Superb Shredder
Review by bulletx
I have had the Fellowes Intellishred PS-79Ci Shredder for one week. I have used it on several occassions for up to 15 minutes of intermittent shredding and it has worked flawlessly.
I have shredded up to 12 sheets of paper at one time (shredder works a little harder but still smoothly shreds), a couple of credit cards and approximately 15 CD/DVD disks. The operation with paper and credit cards is surprisingly quiet. You could probably shred with someone sleeping in the next room and not wake them. The noise level (dB) is probably doubled when shredding a computer disk, but it still is quieter than any other shredder I've worked with.
One time the shredding process stopped with paper still sticking up above the shredder. I had a pair of 8-10 bank checks, side by side, so that a total of 16-20 total checks were being shredded at one time. I thought that since the checks took only a fraction of the available space for feeding in paper that I could shred two stacks at one time. Well, the shredder stopped. I pressed the reverse button for a couple of seconds, then the forward button until all the checks were gobbled up. No further misfires since then, even doing the same thing again with checks.
Everything functions as
Fellowes states. I was pleasantly surprised to receive a small bottle of oil and several clear waste bags. The bags work great. The operating manual is brief but answers some essential questions like what to do with shredding malfunctions, what not to shred, how long to shred and maintenance. While Fellowes tells you when to oil (at every waste bag exchange), Fellowes could have detailed exactly how to use their oil. Hopefully Fellowes technical support will be helpful when a question arises.
Shredded material size is as stated and is the same for paper as well as computer discs and credit cards. There are units with more finely shredded material, and there are many units that do not shred as small. A motivated thief with patience and plenty of time could reconstruct most any retail shredder's output. That said, a thief would most likely dumpster dive for someone else's unshredded documents before sifting through your well shredded ones. Overall, I feel reasonably comfortable with the level of security of the shredded material with this unit.
The construction and design appear to be of excellent quality with appropriate ruggedness. There is no bowing or undue flexibility of the frame when the drawer is out as has been commented on with the
Fellowes Powershred PS-77Cs Shredder. The castors are resonably medium duty and can lock down to keep the unit from rolling away. The shredder without the castors sits flat and stable.
Buy Fellowes Intellishred PS-79Ci ShredderWould be nice to know about the quality of the internal parts. I have read that some machines use plastic toothed gears which have higher/earlier failure rates than metal ones. At least this shredder has a two year warranty for the entire unit, which is twice many competing machines.
Overall, the PS-79Ci shredder is an excellent unit, working exactly as advertised. The Fellowes website has a nice multimedia presentation on the operations of this unit, including the noise level. I haven't had this unit for very long but I am extremely pleased so far with its performance and fit and finish. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a light to medium duty shredder for home or home-office, especially if they want a longer warranty, low noise operation, very good build quality and plenty of whistles and bells that actually are useful and work.
Awesome
