It Doesn't Perform as Advertised--Flimsy and Cheap

Author's Rating:

Pros: Cheap

Cons: Cheap; Doesn't Work As Described; No Way to Tell When It's Full

The Bottom Line: 
It doesn't do what it's advertised to be able to handle--avoid this cheap and flimsy model and buy something of quality.

Author's Review
You get what you pay for…someone said that long ago and he/she was right. This is the 3rd shredder I’ve reviewed and this is by far the worst. My sister purchased this one and lauded its price over my hefty purchase of a Fellowes PS60C-2 Confetti-Cut Shredder (here’s the review: http://www.epinions.com/content_105897496196). Mine cost $129, hers $25.99. She laughed, until she tried to use it. After a week she conceded defeat, returned this one, and picked up the Fellows PS60-2 (she wouldn’t pay the extra for the cross cut/confetti version—will she ever learn?).

This machine comes it 2 models—the FS5 is just the shredding head, the FS5+ is the shredding head and the wastebasket.

This machine was trouble from the start. After putting the shredder head into the wastebasket, she readied it by plugging it in. Everything appeared to be in great working order—light was green and ready to go. She set the toggle switch to auto so that the automatic paper sensor would sense the paper and start the shredding process.

Since it brazenly stated on the retail box that it could shred up to 5 sheets of paper at a time she put in the requisite 5 and waited. The auto sensor did its job and the machine started stripping the paper—loudly! Such a racket it was causing. Everyone in the room turned to look and those near it had to raise their voices to be heard.

The paper made it about 2” into the machine when the beast went quiet. It couldn’t handle it and it’d jammed. Using the toggle switch on the top, she tried reversing it out—nope, wasn’t working. She tried rocking it—much like you would a car stuck in the sand. Nope, not budging.

She removed the top-heavy unit from the flimsy plastic can, set it on the floor upside down, and started pulling the paper out. Luckily, her daughter reminded her to turn the silly thing off before sticking her fingers into it.

Long story short, she finally got it un-jammed and decided that there must have been something wrong with the paper so she stuck 3 pieces in—same result. She was finally able to get one sheet at a time to go through. After checking the instructions, she found that it truly should have been able to take the 5 sheets of 20# paper, but it didn’t. She searched Amazon and found that this wasn’t a defective unit, it was a common problem.

Thankfully she saw how fabulously mine worked and realized that saving a bit of money during the purchase was going to cost her dearly in time and frustration later. One thing I couldn’t convince her of was the need to move away from strip cutters. This one cuts 1/4” wide—way too much information was left in tact. The one she ended up purchasing cuts 1/32” wide—and as long as the paper so it’s easy to put back together. Oh well.

DETAILS
• It has a 9” wide opening to accept paper.
• Recommended use is 10-20 shredding passes per day (remember it’s supposed to do 5 sheets in each pass so it should have done up to 100 sheets a day). If you run it more than 3-5 minutes at any one time it will shut down to avoid overheating. You’ll need to let it cool for 15 minutes before using it again.
• It absolutely cannot take anything other than paper or staples (although every staple we stuck in jammed it). A paperclip or credit card can damage it beyond repair.
• Dimensions: 14-3/4” h x 12-1/2” w x 7-3/4” d
• No paper full sensor and no window in the plastic basket so you can see in--I suspect you'll know when it's so jammed with shredded paper that it won't work.

WARRANTY
Only one year (the model I chose has a 5-year on the cutting mechanism).

FINAL THOUGHTS
She tried it, she conceded defeat, and she bought one that worked. This will work for those who only want to shred one sheet at a time, with no chance of a staple passing through, but in the real world, that just isn’t acceptable.

More Shredder Reviews:

Fellowes P400C-2 Confetti-Cut Shredder
http://www.epinions.com/content_109081955972

Fellowes PS60-2 Strip-Cut Shredder
http://www.epinions.com/content_105902608004

Fellowes PS60C-2 Confetti-Cut Shredder
http://www.epinions.com/content_105897496196

Fellowes FS5 Shredder
http://www.epinions.com/content_105900510852

Fellowes Powershred 220CC Confetti-Cut Shredder
http://www.epinions.com/content_102363008644