t last and is anything but quiet.
There are plenty of trusted brands, and although they will cost you more, they will actually offer you a quiet and smooth cut. Wahl and Andis grooming clippers are very popular choices for professional groomers, but you can also add Oster to the list.
2. Oster Professional Turbo A5 2-Speed
With two speeds, the Oster Turbo A5 clippers can be either very quiet or very powerful and all of that within a split second at the flick of a switch. It’s amazing to have the choice and helps with heavier and coarser coats. Approaching the face? Let’s use the much quieter low speed at 3,000 SPM. Matted coat? Let’s switch to the high speed to smoothly cut through, at 4,000 SPM.
Look at it, too! It’s a beautiful product that transpires a heavy-duty feeling (and it is, heavy-duty) — it is made in the USA and weighs 1.97lbs or 900 grams. Not a minified version, it has everything a professional groomer wants, encased in a solid housing, and a performant motor ready to adapt to your needs without compromising.
This is not a cordless trimmer. However, to deliver that amount of strokes per minute consistently throughout an entire session, you kind of need to be corded.
3. Wahl BravMini+ Cordless Pet Trimmer
The Wahl BravMini+ is compact and built for providing the groomer with a lot of power with as little noise and vibration as possible. It is a success at 5,350 strokes per minute for a weight of only 4.5 oz (or 127 grams.) It will work perfectly for bulk work as well as precision tasks such as face and feet work.
The BravMini+ are rechargeable quiet clippers necessitating roughly 2 hours of charge time for around 100 minutes of cordless operation. You can obviously use them corded for a full power experience throughout the grooming session. Heat also is avoided thanks to a smart design allow for the trimmers to remain cooler for much much longer.
At such a low price, these clippers are most definitely worth a buy and they will last you for a long time, so the return in investment makes these an easy buy.
4. Andis Professional Animal Clipper
These Andis silent dog clippers are heavy-duty and built to last; they would be an overkill for a dog owner grooming his dogs once a year. They boast a break-resistant black housing and are on the heavy end of the spectrum in terms of weight at over 2 pounds.
Being quiet clippers, don’t expect them to cut through a heavily matted coarse coat. However, they do offer a wonderfully quiet clipping experience with most dogs out there. The product has been designed with heat dissipation in mind so they will remain cool after long use.
These Andis AGC quiet clippers are not cordless so mind the 14″ heavy-duty cord. The price reflects the high-quality of the build since they are amongst the most silent pet clippers available currently.
5. Sminiker Low Noise Cordless Dog Clippers
As rather cheap cordless dog clippers, these Sminiker trimmers are not the best option but they are the lowest in price. I wouldn’t recommend them if not for their low price, and I know we cannot all afford to pay more than that for quieter clippers. Many reviews about them online seem to be provided in exchange for a discount so I wouldn’t really rely on the reviews to make up my mind on these.
Verdict on Quiet Dog Clippers
If you can afford, you should go with the Scaredy Cut Silent which are the absolute best manual dog clippers currently. They aren’t ideal for anything other than finish work, so I would add one of the above-mentioned electric silent dog clippers, ideally the Oster Professional Turbo A5 2-Speed (they even come in 9 colors!)
Don’t forget that grooming anxious dogs inevitably is a time-taking process; but it is most definitely doable within a few weeks or months if you do start with low noise dog clippers.