TO SHRED OR NOT TO SHRED........... (Tesco 5 Paper Shredder)

Member Name: 99line

Product:	Tesco 5 Paper Shredder
Date:	07/12/05 (1931 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A very large bin

Disadvantages: Mesh type bin - when emptying, paper residue can escape through the mesh

This is a fairly topical debate and recently it seems that we can't open a newspaper or turn on a television news broadcast without being made aware of the current trend of identity theft and the need to be careful in how we dispose of sensitive personal documents.

I have always been a member of the YES camp in this debate, and for as long as I can remember, in our home we have shredded any waste paper that contains names, addresses, bank information etc. etc.

I stopped smoking on 4th October 2005 and to help keep my hands occupied doing other things (they've been so used to holding a ciggie for years!!!) I decided to tackle the long overdue task of clearing out our filing cabinet. Monday 24th October saw this job completed, with a pile of documents waiting to go through our shredder before being placed in the paper recycling bin.

Within a couple of seconds of use, our existing shredder, which admittedly was about 5 years old and had been well used, decided it was time to depart this earth, head for shredder heaven and leave me with my large stack of unshredded documents!!!

Faced with either the task of manually ripping 200 plus documents into tiny strips or buying a new shredder, I naturally turned to our trusty PC and googled 'crosscut paper shredder' - I was given a list of options to buy varying in price from £14.93 to hundreds of pounds.

After a bit of reading of the information provided by various manufacturers and shops on their products I decided that I would buy the Tesco 5 sheet cross cut paper shredder - (Silver) priced at £14.93. There is a Tesco Extra store about a fifteen minute drive from my home and I could have bought it there as it is available to buy at all Tesco Extra stores. However, I chose to order it online as there was a free delivery option on this product and also a triple Tesco points offer on all online purchases. This offer has now finished, although the purchase price is still correct.

I placed the order online at 00.08 on Tuesday 25th October, received a confirmation email from Tesco at 08.27 on the same day stating that delivery could take between 3 and 7 working days.
Oh well........I bundled all my cleared out documents into a carrier bag - Tesco, of course - stashed this in a cupboard and awaited delivery of our new shredder.

Thursday 27th October at 11.00 - A brand new Tesco 5 sheet cross cut paper shredder - (Silver) was placed in my welcoming arms by a delivery agent.

Information printed on the outside of the box includes the following:-
5 sheet cross cut shredder ideal for home or office.
Extra large 18 litre mesh metal bin.
Auto start/stop.
Reverse function.
Cross cut reduces paper to a confetti style for added protection.
Manufacturers Guarantee Period: 1 Years Manufacturers Warranty
Height: 9cm
Depth: 22cm
Width: 33cm

The box, when opened, contained the shredder unit, a large mesh bin and an instruction leaflet. The instruction leaflet is extremely detailed - I read this through before I started to use the shredder and I must admit my heart sank a little when I read that after two minutes continual use the shredder had to be allowed to cool down for 15 minutes before it could be re used. I wondered how long it was going to take me to shred all the documents I had bundled into the carrier bag on Tuesday.

On the top of the shredder unit is the operating switch, this has three positions - Auto, Off and Reverse. The reverse position is used if paper becomes jammed in the unit.
A green light illuminates when the shredder is ready for use.
There are three little diagrams here showing that hands, ties and paper clips should not be put in the shredder!!!

I assembled the shredder - it won't function unless used with the supplied mesh bin - turned the switch on the top of the unit to Auto, as instructed and started feeding paper, five A4 sheets at a time, into the shredder.

Well, things were not as bad as I had supposed - four lots of shredding, with three fifteen minute breaks in between actually only used up roughly one hour. I would have had to stop after two minutes anyway as the mesh bin needed emptying. I emptied the contents of the mesh bin straight into our paper recycling bin, did some other chores and just returned to shredding when fifteen minutes had elapsed. What I had originally thought was a major downside to my purchase turned out to be no problem at all, after all how often am I liable to need to shred paper continuously for two minutes!!

The other irritation I had with this shredder was that the bin is a mesh construction - yes, it's great to be able to see when the bin is almost full, but I found that small paper dust particles were able to escape through the mesh and did require vacuuming from the carpet. This only happened when I was shredding the discarded contents of the filing cabinet. I've used the shredder a quite a lot since for just a couple of items at a time and had no problem, so again not really a major problem.

The shredder cuts paper into strips which measure 39mm x 3mm which I would suggest would deter even the most determined amongst us from attempting to piece together a name or address from the resulting waste.

Would I recommend the Tesco 5 sheet cross cut paper shredder? Value for money, ease of use, clear concise user guide and a one year warranty has to make for a resounding YES.

To view the shredder visit www.tesco.com

To see it 'in the flesh' visit your nearest Tesco Extra store.


Technical Specifications:

Supply Voltage 220V-240VAC-50Hz
Rated Current 0.8A
Cutting Width Crosscut; 4x39mm
Cutting Capacity 5 sheets 80gsm A4paper
Dimensions 330x193x363mm
Feed Opening 232mm



Pauline 2005

Summary: Brilliantly priced, easy to use, cross cut paper shredder.