Fellowes Powershred 99Ci 18-Sheet 100% Jam-Proof Heavy Duty Crosscut Paper Shredder Machine for Office and Home, Black/Gray 3229904

I have had the work horse of a shredder for 4 years now and I have never had 1 single problem. I don't think they make it anymore. I paid $200 for it and it has been an amazing piece of equipment. I got so tired of the cheaper machines that jammed and were basically unusable if you wanted to put 5 sheets in at a time. Think this machine can handle 15 sheets at a time. Excellent, fast, easy to empty. I also ordered a bottle of shredder oil and followed directions once a month to make sure it was oiled properly. Seriously, this might be the last shredder I ever use. A friend's mother died and I told her to bring me the paperwork and I'd shred it for her. So easy and it's kind of fun to just get it done with NO PROBLEMS, no jamming. If it gets hot, it stops and cools off. Noise level is fine. I highly recommend this shredder or the latest version. I wish I had paid $200 10 years ago because I wasted so much money and this shredder it so worth the price.

*** Update - 7 years later *** Still going strong. The infrared sensor has failed so it keeps running. I have to shut the unit off from the rocker switch in the back. Not that big a deal but not ideal. *** I'd still buy it again. I purchased this shredder 12/2008. There are a lot of reviews already but I thought I could add a few things. A reviewer commented about the mess in the shred bin. Yeah, but it is only a minor problem. All my past shredders were worse. I shredded some CDs and DVDs and they make a mess because of the paint on the non-writable side. If you jar the bin slightly and push the pile down with your hand before pulling the bin out the rest of the way, you can minimize the mess. But with CDs and DVDs, some of the stuff is so light it blows around. Someone commented about the on/off switches. There are two. A master rocker switch in back that I would guess you always leave on. The switch on top you might turn on and off. If you leave the unit on (both switches) all the time, the blue light will run and use a little power. If you really want to be green, I guess you could turn it off. I want to stress what some other reviewers said about this monster. This is by far the best shredder (and most expensive) I've owned. I owned about three el cheapos before. They all burned out. I use this at home and I'm a nut about shredding anything with any personal information on it. So I might use it more than the average household and I can't imagine ever stressing this beast. But I did give it a shot (below). For day-to-day shredding, this thing wouldn't break a sweat. It is almost overkill but I could see this unit lasting years. While vacuuming out the unit after shredding the DVDs, I looked at the business end of the shredder. There is a spindle of nasty looking, sharp metal teeth between plastic guides. The power cord is bent at 90 degrees so the unit will sit closer to the wall. Nice touch that a lot of other manufacturers should do. I had a pile of paper to shred since my last shredder burned out. It sawed through that pile in a few minutes. My old shredder would have loudly churned through the pile in about two hours. I always dreaded shredding before. Now, I'm looking for things to shred. The other thing is, this unit is very quiet. It produces a low hum as opposed to the much higher pitched whine of cheap shredders that beg for mercy if you give them a couple of sheets at a time. The teeth are metal so follow the instructions and oil them. Nuff said. Now for the main selling point. I had about 250 CDs and DVDs (old computer backups). You don't want to just toss your personal data in the trash - you have to shred that stuff. Most reviews of most shredders never mention shredding DVDs which seem a little tougher to me. This unit had no problem with the CDs or DVDs. I shredded them in groups of ten. I oiled the teeth a couple of times during the process. Awesome! I used the guide for the credit cards, CDs and DVDs. I think there are probably tougher teeth in the middle and the guide makes sure the plastics go through in the right path. The auto shutoff works as advertised. The teeth are so far down that I can't see a baby's finger getting in there. There's no way an adult's finger could get in. Maybe Gene Simmon's tongue (Kiss) could get in the slot. :-) Look no further. Buy this shredder.

This is one tough shredder. I took it out of the box and promptly shredded 5 years' worth of paper in two days; I figure at least a thousand pages plus staples, paper clips (accidentally), credit cards and CDs. I hit the hi temp cutout twice and just let it calm down for a few hours. Worked perfectly. It's a bit louder than I imagined but I think I'm too picky. This is a very good product at a great Amazon price with no shipping charge. All good. I've never used a shredder that didn't have it's problems with changing bags (I NEVER save files at work, everything is shredded as soon as I'm done with it so I have changed a few bags in my life). The first thing I did was ignore the instructions and FORGET paying for those special bags and the oil! I took the bag frame out and just let the shreds go directly into the collector. I set up an el-cheapo green trash bag in the shipping box. When the collector filled up, I poured the contents into the trash bag and what little spilled was caught by the box. Works great, no torn bags, no outrageous cost. Any large cardboard box that's tall and fairly narrow will work. I had read the reviews here before I bought the shredder and I saw the back-and-forth about the cutter oil. I'm no rocket scientist but under no conditions would I ever put a vegetable oil on machinery that will get hot - the oil HAS to break down and become gummy. Maybe I'm too tough on the machine but that's me. So, I sprayed the rollers with that old standby WD40. While it's too early to tell whether it will work in the long term, I can tell you that I've used WD40 for over 10 years on a small desk top shredder that has absolutely been abused and the little booger just keeps on working. Hope this helps! This is an addendum. I just helped one of our folks fix a jam on a small Fellowes at work. They hadn't emptied the box in FOREVER and it took us quite a while to clean it out. The shreds were packed SOLID on the underside of the cutters. Cleaned that out and fired right back up. Gotta love these things. This one at work is OLD and abused. ___________________________________________________________ It's been over two years now and although I admit that I'm not running a commercial enterprise, this is one tough shredder. I tend to be careful about letting the thermal overload protection kick in but there are just times when I have a bunch of stuff that needs to be cleared out of a year's worth of filing. Last January, I retired and cleaned out my files in one shot by putting the shredder on top of 2x4s over a BIG trash can. It was a bit cold in the garage so I let the whole mechanism cool down to about 50* and started shredding the pile. Dumped all the trash right into the trash can and the relatively low temperature kept the shredder running for the duration. I was done in record time. I now shred EVERYTHING. VERY happy with this purchase. I especially like how it will back up when it's overfilled and then just grind away 'till the stuff is gone.

I'm using my new Fellowes Powershred 79Ci cross-cut shredder in my home law office where, on a regular basis, I have a large number of confidential documents that must be shredded. The shredder operates flawlessly rendering the documents into very small unreadable bits of paper. There have been no paper jams. I had no trouble flipping over the protective plastic shield which protects you from sharp CD or credit card shards and shredding a credit card successfully. After shredding the credit card, it was easy to flip the plastic shield back into place to go back to regular paper shredding. I like that there is a rocker switch at the top back of the shredder so I can cut off all power running up to the machine when I am not using it. Otherwise, when I am in my office I leave the rocker switch on and use the power button conveniently located on the top of the machine. I did not install the wheels because the height of the machine without the wheels fits better in my space. As a relatively new user of this shredder, I decided to try using the shredder without the plastic bags and then just dumping the paper shreds into a kitchen-size trash bag. This is not working so well for me. I've failed on several occasions to successfully invert the shredder bin into the kitchen trash bag as the bin is a little awkward to handle. Also, when I pull the bin out to empty it, I find paper shreds that missed the bin or fall to the bottom of the machine outside the bin from the cutters. I now have little shreds all over the carpet. I plan to next try using plastic bags in the bin to see if I can make the shredding process neater. Despite the messiness factor, I would still purchase the Fellowes Powershred 79CI cross-cut shredder because it does such a great job shredding. The shredder is much quieter than my old strip-cut shredder which I greatly appreciate since I am using it at home. My only design-change suggestion would be to locate the alert signals (full bin, temperature, etc) to the area in front of the opening for the cutter blades. When you are inserting paper to be shredded, you cannot easily see that the light for "bin full" comes on because the paper is in the way. However, the assets of this machine greatly outnumber any small inconveniences. I would recommend this shredder to a friend.

I bought this in June 2008, so my review is retrospective. The mechanical shredder itself is impressive. Really heavy, durable, and reliable. I've always been able to feed in a reasonable stack of papers (~10 sheets) without any problems. The bin for the shredded paper is ok, medium-thickness plastic. If you treat it gently (as I do) it will last a long time. Don't try to stamp down the paper, though it's ok to press it down by hand. The power switch is utter crap, and was intermittent after a year or so, taking 5-6 tries to turn on the shredder and the same number to turn it off. Now I leave it on, and now I just yank the cord when I want to turn off the shredder (sometimes the old-school method works best). If I get some time, I'll remove the circuit board and see if I can replace the parts with something durable; if that's not doable, I'll just bridge the intermittent switch to force the shredder to be on full-time, then insert a switch into the power cord itself. The paper sensor is also iffy. The shredder now runs full-time without any paper in the entry. I've tried blowing out any paper dust (as suggested by one youtube poster) and cleaning the sensor with isopropyl alcohol (as suggested by another youtube poster), and it will work properly for a sheet or two, and then continue running empty. But If I can get the power switch to work properly, I can just ignore the broken sensor.

Like several have written, this shredder is doing the job it is intended to do. I've had this for about a month and I have had zero issues. I have shredded five bags of stuff. The "stress" light has only made it to 3 out of 5 lights mainly for me shredding thick junk mail too tough to rip in half. There are a few pet peeves I can live with such as: 1. The chute opening where the paper or products go in to be shredded in a bit tight for landscape feed side of the 11 inch paper. All I do is feed one corner in and I am not worried that the paper gets all crunched up just before a shredding. 2. The slide out tray where the shredding goes in to has a bit of a flimsy feel to it. I think the design could be better in making it all solid plastic. I understand the company logic - Its a pound of paper in the recepticle, not much more than that. If you TLC that pull out tray it should last a long time. 3. Even though I bought this since it is big and should be able to do the job, I am finding it difficult to find a good place in the house right now. I don't use it alot as I type, but I do have several projects coming up where all non essential papers will be shredded. It is about the size of a medium to large check on baggage, so I need a place to put it where it doesn't compete with the desk chairs and foot traffic. So in other words, try to plan where you want to place this. 4. I read one or two reviews saying something about the wheels having issues. I have decided to not put the wheels on right now. With that being said, if I am sitting down in a chair and I try to pull the shredder towards me, it takes a bit to find a good place to get a hold on this shredder as it is sleek . No worries, I just get up and move it as needed. Bottom line is, it is not that light, and if you do not add the wheels, it may take a bit to get a good grip on the shredder and move it where you wish. I typically work in a secure environment and shredders are part of my daily life. This home shredder may not shred the articles to dust, but it does a fantastic job. Right now I simply reuse the bags they gave me. I dump the small bag into a larger bag and mix the shredding up to ensure the recompilation procedure would drive even the most sane person bonkers. The noise level is quite acceptible, more of a medium level hum. The auto shut off feature is terrific. I am glad I upgraded to this shredder, it is making life better without potential shred material piling up. I typically feed the shredder abou 3-5 pieces at once. I am not one to be in an extreme hurry to shove it all down the hatch to see if it can handle it. So far so good.

Before I even get started with the details, I'll just say I put it through 10+ years worth of household use over 4-5 days and this shredder does all that is expected. Highly recommended. Unit arrived within about 2 business days. With Amazon Prime, shipping was free and the size and weight of this unit, though not great, is not it trivial. I had a lot of "stuff" to shred. There were boxes of manila envelopes filled with old bills, cancelled checks and tax returns. Some were from as far back as 1988. I shredded everything up to 2002 or about 15 years worth. The shredder preformed perfectly. I ended up filling 5 yard sized black, plastic bags with packed, shredded paper. Off and on over about 5 days, I spent about 5-6 hours feeding this shredder. At first I was concerned about staples. The owner's manual is pretty small but seems to be all you need. It simply stated to not put large paper clips, plastic (except credit cards and CD,s as instructed), and gummed labels into the shredder. After reading that, I didn't worry about staples any longer. I'm not sure how many I ended up putting through the shredder. Not a lot, but several. It never seemed to notice. One of the common stapled items was check registers and they were shredded as easily as everything else. A few minor inconveniences along the way that are to be expected include the following: Shredded paper builds up in the waste container triggering container full light and stopping the shredder. This is resolved by sliding the container out and packing down the shredded paper, sliding the container back in and continuing. Repeat until the container is full and needs emptying. I was shredding so much the temperature indicator came on. The shredder would stop and would need to sit for 30 minutes to an hour before shredding could continue. This would typically happen while I was in the middle of the SECOND container of continuous shredding. This is not something you are likely to encounter in typical day to day use. If anything, it is good to have safety features like this. Who wants an overheated motor sitting over a basket of combustible, shredded paper? It can be a little messy. Again, no big deal and to be expected. At the end of shredding 1 or 2 containers of paper, I would have a few scraps inside the cabinet, in the waste container that managed to avoid the plastic bag liner, and on the floor. A couple of minutes with a vacuum cleaner fixed that issue. The waste container is about 9 inches wide, 15 inches deep, and 15 inches tall. This is about the size of a good sized office trash can and I assume it will not be hard to find suitable plastic trash bag liners to fit and anyone of a number of stores. A few liners come with the shredder. With a little care, I simply emptied the liner into a larger plastic bag and reused it over and over. There is an electronic touch sensor at the paper feed entrance. If hand or fingers come in contact with any part of the feed slot the shredder stops. This is a nice safety feature, especially if you have nosy little one around the house. The anti-jam feature works well. There is a sequence of lighted LED's from green, to yellow, to red that indicate how much paper you are feeding the shredder. If its green, you and feed more, yellow is about right, and red means you are feeding too much or too thick a stack of paper. There is forward and reverse button that allows you to back up the paper if you put in too much. I found that several times, if the amount of paper was marginally too much, the red LED would light, the shredder would stop for a second, back up a wee bit, then proceed shredding on it own. Occasionally I would have to back it up myself, lighten the load, and proceed. This shredder is rated at 17 sheets. I found that to be sufficient. The majority of bills and bank statements seem to consist of two to five, 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper folded twice to fit in an envelope. The 17 sheets this shredder is rated at handles those folded sheets easily. This is a very nice convenience since you typically do not have to manually unfold the paper before feeding it, especially if you have several to shred. Finally, the instructions say to lubricate the shredding head after you empty each container. A small bottle of oil comes with the shredder. You drizzle a small amount in the opening where you feed paper, and use the forward switch to run the head briefly to lubricate. The instructions say to use vegetable oil so I don't think you need buy anything special. What you have in the kitchen should work fine.

Quiet! Efficient! Guides the user through its LED warning system so that you can correct the problem before it jams the machine or worse. The warnings help you to know capabilities of the machine which makes your shredding even more efficient in the future. I am glad I spent 30-40% more rather than buying another above average machine which will probably break in two years, max. The first time you unpack and set-up this machine, if you have had a succession of shredders, you will immediately notice the quality of construction and fitment of parts. Then you take your first junk mail packets and say ahhhhh! No more gut-wrenching groans from a barely sufficient shredder. Nothing but the quiet sound of sharp enough blades with enough horsepower behind them to do the job. You can barely hear it running in the next room, even with the office door open. Nice touch that a sample of shredder oil is included. Remember to use it when emptying the shredder basket each time. None of my previous shredders even mentioned using oil on the cutting blades. Quality. You get what you pay for. **********************Two Month Update********************** Just went through about 3 Bankers Boxes of cancelled checks, credit card statements, notepaper, etc. Unit has been used intermittently to shred items since it was received. Have probably emptied it 6-8 times since receipt, and yes, I do pull the bin and pack it tightly between emptying it. Thought I would update the review after a few hours of steady shredding. Unit is so quiet that I can shred while spouse watches TV beside me - sweet. The unit did overheat twice which was more a function of continuous operation rather than thickness of stack put into the machine. If overheated, unit cools down more quickly if you pull the bin so air circulates bottom to top using natural convection. Not a big deal - unit cooled down in about 10 minutes. Be aware that shredding continues where it has left off, meaning that a half-shredded stack will begin shredding as soon as bin is replaced if the unit has sufficiently cooled. Remember to put 6-8 drops of oil on the grinder blades when you empty the bin. (A sample of mineral oil was included with the shredder.) Unit operates as pleasantly and quietly as it did with the first shred. IF, it does get overloaded (i.e., the stack is too thick either there is an indication at the outset, so you can pull a sheet or two before shredding begins, or if a problem occurs during the shred, the unit pauses, reverses, pauses again and then proceeds to shred the remainder. VERY civilized. You can also intervene during the pauses and manually reverse the unit in order to avoid any straining by your fine machine. I am still very happy with this purchase.

This is a big improvement on all the shredders we have had before. Just wish to bin was slightly bigger to hold more waste.

Den Aktenvernichter haben wir jetzt seit mehreren Jahren im Einsatz und er ist wirklich unverwüstlich. Wir werden wieder von dieser Marke kaufen!

Funciona adecuadamente.

Sturdy, quiet and well built.

This really has to be a top-of-the-line shredder for home or small business office, and I wish I'd purchased it sooner. I had a midget "5-page" shredder before (which could only really handle a couple of sheets at a time, and even then jammed more than Smuckers), and I recently had ENOUGH. This model tells you if you've over-stuffed it. Better yet, it tells you if you've UNDER-stuffed it: an indicator light meter reveals how many pages it could handle compared to how many you put in. If the light meter only goes up a couple of bars, that means it's hungry and you need to give it more on your next go-around. This thing even detects if there's any skin touching its gaping maw, in which case it won't operate until safe to do so. Best of all, there's a "do not put a baby in here" interdiction labelled on the side of the aperture. If you think you can get away with something smaller and cheaper, you might be right...but why would you want to be?