Abstract: Outdoor electrical equipment icing threatens the operation safety of the electrical power system in our country. Recently, self-cleaning coatings such as the superhydrophobic coating (SHC) and the superamphiphobic coating (SAC) have gained a large amount of research on the problem of weakening icing adhesion strength. However, to date there is little literature about the comparison of anti-icing capabilities between the two types of coatings. The factors and mechanisms that influence the anti-icing capabilities of the two types of coatings are still unclear. In this paper, the theoretical models for calculating icing peel strength and shear strength were proposed and then verified using experimental results. The factors and mechanisms influencing the anti-icing capabilities of the SHC and the SAC were analyzed based on the models. The results show that for both the SHC and the SAC, the icing peel strength and shear strength depend on not only the coating's hydrophobicity but also the geometries of the microstructures on the surface of the coatings. In the same condition, the icing peel strength is significantly higher than the icing shear strength. From the perspective of reducing the icing peel strength and shear strength, the SAC performs better than the SHC.