A Proactive Way to Protect Yourself From Identity Theft!
Pros: Can handle paper clips, staples, and credit cards; very quiet; extremely sturdy
Cons: Requires monthly maintenance (very little, but necessary)
The Bottom Line:
The only jams have been caused by user-error. Treat it with respect and this well-made machine will protect you in return.
Author's Review
Who needs a shredder? EVERYONE! With identity theft one of the fasting rising crimes, you can’t afford to throw your personal information away in the trash. All those credit card offers have a lot of personal information that makes it extremely easy for any dumpster diver to open an account for themselves with your information. Even if you’re lucky enough not to have your mailbox flooded with spam, if you’re throwing away cancelled checks, bank statements, investment statements, etc., you’re making it easy for a crime to be committed.
It’s not happened to us, but it happened to my brother-in-law. By luck, he works for a bank and when a new application came in for him the concerned clerk asked him about it. It’s not normal procedure for an employee to mail in an application. Sure enough, it wasn’t him. He caught it, but not everyone is so lucky.
His experience woke us all up and nearly everyone in the family purchased a shredder. We purchased this crosscut shredder, which is quite a bit more, and everyone laughed at the “bad” deal we’d gotten since theirs were so much cheaper. As it turns out, we got the best deal because they purchased a strip cutter, which means that when you send your information through it and it cuts it in nice 1/32-1/8” strips—it makes it easy to put back together and most information is cut so each strip contains all the information they need.
CROSS CUTTING VS STRIP
Fellowes has two cutters which are nearly identical, the difference being the cut. The other is the PS60-2, which is the identical cutter except that it cuts in strips (7/32” wide by the length of whatever you’re shredding). This model is the PS60C-2 (the C means cross cut/confetti). This model cross cuts pieces that are 5/32” x 1-3/8”. Tiny and impossible to put back together. Also, forget about using the paper shredding for packing—I sell on eBay and it’s amazing how heavy paper is—it’s expensive to mail with the extra weight.
HOW IT WORKS
It has an auto-sensor that lets it know you’ve place paper in to be shredded. It continues to run for about 2 seconds after the paper clears in order to be sure the blades are clear. You can jam it if the shredder sheet capacity is exceeded or paper is not put in straight. To clear it hit the reverse button (a toggle switch) on the top of the machine and back it out. We’ve jammed it a few times with credit card offers that had fake credit cards inside that we weren’t aware of. We’ve not had a hard time clearing any of the jams yet and they were all man-made. If you do need to remove anything by hand, be sure to turn it off first—you wouldn’t want the auto-sensor to sense you! There’s a power button on the top—green means it’s plugged in and ready for business. The two other settings are auto and off.
WHAT CAN IT HANDLE?
The opening is 9” wide so things larger than that must be folded. It can take up to seven pages of 20# bond and one feeding. It can also chew up just about any credit card offer I get in the mail envelope and all—I don’t even open it. It chews through credit cards, staples and even paper clips. This was one of the reasons we bought this machine—too many machines jam or are ruined by that hidden stapler.
DUTY CYCLE
This isn’t an office/heavy use machine. It’s rated for 10-12 minutes of usage at a time with a minimum of 20 minutes between. This is to avoid overheating the machine. Don’t worry, you won’t need to count—if you go over the usage it automatically shuts itself down so you won’t ruin it. If you do your shredding in passes—seven sheets at a time, you can do up to 50 passes in a day for an approximately 350 pages each day.
If you need something that has a heavier duty cycle, see my review on the Fellowes Powershred 220CC Confetti-Cut Shredder (
http://www.epinions.com/content_102363008644). If you insist on using it above the prescribed duty cycle, you’ll be frustrated by it.
MAINTENANCE
Empty the 6.5-gallon wastebasket—a small window in the front lets you know when it’s reaching capacity. If you don’t dump it, the shredder will continue shredding but it will back up into the blades eventually jamming it—this isn’t pretty and takes awhile to clear. Remembering to dump it is much easier! Be careful when dumping the container though as the shredding head is heavy and it makes the basket top heavy.
Monthly oiling of the blades (easily done by putting a few drops on the blades and then running the motor—going forward and back for a few minutes each direction). If you forget, it just won’t work as well. Leave it long enough and it’ll suffer some damage. It takes just 3-6 minutes to oil it—protect your investment. You'll need the FELLOWES 35250 Powershred Shredder Lubricant Cutter Oil for Confetti Cut Shredders which costs approximately $6.99 (you can get it from Amazon.com, but I suspect it's also available locally at Office Depot or Staples). We bought a bottle when we bought the machine and it's still 1/2 full--I'm guessing one bottle every 2-3 years will cover it.
SPECS
• Width: 14.25 inches
• Height: 18 inches
• Depth: 10 inches
• Weight: 17.0 pounds
WARRANTY
The cutting assembly has a 5-year warranty, the rest of the unit 1 year.
FINAL THOUGHTS
It’s a simple machine that simply does what it’s supposed to, quietly sitting in the corner waiting to be used. It runs quietly (hardly noticeable except for when it finds that hidden staple) and has lasted over a year of being stuffed full of junk mail every day. I hope that the money spent here will save us from hours of trying to get our credit rating corrected should someone dumpster dive at our house.
FOOTNOTES
Here's the machine my sister first bought:
http://www.epinions.com/content_105900510852
And it's replacement: Exactly the same as this one but a strip cutter
http://www.epinions.com/content_105902608004 (for $30 more she could have had this model)
UPDATE - ONE YEAR LATER
09/05/04 - Well it's got a few problems. For one the autostop stopped working so you can't just add a sheet and walk away. You have to stay until its completely finished and then manually shut it off. We may have caused this ourselves (read that husband) by letting the shredding get backed up into the cutting head by not dumping it enough. You really need to watch that little window and when you see paper you need to dump it. Other than that it's still chewing up credit cards, staples, and more.
