JAMMIN’! Good for a rock band, but not for a shredder!

Author's Rating:

Pros: Easily shreds 5 pages at once. Even eats staples without getting indigestion.

Cons: Jams far too often. The top is not securely fastened and falls off easily.

The Bottom Line: 
A reasonably powerful shredder for home use, but it tips over too easily and jams far too often. It has to be disassembled to unjam it.

Author's Review

Here I sit with a sharp knife trying to un-jam my shredder. I know I will probably have to disassemble it once again, but like usual I’m trying to avoid it.

The Fellowes P700 shredder would be a great addition to my home office if only it wouldn’t jam so often! I’m careful about how I feed it; I keep the bottom emptied and treat it gingerly. But still it jams far too often.

The other thing that disappoints me is the top comes off too easily. When I’m going to use it, I have to make sure I don’t bump it, or the top comes off and the whole thing topples over onto the floor - spilling shredded paper everywhere. It’s just too top-heavy and the shredding mechanism is not securely fastened to the basket.


The Good Stuff

For a home shredder, the Fellowes P700 has plenty of shredding power. It will shred 4 sheets of 20 lb. paper at once without even slowing down. Five sheets will cause it to labor slightly, but it will even shred 6 without pausing – although you’ll hear it begin to labor. It will even eat staples without complaining. That saves a lot of time when you’re shredding a stack of reports that are all stapled together. Simply separate them into stacks of 5 sheets each and shred away!

It also has a fairly large wastebasket, compared to other home shredders.

Features

The manual says it will shred up to 7 sheets at a time, and I imagine it would do it. But the way it slows down on 6 sheets makes me believe 7 would be a real struggle. I timed it. It takes 32% longer to shred 6 sheets than 5, because it is beginning to strain under the load. Feeding 7 at a time would probably slow you way down. I recommend no more than 5 at a time for best shredding speed. However, I usually limit it to two because of the problem I’ve had with jamming.

There’s a handy forward / off / reverse switch on the top, which is very easy to use. In REVERSE mode, it runs continuously until you shut it off. In OFF mode – well, I’m sure you know what that one does! In FORWARD mode, it only runs when it senses paper. There’s a small sensor in the center of the shredding bar that activates it. After the paper clears the sensor, the shredder continues to run for a few seconds to clear the rollers.

This is NOT a crosscut shredder, for those of you who are interested in a higher level of security and less frequent trips to the trashcan.

The list price on this particular shredder is $ 119.00. Wow! But you can usually find it for $ 49.00 to $ 59.00 at discount office stores or on the Internet.

Problems

As I mentioned above, this particular shredder has two significant problems.

1. The shredding mechanism is fairly heavy yet it is attached to the basket in a very flimsy way. Even a very light bump will jar it loose. As soon as it comes loose, it either falls on the floor, or it causes the whole thing to tip over! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve picked up shredded paper from my carpet. I tried it on a hard-surfaced floor and it is a bit more stable, but in my humble opinion not stable enough.

2. The mechanism jams frequently. At least mine does. I have read a few reviews of this particular shredder in various magazines, and none of them mentioned the problem with jamming. So it’s possible that I have a lemon. What happens is the paper gets wrapped around the rollers and gets inside the mechanism. You can try to get it out with a knife or other sharp object (be careful!) but you can’t get inside the unit this way so it usually doesn’t do the trick.

If you aren’t mechanical enough to disassemble it, you’ll probably end up throwing it away if it gets badly jammed.

Disassembly

If you buy one of these and it jams, you’ll need to know how to disassemble it. There’s a trick to it! (By the way, the manual doesn’t say anything about this, but you should only do this while it is unplugged. Be safe. Don’t forget your goggles, steel-toed boots, and other protective gear – well, you know what I mean!)

First, gently pry off the forward / off / reverse switch. Exercise a little caution here. Once you get the feel of it, this is an easy step. But the first time, it is easy to get overzealous.

Then remove all 12 screws. What? Did you say 12? I can only find 11! That last one is secretly hidden underneath the bar-code label. Now that you know that trick, it will be easy to separate the two halves of the unit and clean out the rollers.

When putting it back together, remember the forward / off / reverse switch only goes on one way. If you get it wrong the first try, you can just pop it off and put it on the other way.

Summary

This is a reasonably powerful shredder for home use, but it tips over too easily and jams far too often for me. It has to be disassembled to unjam it properly.