Fellowes P-48C Cross Cut Shredder with Patented Safety Lock

N.B. This review does not comment on CD shredding capability as I don't use that facility.When shopping around for a new shredder it seemed like every single model had a fair percentage of 1 stars with some horror stories. It got to the point where I narrowed it down to a few and just took the plunge. So far I am happy I bought this one.I had been without a shredder for a few weeks so when this turned up I was determined to put it through its paces and shred everything in one sitting whilst sitting in the garden in direct sunlight. If it was going to burn out I wanted it to happen whilst still in the return period.Firstly, as a rule of thumb, I always divide by 2 the number of sheets the manufacturers say the shredder will handle. This one said 8 sheets, that means 4, so I put in 6! It ground very slowly through it and I thought it was going to jam, but it went through OK. I felt confident it would fail on 8 so I kept my shredding to 4 sheets at a time. There is a sheet gauge built into the safety lock, which is basically a little groove. It is a bit pants really! if you think you are putting too many sheets in, you probably are. After an hour of shredding (not constant) I had completely filled the bin to capacity and I was a happy bunny.Positives:Solid and robust feel.Easily shreds 4 pages of good quality paper, 6 if it is thin paper.Shreds are small enough to deter piecing together the document.Safety lock to prevent accidental starting.Separate power switch on the shredder.Large bin with window to see how full it is.Easy to assemble (put A on top of B)Negatives (and I am being a bit picky!):Emptying the bin is a little fiddly. Due to the weight of the head you need 2 hands to safely lift it, but the bin is tightly fitted and lifts with the head, so a little jiggling and balancing is needed.It is a bit on the noisy side.The safety lock has a bit of a cheap feel to it.

I read through all of the reviews carefully before purchasing this shredder, and although there were a few negative reviews, I thought the positives outweighed them.The shredder itself is very sturdy and quite heavy (the box it was delivered in was enormous - but thankfully it was mainly outer packaging!). Although the bin the shredder sits upon is not as sturdy or heavy duty as the shredder itself - it's by no means flimsy. As long as you don't manhandle or roughly assemble the two parts, it's very well made.I had over 2 years worth of paperwork that needed shredding, and I shredded the lot within an hour.For those that have reported over heating, I shredded mine in small batches and shredded for around two minutes at a time - I then spent a couple of minutes sorting the next bundle of paperwork and then started shredding again. Any machine that is continuous used without a break can over heat, so it's best to use your common sense.. If the unit feels really hot - allow it to cool a while before shredding again..The bin can hold quite a lot of shredded paper - but if like me you let a large amount of paperwork accumulate, you may need to empty a couple of times - just make sure you have a large bag/container to transfer the shredded paper into, as my bag was too small and ended up with many pieces on the floor. Although, that was not the shredders fault - that was me just not being prepared enough!This is a really good shredder and well worth the money and was absolutely perfect for my needs.

Had a P35-C fellows shredder before, one of the small light use models. Worked well for a while, but inevitably gave up, blaming another family member there..... So many confusing reviews about shredders so decided to go with one that had the features i was looking for; safety lock, cross cut, window for viewing collection basket, did credit cards and decent capacity and decent price.Item arrived earlier than expected. Refused to pay £5ish for shipping standard so went economy, arrived in 2 days rather than 8-10 stated.Box was huge and in fact shredder was bigger than i expected. 50% bigger than the last one. Really well packaged, box within a box was perhaps excessive but hey....Functions-wise it appears to work well. Much faster than the P35-C, handles 8 pages without too much bother. Shreds well and managed a credit card no bother. Shredder a good hundred pages and the red light eventually came on to say it was overheated, but ten mins later was back at its again. Had a moment of nervousness after about 5 minutes when after putting it into reverse, then putting it back into forward it didn't recognise the paper feed and failed to shred. A bit of light persuasion though and it was back in the swing.Only had it a week but i reckon that with use in line with instructions this will serve my home office well.