FURminator vs EquiGroomer: I Tried Both

The popular pick

The FURminator was the first cat deshedder to go mainstream and the brand still owns the category for a reason. It's well made. Stainless edge holds up, the handle is rubberized in the right places, and the ejector button on the back genuinely saves time. The "reduces shedding up to 90 percent" marketing claim is overstated, but on a heavy-shedding cat in molting season this thing pulls a startling pile in one go.

The reason it grabs so much per stroke is also why it tugs more. The teeth are clipper-fine and reach down to the undercoat, so each stroke catches more hair but also pulls harder. On a calm cat in molt that's a feature, big chunks of undercoat lift off in one motion. On a sensitive cat, or a cat outside shedding season, that same tug is what makes them walk away.

The other catch is it's technique-dependent. The blade is sharp by design. Press too hard and you can scratch skin, use it too often and you can thin the topcoat. Vets and longtime owners have documented patchy hair and "burned" looking skin from overuse. Manufacturer says light pressure, once or twice a week max, never on irritated skin or the chin. Used right it's safe, the problem is it's easy to misuse without knowing.

On my 3 cats the FURminator is the second-best tool. Leo (pictured above) tolerates it more than the other two. Herbie's coat is too long for the short-hair edition and too thin for the long-hair edition. Luna doesn't sit still long enough for me to be careful with it. So the EquiGroomer ends up being the everyday tool. For a single cat in heavy molt though, the FURminator earns its keep.

My pick

The EquiGroomer was originally a horse grooming tool. The cat and dog versions came later but the design is the same, a serrated edge with short outward-curving teeth set into a hardwood handle. No clipper blade, nothing sharp. The mechanism is purely the serration, tiny barbs grabbing dead hair by the ends as you stroke.

This is the right answer for cats. Cat undercoat sheds in dead hairs that have already loosened from the skin, you don't need to dig down to the skin to get them out. You just grab the loose ones at the tips and pull. The 5-inch serrated edge is wider and longer than the FURminator's head, so each stroke covers more coat and lifts more loose hair without pulling on the skin underneath.

The session habit is what makes this thing work day-to-day. I take the cat outside on a leash or stick them in a dry bathtub before I start. The amount of fur it pulls in 5 minutes is genuinely impressive, you do not want that falling into the carpet at your feet. Outside the wind takes most of it. In the tub you scoop it out at the end. Either way the hair leaves the house instead of moving from the cat to the floor.

My cats tolerate the EquiGroomer better than the FURminator because the teeth grab hair tips instead of digging in. No ejector button, but cleanup is 2 seconds, pinch the pile off the teeth and drop it in the trash, or shake it out outside.

The one limitation is it's less effective on very short coats. Domestic shorthair with minimal undercoat, you'll see less come out per session. For anything medium to long-haired, including most domestic shorthairs that have any undercoat at all, it works.