coldsteel7's Full Review: Fellowes Powershred® P-45C Shredder
My wife recently purchased the Fellowes P-45C Cross-Cut Shredder for home use. This shredder replaced a Fellowes shredder that did not cross cut. The unit that this shredder replaced worked well for most home use but was beginning to struggle when cutting credit cards or hotel keys. Because I shred all hotel keys as a safety precaution, this unit was intended to handle that slightly heavier function. I am currently contemplating putting my old shredder back into use.
The Fellowes P-45C Cross-Cut Shredder is supposed to be more secure because of the cross cut feature. The unit advertises a cut size of 5/32 x 2”, with the two inch cut being the cross cut. This should ideally create small strips of paper that would be much harder to reassemble if someone wanted to go through the trouble of finding out how much my water bill was. The heavy cutting blades are beefy and give the appearance of industrial quality. However, this unit fails to actually cross-cut my paper. I do not feed more than the suggested six pages at a time and find that the unit does nothing more than crimp the strips every two inches. That weak performance belies the heavy duty look of this unit.
The Fellowes P-45C Cross-Cut Shredder overheats easily. I’m not sure what the problem is with this unit, but it doesn’t handle large workloads very well. Although this unit is touted for home use, the unit does not seem very durable. I don’t always shred everything as I get it…like most people, I tend to shred when I accumulate a stack of paper that I do not want to simply throw away. This unit has a propensity to heat up after several minutes of use. The heat can be felt emanating from the unit, which shuts down when it gets hot. A light duty shredder that is only cutting a maximum of six pages per pass should not be over-heating after just a few minutes of use.
The Fellowes P-45C Cross-Cut Shredder is prone to jamming. I have used several shredders over the years, and all of them will jam if you stick to much paper in them. I believe that the problems from the P-45C stem from the cross cut feature. There are heavy steel tumblers in the shredder that have cross cut nubs that protrude at irregular intervals. Because these cross cut devices are not actually cutting, but rather crimping, it appears that they are gripping the paper at times, creating jams. This happens even with a few papers being fed into the machine. The unit is equipped with a reverse function to assist in clearing jammed material.
The Fellowes P-45C Cross-Cut Shredder comes with a waste basket designed specifically for this unit. Other units I have owned have a sliding arm that allows them to adjust for various waste baskets. I had a decent sized waste paper basked under my old unit, which did not require constant attention. The Fellowes P-45C Cross-Cut Shredder sits inside the shallow basket, further reducing the space below for shredded paper. This area quickly fills up, requiring the unit to be emptied. The shallow basket also seems to contribute to the jamming, blocking up more quickly as the unit fills up.
The Fellowes P-45C Cross-Cut Shredder has a convenient built-in safety feature for those with children in the home that are likely to come in contact with the shredder. The safety lock is not difficult to defeat, but does add an extra measure of protection against accidental activation.
The Fellowes P-45C Cross-Cut Shredder touts an “easy-empty handle” to “make waste disposal hassle free.” First of all, this unit is heavy. Heavy enough that it seems ridiculous that this unit has such a tough time handling even mild work loads. Handle or not, this shredder does not lend to hassle free disposal. The paper remains embedded in the roller underneath, with some of the strips that managed to cross cut spewing out as you attempt to remove the existing bag of paper and replace it. There is nothing about the handle that makes this process any easier.
The Fellowes P-45C Cross-Cut Shredder handles credit cards and hotel room keys with little strain. My old unit did not care too much for those items, which seems to be the only redeeming quality I have found with this shredder. That is not to say that this unit makes short work of credit cards…it doesn’t seem to care much for them, either. However, it does not bog down and strain when a credit card is introduced to the shredder blades. There has been some debate as to whether any personal information is ever stored on hotel room keys, but I prefer to err on the side of caution. Because I stay in as many as a dozen hotels each year, protecting my personal information encoded (or not) on these room keys is important to me. Staples do not appear to be a problem for this shredder, either.
The paper feed section on the Fellowes P-45C Cross-Cut Shredder has a nine-inch slot. This allows for standard 8 ½ inch paper with a bit of room on either side for clearance. This works out well for paper that may get fed at a slight angle. If paper is not fed at an extreme angle, the quarter inch allowance on either side should be adequate to prevent the paper from coupling as it is pulled into the machine. If you are feeding at the six-page capacity and the paper buckles as it is being fed, the unit is likely to jam. I have found that the clearance is adequate to prevent this from happening.
The Fellowes P-45C Cross-Cut Shredder has a compact size, which allows it to be inconspicuous in your home office. The unit has a lip that inserts into the front of the specially designed basket. The basket has a 3.7 gallon capacity, which doesn’t seem like 3.7 gallons as frequently as I empty this unit. With the shredder portion installed on the basket, it stands about a foot and a half off the ground. The black finish has a bulky but attractive look that appears aggressive in spite of the tepid performance I have experienced.
The Fellowes P-45C Cross-Cut Shredder is listed on their website for $109.98 but can be readily found for about half that price. The Fellowes P-45C Cross-Cut Shredder comes with a three-year warranty which I don’t believe includes disappointment in the performance of this unit. If I can get them to take it back with a full refund, I will probably go that direction. I do not believe (especially after reading other reviews on this unit) that the poor performance stems from a warranty issue. This unit simply seems to be a dud. Fellowes produces some excellent, inexpensive shredders. This one does not meet the quality that I have come to expect from Fellowes. I hope that they take this piece of junk out of production. It does not deserve to bear the Fellowes trademark.
I have used Fellowes products for years, and generally consider them an excellent investment. The Fellowes P-45C Cross-Cut Shredder provides an exception to that rule. This junk is a heavy, bulky, wannabe machine that gives the appearance of heavy duty but performs anemically. I thought that this unit would be an excellent addition to my home office but have found that it would make a better boat anchor. The heavy construction does not perform the way it feels like it should perform. I have been truly disappointed with this machine and would give it a solid non-recommendation. Fellowes makes plenty of alternatives that are a much better investment. In spite of the decent performance on credit cards, one star out of a possible five.
Recommended:
No
Purchase Price (if leased, monthly payment): 60 Machine age (Months in use): 2 months
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