I went through my entire past German Shepherd ownership not knowing that professional groomers save an enormous amount of time, effort, and stress on the dog by using a blower to remove undercoat. I spoke to a groomer, and they said they would never manually brush out a Samoyed – as the dog would get irritated with just how long it would take – plus their labor cost would be much higher. Now knowing that, and with a Samoyed puppy on the way, my research is telling me to get a “pet dryer” to blow away the loose hair.
It appears that the K9-II or III is probably the best, but it is $450, and that seems to make more sense for a professional than for home use for a single dog. I emailed them asking if I they could loan one so that I could include one in the test to see if it was actually better, but they didn’t reply. I did get to test five other units. The Homeend Dual Motor, the ShernBau “5.0” HP, the Flying Pig, the Air Force Commander, and the PetNF. I would also like to say that I am impressed that K9 does not list HP, because HP ratings on blowers and vacuum cleaners are 100% fraudulent. If anyone can find a unit that lists the correct HP, I will eat my words, but there is no such thing. So how do they come up with these fake HP ratings? From reading around, it seems roughly more or less to cool the unit to below freezing, and then measure the input power for the first 1/10 second of operation. They take this power surge, and convert the watts to HP. This is a con in my opinion, and if I were not libertarian, I would say it should be illegal.
There are two ways to ways to measure HP with various methods of legitimacy. The most correct way is to measure the motor’s actual outputpower. This is how engines are tested, but no one does it for blowers. The second way, less legitimate, but common in the carpet blower world, is to measure average power consumption under load, then convert watts to HP. The problem with this method is that some motors are 90% efficient, and some are 50% efficient – so it still doesn’t really tell you anything. In summary, ignore HP.
So how do we compare? We should use CFM – or cubic feet per minute of air moving. There is only one problem with that – of the manufactures that do report it, that also cannot be trusted. They will use tricks like measure it from the motor and not include the hose. For this test, I used an air-speed meter, a tube of a measured diameter, and ran each blower into this to see accurate and comparable CFMs. Further, I used a sound level meter to measure the C-weighted noise from one meter above each unit. Additionally, I used a Kill-A-Watt meter and measured watts of power consumption.
The Homeland Dual Motor was $148.95 at Amazon at the time of this review. It was the most powerful, at 159.0 CFM with both motors on. It had the most CFM per dollar, and so is a good value if you want the most powerful in this test. It has no manual heat control, but the air does get warm. It is not clear to me if it has heating elements, or if the motors make the air warm. Judging from the watts/CFM, it probably does have a heating element – either that, or it is very inefficient. I am not selecting this unit to buy, because I don’t want to blow hot air on my Samoyed in the summer when he is not wet. Even if it does not have a dedicated heating element, it still has a poor watts/CFM rating, so that extra wattage is turning to heat one way or the other. Also, it needs a 20 amp outlet to not blow a fuse if both motors are on. You can run one motor at a lower CFM to either be quieter for the dog, or to work on a 15 amp outlet, but still it might scare a puppy since the lower setting is still about as powerful as some of the other units on max power.
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The Shernbao, at $178 currently, is the one I am going to purchase. The CFM rating is close to the Homeland Dual motor, but it will work on a 15 amp outlet and is at least 40% more efficient – making me think that it might have an above tyical high-quality motor in it. Even with the heat on, it was 1670 watts at 118 volts, which is about 14 amps – so should be ok on most outlets. This is sold in a few colors. Mine is dark glossy purple.
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The Flying Pig is $172, and I love this unit. The look of it is very satisfying to me, and it tied for the quietest unit. I like the lighter purple matte paint better than the darker glossy purple of the ShernBao, and the controls are very nice. So why am I getting the ShernBao over this? Because the CFM of this is significantly less and the price is about the same. I would buy this in a heartbeat for a short-hair dog though. I see why people like this unit.
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The AirForce Commander at $199.99 appeared to be a well-marketed product with lots of good reviews, but I would rate it last in my test. The hose is smaller diameter than other units, which will restrict airflow more. It is much louder than the Flying Pig while being about the same air flow. It has two speed settings, but no heat.
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The PetNF, at $98.97 was a fine unit, but like the Flying Pig and Air Force, not the best airflow performance for a Samoyed. Feature wise, it is the same noise level as the Flying Pig, with similar controls, and close to as much air-flow. I could see this as a good Flying Pig alternative for someone with a short-haired dog who wanted to save money. Since it uses more watts for less CFM than the Flying Pig, it probably has a less efficient and lower quality motor – that may or may not matter in terms of which would last longer, but I have no way to test for longevity.
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In conclusion, it was hard to narrow down which was best for me, so I really can’t say what is best for anyone else – but at least you can see comparative noise, CFM, and wattage data.