Most Australian grooming salons are breaking a workplace safety rule they have never heard of, and the equipment doing it is the single most useful thing on the bench.
We are going to give you the numbers first, because they are the whole argument.
The measurement
In 2012, a team led by Scheifele published a study in the journal Noise and Health measuring four commonly used dog grooming dryers of the forced-air kind. At one metre, which is roughly where you stand relative to the dryer and the dog, they recorded between 94.8 and 108.0 dBA.
Now put the Australian standard next to it. Safe Work Australia sets the exposure standard for noise at an eight-hour average of 85 dB(A).
Decibels are logarithmic, which is why this lands harder than it looks. Every three decibels doubles the sound energy, so permissible exposure halves. At 94.8 dBA, the quietest dryer in that study, you have used your entire eight-hour allowance in under an hour.
Nobody in a working salon runs a dryer for under an hour a day.
What that means if you employ someone
If you are a sole operator, the WHS laws still expect you to look after your own health and safety at work, but in practice this is a health question and it is yours to weigh.
The moment you have an employee, it is a legal duty. As the person conducting a business, you must reduce noise exposure so far as is reasonably practicable, and you must not let it exceed the standard.
And there is a second obligation that has had almost no attention in this industry. If you frequently require a worker to use hearing protection because noise exceeds the exposure standard, you must also provide audiometric testing, within three months of them starting that work and at least every two years after. That is a hearing test, arranged and paid for by the business. The rule comes from the model WHS regulations, and the two largest states switched it on recently: New South Wales from 1 January 2024 and Queensland from 29 July 2025. Check your own state regulator for the detail and the deadline for existing staff.
We have not met an Australian grooming salon that is doing this. We have met plenty that would, if anyone had told them.
Noise cancelling is not hearing protection
This is the mistake almost everyone makes, and the groomers who have been doing it longest are the ones who catch it.
Active noise cancellation works by generating an opposing waveform. It is very good at steady low-frequency drone, which is why it is wonderful on a plane. A grooming dryer is a broadband blast with a lot of high-frequency content, and that is precisely what ANC handles worst.
More importantly, a consumer headphone carries no attenuation rating at all. Hearing protection sold in Australia is rated under AS/NZS 1270, written AS NZS 1270 in a lot of product listings. If the product does not carry that rating, you do not know what it is doing, and neither does anyone else.
You can love your Sony or Bose headphones and still need real protection over the top. Plenty of groomers do exactly that.
What actually works, in the order people land on it
Passive earmuffs with a rating. The dull answer and the correct one. A pair of proper industrial earmuffs from a hardware store, chosen on their rated attenuation. A Class 5 muff, the top class under AS/NZS 1270, was $19 at Bunnings in September 2026. Cheap, effective, and unglamorous.
Bluetooth earmuffs. The 3M WorkTunes range is genuinely popular with groomers because it is real earmuffs first and audio second. The WorkTunes Connect is $119 at Bunnings. The common complaints are that they run warm over a long shift and that new ones clamp hard. The fix people pass around is to stretch a new pair over a basketball overnight, which sounds like nonsense and works.
Reusable filtered plugs. Loop is the brand that keeps coming up, particularly the Quiet and the Switch, which lets you flick between a muffled setting and one you can hold a conversation in. On Loop's Australian store the Quiet 2 is $34.95 and the Switch 2 is $94.95. Groomers who wear glasses tend to end up here, because earmuffs and spectacle arms are a miserable combination over eight hours. One caution: Loop rates its plugs on the European SNR scale, not under AS/NZS 1270, so by the test above you are guessing if they are all you wear. Put them under rated muffs when the dryer runs, or pick a reusable plug that carries an AS/NZS 1270 class.
Plugs plus earbuds, or plugs under muffs. Very common in practice. One plug in, one earbud for music, muffs on when the dryer runs.
Custom-moulded plugs. An audiologist will cast them to your ear canal at whatever attenuation you want. Expensive once, comfortable forever, and the people who have them do not go back.
Buying a dog grooming dryer
Having said all that, buy a good one. A weak dryer means longer drying, which means more exposure, not less.
In Australia the volume brands are Shernbao and Aeolus, both stocked by the main trade suppliers, with Jirpet and Double K further up the price range.
Force, stand or cabinet
A force dryer, sold as a high velocity dryer or a blaster, takes the water off with air speed rather than heat. It does the bulk of the work on any double coat, and it is the loud one this post is about. Makers sell on air speed: Aeolus quotes 90 metres a second for its Aeolian, and The Dog Grooming Store's listing for Jirpet's Twin Titan I says 130.
A stand dryer, also called a finishing dryer, is slower and warmer and sits on a stand or a wall arm, so both your hands are free to brush while it works. Aeolus rates its TD906 at 38 metres a second. It is the one you finish a fluffy coat under, and if you finish a lot of coats it is worth having as well as the force dryer. A neck dryer is a smaller version of the same idea.
A cabinet dryer is a closed, timed, temperature-controlled box the dog sits in. They suit small dogs: Jirpet rates its F1 for pets up to about 15 kilograms and its larger C7S to about 20. The better ones cut out when it gets too hot, and KissGrooming says its 907TN shuts down above 40°C.
Whichever shape, what you are paying for as you go up the range is airflow, a variable speed control that is genuinely useful rather than just on and off, a longer and more flexible hose, and a motor that does not scream at the top end.
What the decibel figure on the box is worth
Some makers print a noise figure. None of the ones we checked says how far from the dryer it was measured, and they do not always agree with their own agents. Shernbao's site lists its Super Cyclone SHD2600P at no more than 72 dB, while Oz Grooming World, its Australian agent, lists the same dryer at 78. For the SHD2800P it is 74 against 82.
On a scale where every 3 decibels doubles the energy, that is a big gap, so do not let a quiet-sounding number talk you out of rated protection. The only independent figures we know of are still the 94.8 to 108.0 dBA measured in the 2012 study above.
The circuit the big dryers need
Oz Grooming World's pages for several force dryers, among them Shernbao's SHD2600P, SHD2800P and DHD3000F and Aeolus's Aeolian, Aeolian GTII and Gemini PRO, carry the same warning. Each draws about 13 amps at 230 volts, can trip the breaker on an older 10 amp circuit, and needs a dedicated circuit of 15 amps or more. Jirpet sells the Twin Titan I in two versions for this reason: heated on 15 amps, or unheated on 10. If you want the big blaster, price the electrician with it.
What they cost here
Prices as listed on 27 September 2026. Most suppliers do not say whether GST is included.
| Dryer | Type | Price | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shernbao Cyclone SHD1800 | Force | $249 | Oz Grooming World |
| Shernbao Super Cyclone SHD2600P | Force, needs a 15 amp circuit | $279 | Oz Grooming World |
| Aeolus Aeolian, heated | Force, needs a 15 amp circuit | $395 | Oz Grooming World |
| Aeolus Aeolian PRO, heated | Force | $498 to $539 | Oz Grooming World, The Dog Grooming Store |
| Aeolus Gemini PRO, twin motor | Force, needs a 15 amp circuit | $699 | Oz Grooming World |
| Jirpet Twin Titan I | Force, 10 amp or 15 amp version | $749 to $875 | DGS Imports, The Dog Grooming Store, The Clipper Shop |
| Double K ChallengAir Airmax | Force, under 10 amps | $959 to $1,043 | The Clipper Shop, Oz Grooming World |
| Shernbao or Aeolus neck dryer | Neck | $169 | Oz Grooming World |
| Shernbao PSD920P | Stand | $669 | Oz Grooming World |
| Aeolus TD906 | Stand | $945 | Oz Grooming World |
| Double K ChallengAir 9000II | Stand | $1,532 | Oz Grooming World |
| Jirpet F1 | Cabinet | $1,649.99 to $1,650 | DGS Imports, The Dog Grooming Store |
| KissGrooming 907TN | Cabinet | $3,110 | Oz Grooming World |
Who sells them, and who fixes them
Oz Grooming World in Sydney is the Australian warranty and service agent for Aeolus, Shernbao, KissGrooming and Double K dryers bought through it or its authorised channels, and it services dryers. The Clipper Shop services the dryers it sold, from $95 for a single motor and $165 for a double. Clipper World services dryers of any make, and Pupkus and Pet Network, both in Pakenham, service them too.
Two things to check before you buy. Where does it draw air from, because a floor-level intake in a grooming room will inhale hair and clog. And can you buy a replacement hose and filter locally, because those are the parts that fail.
That second one is not theoretical either. The live complaint in the Australian groups at the moment is neck dryers: a mount or joint breaking under light use, the motor still perfect, and the replacement part quoted at a meaningful fraction of a new unit and then out of stock. Jirpet is the brand people are moving to as a result, and their larger twin-motor units are the ones being asked about for desheds and big dogs.
A dryer is a motor, a housing and a hose. The motor rarely fails. Buy on whether you can replace the parts that do.
The layout change that costs nothing
Before you spend anything: move the dryer.
Noise falls off with distance, and a lot of salons run the dryer sitting right next to the operator's head because that is where the bench is. Getting the unit further away and pointing the exhaust away from where people stand is free, and it works.
Drying in a separate room, if you have one, is the single biggest change available. Everyone in the building benefits, not just the person holding the nozzle.
What we would not do
We would not put a cage dryer on an unattended dog and walk away. That is a different safety conversation and it has killed dogs.
We would not buy hearing protection without a rating printed on it.
And we would not treat this as a nice-to-have. Hearing damage is cumulative, painless while it happens, and permanent. Groomers with fifteen years in talk about tinnitus the way other trades talk about a bad back, as though it were the cost of doing the job. It is not. It is preventable, and the equipment to prevent it costs less than one blade set.
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Sources. Scheifele et al., "Noise impacts from professional dog grooming forced-air dryers", Noise and Health 14(60):224-226, 2012. Safe Work Australia, exposure standard for noise and the Code of Practice on managing noise and preventing hearing loss at work. Check your own state regulator for the audiometric testing detail that applies to you. Dryer types, noise figures, electrical ratings and prices are from the makers' and Australian suppliers' own pages, checked on 27 September 2026: Shernbao, Oz Grooming World, The Dog Grooming Store, DGS Imports, The Clipper Shop, Clipper World, Bunnings and Loop's Australian store.