Not just for paper (Fellowes PS60C-2 Cross-Cut Shredder)

Member Name: Ali72

Product:	Fellowes PS60C-2 Cross-Cut Shredder
Date:	26/10/05 (473 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Heavy duty motor, fairly quiet, secure cross - cutting

Disadvantages: Needs oiling, arguably the price

I bought the Fellowes PS60c-2 cross cut shredder a few months ago as both myself and my husband work from home and need to dispose of commercially sensitive tender documents / price proposals. I also thought that it would be handy to get rid of personal information, as a friend of mine had told me how he had had items purchased on his cards over the internet from items taken from his rubbish. Not to mention one slightly deranged individual who seems particularly interested in what we throw away (the EX-wife).

With this model, the shredder basically sits on top of a large bin. With two small children in the house I wanted it to be safe from little hands. The shredder has micro switches, which disable it when you take off the top and sensor stop/starts when paper is inserted. The cross cutting teeth make quick work of 8 pages at a time, and turn them into confetti ensuring no chance of anything being pieced back together (the 3.9 x 35 mm cross cut size cuts it finer than its competitors apparently). It has a reverse button should you overload it by mistake. The sturdy 25 litre bin means that I only empty it a couple of times a week. There are bin sacks that go with it, which cost around £10 per 100 – these are thicker than your average bin sack due to the credit-card-cutting option (more on that later) as this could mean that you have plastic bits amongst your confetti, which you wouldn’t want to rip through the bag. But even if you use it without bags, the bin has solid sides, which cuts down on the dust that you can get from shredders which have mesh-sided bins. Also handy is the window at the front so you can see when it’s full.

A small downside is that you do need to buy the oil for it and remember to oil the thing once in a while (only £6 to £8 a bottle). As well as paper, you can put in credit cards, paper clips and staples without worry as it has a heavy duty motor and should last longer than the smaller machines (touch wood). In my opinion, it suits someone with a home study or small office, as it’s a bit bulky to sit anywhere else.

This model is currently on offer at Office World for £59.95 (think it’s normally £69.99). You can get cheaper cross-cut machines, but this one seems fairly durable – you can use it for about 10 mins at a time, with some fairly heavy duty loads, before you have to let it cool down for a while, and the motor is not too noisy (ie it doesn’t wake my baby son up in the next room!) I think it’s well worth the price, so far anyway :-)

Summary: Heavy duty cross cutting shredder