Clippers for one horse owner

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Pc2003

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Can't see any recent posts on this so apologies if I missed one.
I have a connie X tb. Would prob have a blanket clip and would re clip maybe 3 times in the winter. Some of his coat underneath can be quite thick. Not heavy cob thick but fairly thick.
Either looking to buy new or second hand of eBay etc. Was thinking around 150 quid ish.
Have seen master clip ones but a friend had them and they never clipped right. Have also seen the livery man harmony ones but the seem very trimmer ish?
Any recommendations? Thanks
 
I have the Masterclip Roamers battery clippers and love them! They are a heavy duty clipper and make light work of clipping my cob. A friend has the Liveryman Harmony ones and they struggled to do half a clip before giving up the ghost!
 
I have Wolseley Swift mains clippers, they are easy all round, very forgiving of ham fisted attempts at clipping and very forgiving of lax maintenance!
 
The master clip ones seem to have won awards so good to hear a positive story. I am bidding on some wolseley swift ones at present
 
Livery man harmony are crap, I could only just about manage a trace clip with them but it took forever!! They are definitely more like trimmers. I have lister stars now and they're brillant
 
Be wary of buying second hand. Some people are not always honest about their condition! I work for a clipper servicing company and we have had a few that the owners wont pay for repairs on and says they will just put them on ebay instead! It is always best to buy new and get a recognised brand as some of the foreign ones are not safety tested.
Masterclip does have a big following and many people are really happy with them. However, a lot of companies will not service or repair them (including the one I work for) so you would always have to send them back to Masterclip. This isn't necessarily a problem but could be an annoyance if you need them done.
Harmony Plus clippers are great. I have used them to do a full clip on my cob x who gets very fluffy and they had no problems going through her coat. Great thing is that they are completely cordless, but they can be run from the mains or a battery pack as well so fab for clipping. You can buy just the clipper and a blade for around £115 online. There is also no fiddly tensioning to have to worry about either so another huge plus.
Stars are another great option but do have a tendency to run hot. Again not a huge problem, most people get around this by having a spare set of blades and just swapping the blades over when they get warm. These are around £230 mark though so a little more pricey.

ETA - if you do get the harmony plus, make sure you go for a wide blade (10W) otherwise you will be there forever with the narrow blade trying to clip.
 
I have Liveryman Harmony clippers, I have to be careful to clip before the full winter coat sets in but as she's in full work, this isn't an issue. They give an excellent line-free clip but do take a while. I have a difficult-to-clip horse who needs breaks and I put aside three hours for a full clip. As I have only one horse to clip, it's really not an issue a few times over winter.
 
Hmm decision. I liked the look of the harmony as they did look straight forward but worried they won't cut it.
Veering towards master clip maybe
 
I had wolesey swift clippers for years, but they weren't great with our IDx mares thick coat, so treated myself to the wolesey harrier ones a few years ago..

Though they still have the perennial wolesey problems of needing to be totally correct tension before they will clip (and also heating up) they are much more powerful than the swift which are marketed at the one horse owner.

Fiona
 
I have Lister Stars, and I really like them. I did 2 full clips each on both of ours last year and they were brilliant. Harley's coat is pretty thin but Jazz is like a polar bear and I had no problems clipping him.
 
Pc2003 said:
Hmm decision. I liked the look of the harmony as they did look straight forward but worried they won't cut it.
Veering towards master clip maybe
Click to expand...

Harmony Plus are better, they also have a much better placed on/off switch. The switch on the Harmony is in a place that I always switch them off just as I get to a difficult to clip area and have to use swear words and reposition horse before switching back on.
 
The harmony plus at 115 says mains only, there is a rechargeable one at 135? Is this the one you have?
They seem to vary a lot on price is that because of battery packs? Some on eBay are over 200 quid.
Ride away also do a livery man calypso at 135?
 
The harmony plus has a battery built into the hand piece and that should be the same on all models as far as I am aware. The external battery pack adds around £100 to the price.
 
Okay last questions I promise!
Would I need a battery pack? Most places say between 1-1.5 hrs life? Is that enough for a blanket clip? And re the blades if I get a wide pair as narrow come with it, what is the difference in mm? So 2.4 or 1mm both come in wide? What would I need for his body and thicker hair. Thanks I am new to clipping. Horse is great to clip but sick of relying on others!
 
Pc2003 said:
Okay last questions I promise!
Would I need a battery pack? Most places say between 1-1.5 hrs life? Is that enough for a blanket clip? And re the blades if I get a wide pair as narrow come with it, what is the difference in mm? So 2.4 or 1mm both come in wide? What would I need for his body and thicker hair. Thanks I am new to clipping. Horse is great to clip but sick of relying on others!
Click to expand...

Depends how fast you clip! The battery pack is personal preference. I wouldn't buy one as I can do a full clip in about 1 1/2 hours, but even if they did run out I could always plug it in to the mains and run it off that. The battery pack adds another 4 - 4.5 hours clipping time so if you had more than one to clip and wanted to use them cordless then the battery is a good option. If you only have one to do or horses that don't mind cables then it is not really needed.
Blade wise it depends on what finish you want. 1mm is classed as the fine blade and 2.4mm is the medium. Personally I prefer the 2.4mm as anything shorter makes my mare look like she has been shaved to the skin. If you have a horse with any 'white' grey then you should always use medium blades because the fine will cut them too close and you will end up with a pink horse!
They take any A5 snap on blade so you can play around with blade type, lengths and also buy graders (I use these on feathers in the winter when I want a neat finish but want to leave some protection). I find that if you clip with the fur with the narrow blade (which is the standard No. 10 at 1.6mm) instead of against it like you normally would, it leaves the hair longer which matches up with the 2.4mm length (if that makes any sense?!).
However, just to confuse matters, liveryman did go through a stage of putting the wrong mm on the blade so people were thinking they had one type and instead had the other (unfortunately I can't remember off the top of my head if people thought they were getting standard but actually they were fine or if it was the other way round). It is best to ring up whoever you buy them off to make sure you get the correct blade that you want, otherwise you could be in for a surprise!
 
Liveryman Harmony are horrendous-if you do a search on here, most will say the same!

I have the Lister Liberty which are great, and easily clip the thickest of coats. You can purchase a battery pack for them too, if required.
 
I have masterclip ones and they are good. Would maybe struggle with a very thick cob coat, but I bought a set of the cheapest ones at the time of purchase.

I've had them at least six years and they've clipped at least five different horses without a problem
 
KVH said:
Liveryman Harmony are horrendous-if you do a search on here, most will say the same!

I have the Lister Liberty which are great, and easily clip the thickest of coats. You can purchase a battery pack for them too, if required.
Click to expand...

I agree the harmony isn't great, the on off button is right in the wrong place so you always end up switching it off mid clip which is very annoying. However, the Harmony Plus is the new, much better model. Pc2003 - if you are unsure on which ones to go for then have a look at some videos on youtube (I always look for review videos on there before I make any serious purchase). They may give you better idea of how each make runs.
 
I'm another who loves Lister Stars. They're quiet, and clip anything, IMO. They have done full clips (everything off, including legs) on a very woolly cushings coat, and a hunter clip on a very thick cob coat - no issues. They clip very smoothly and quickly, I can do a hunter clip on a typical thick native coat within an hour, or a fiddly trace clip (getting lines even on both sides etc!) in an hour on a half, again on a very thick coat. They never overheat with me.

Very good value for money.
 
I have Lister Liberty with a battery pack. Does my two and a couple of friends tracer clips, maybe 5-6 clips a year. Have the blades sharpen at least once a year. I always start clipping with the electric then do the fiddly bits with the battery pack. I like them!
 
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