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.