99Ci 18 Sheet Cross-Cut Shredder

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.

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.