My New Shredder, The Fellowes PS-62C

A further decent into geekdom, a post about my new shredder. But hey, I love to research purchases almost as much as making them.

I've had a little shredder for years, a Rexel V15S. It's sat under my desk and diligently munched up my top secret documents. Well, old bank statements and other stuff you really shouldn't throw in the trash.

I've only had two issues with it. First, I could never tell when it was full -- and it always seemed to fill fast. When it was full, emptying it was a hassle. You have to take the heavy shredder unit off the top, which inevitably sent little shredded pieces of paper on the floor. Then I'd have to remember where the Dustbuster was, and ... yeah, who knew emptying a shredder could be so tough?

Soon after we moved, I popped into the local Staples and saw the nirvana of shredders, the Fellowes DS-1.

Seriously, I felt as if it was illuminated by a golden light, pulling me toward it as soon as I walked through the doors.

This looked like no ordinary shredder. This was different. It stood tall, proud. It had a bin where you could easily see how full it was, as if such a huge bin would ever get full! And if it did, no lifting the shredder head with this baby. Instead, the bin just slipped out. And what's this? "Safe Sense" technology to tell if little fingers are anywhere near the cutters? Why what type of a parent would I be if I continued to use some old non-Safe Sense machine! If that wasn't all, since when could shredders deal with staples and paper clips? This one could!

I held off. No purchase can be confidently made until I've done some web research. Staples turned out to have the best price around. How secure was the cutting. I found a nice guide to DIN levels here, though it was no use since the Fellowes product page only said it was "confetti cut." More digging, and then I turned up this comparison chart via the UK site. DIN3 -- confidential quality. That might not cut it (hehe) for government work, but it was plenty safe for me.

Next time into town, I grabbed one. Then, despair. First, despite being rated at handling 11 sheets, I was lucky if 3 or 4 would go through without jamming. But this later stopped. I think the issue was I had a bunch of old documents I was shredding that used to be in our attic, and I think they'd absorbed water over time, making them hard to shred. Soon, it was merrily chomping through multiple documents without hesitation.

Unfortunately, it was too tall. I'd measured before buying and knew it would fit under my desk. It did, barely. But that left little room to actually feed a document into it. I kept having to pull it out from under my desk. And while it was a pretty shredder, it wasn't something I wanted to make a feature in my office. It had to go.

Staples was totally cool. Sure, bring it back or a refund or exchange. Before I went, I sought out other models, but nothing seemed a good choice. But then at the store, the manager led me through some other options, after hearing what I wanted. And there it was, the Fellowes Powershred PS-62C.

This one was about half the height of the DS-1 and cuts to the same DIN level. No Safe Sense technology, but you can't get a finger through the top anyway. There's a clear area on the front, so I can see how full it is. So what -- many shredders have that. OK, but it also has a pull out drawer. It was the only shredder not requiring me to lift the cutting head off. That sold me on it.

It's slower than the DS-1, but not annoyingly slow. It also takes fewer pages, but again, that's not been a problem. It's merrily chomping away, plus it takes up little space and hides neatly under my desk. Why, I think I'll shred something now :)

I can't believe I am actually experiencing shredder-envy. Aargh.

Comment by Pamela * | May 12, 2006 12:20 AM

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