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Fellowes MS-460Ci Microshred Paper Shredder Review

March 20th, 2011

These days, you can’t be too careful when it comes to making sure that the documents you want shredded stay shredded. There are a few newer machines on the market that promise a level of shredding that is unprecedented, better than even the smallest cross cut capabilities. Here we will take a closer look at one such machine, the Fellowes MS-460Ci.

Pros:

The main advantage of the MS-460Ci is its micro shred technology. We’re not sure how it does it, but this shredder positively obliterates paper, creating shreds of 5/64ths of an inch by 25/64ths. This translates to an average page being turned into three thousand particles, versus around four hundred for the typical cross cut shredder. That is some real security, and should give anyone genuine peace of mind when it comes to shredding your most highly confidential documents.
The MS-460Ci comes with Fellowes’ SafeSense technology. SafeSense is a pretty ingenious safety function that is able to detect body heat, and will thus stop the shredding process immediately when it senses that your hand is too close to the cutting mechanism.
One added bonus of creating particles that are so small is that the bin holds around 80% more paper per gallon than the average cross cut machine. That means that you can shred a lot more paper and empty the bin a lot less often. We figure that anyone in their right mind would have to consider that a win win situation.
Also in the “we don’t know how they did it” category, we were amazed at how quiet the MS-460Ci was during normal operation. We looked up the product specs and Fellowes claims that the machine puts out 64dB of sound, which is quieter than a busy restaurant, and only a little bit louder than a normal conversation.
Another of Fellowes unique features is its jam proof system, and they included it on the MS-460Ci. This system is designed to save users a lot of headaches, since not everyone who will use the machine knows how many sheets it is designed to handle. It works by automatically sensing the amount of paper that the user it trying to feed it at one time, and either giving you the green light or the red light. We tested the system out, and it worked great. The machine would not operate if the stack we were feeding it was too big.

Cons:

Though it’s hard to fault a machine that shreds paper into such tiny bits for being relatively low capacity, the MS-460Ci can only handle about twelve sheets at one time. But again, those twelve sheets are turned into something between confetti and powder, so who can complain?
Again, probably due to its remarkable cutting ability, the MS-460Ci can only be run for fifteen minutes at a time before it needs a twenty five minute rest. We are thinking that because this type of technology is so new, these numbers will improve over time.

Recommendation: If you want the one of the highest security levels available in a deskside shredder along with an excellent one year warranty, you would be hard pressed to find a better shredder than the Fellowes MS-460Ci.

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Fellowes PS-79Ci Deskside Cross-Cut Paper Shredder Review

January 7th, 2011

Even if your office has a centralized high-use paper shredder, you probably have some members of your team who need the convenience and ease of a desk side shredder. If you have found yourself in the market, you are probably discovering that there are a daunting number of manufacturers and models out there-not to mention the difficulty of wading through all the features and functions offered by each. In the following review, we will take a look at one of Fellowes’ offerings, the PS-79Ci Deskside Shredder. We found that for such a small machine, it is pretty loaded with some impressive features, but there are some limitations you’ll want to know about too. Here are the pros and cons of the Fellowes PS-79Ci as we see them.

Pros:

We wouldn’t necessarily expect one of Fellowes’ smaller machines to come equipped with its top of the line jam proof system, but it does. With this system, when you insert paper, the shredder electronically measures the thickness, and the shredder won’t run if the stack is more than the blades can handle. This is denoted by a handy red light/green light system. We tried it, and it worked fine. It also powered through some papers that we intentionally misfed into the shredder. We were pretty impressed by the power of such a small machine.
Another thing to consider when you are going to have a few shredders spread around the office is the level of noise that the average shredder makes. We found the PS-79Ci to be remarkably quiet during operation, and we consider this a huge plus.
We were also impressed that one of Fellowes smaller machines has some of the manufacturers best features. The PS-79Ci comes with their patented SafeSense technology, which detects body heat and stops the machines motors on the spot. We tried it, it worked. This feature can protect fingers, hands and even pets from getting dangerously close to the shredding heads when the machine is running.
We also thought that the bin was well-designed, and pretty big for the limited space it was allowed. The PS-79Ci easily shreds CDs, staples, and paperclips.

Cons:

This is not so much a “con” as a “limitation,” but the PS-79Ci is only designed to operate for ten to twelve minutes at a time before it will require twenty minutes off. This is not terribly unusual for a shredder of this size, but it is a very important thing to be aware of before you start using it. This feature protects the shredder from overheating and damaging the motor.
The PS-79Ci does not come with some of the features of its big brothers, such as a safety lock to manually stop machine use, nor does it have a sheet capacity selector. The machine accepts paper from the top rather than the front, but one could argue for either method being the superior way of feeding paper.

As far as small, one-person, desk side use shredders go, we would have to put the PS-79Ci at or near the top of the heap. We’re not sure we’ve seen another one that has so many features in such a small package. If you need a small shredder for your office or home, this is definitely one to consider.