Fellowes Powershred PS-70: an efficient little "fellow" for home or office

We have used our Fellowes Powershred PS-70 paper shredder in our office for more than a year now and if I may be so bold as to speak for my co-workers, we are all very satisfied with this quality shredding machine.


There are other paper shredders out there that are more heavy duty and meant for office use, but to my surprise, this particular paper shredder is classified as a medium shredder for personal use. From my experience, it handles all we give it with ease and keep in mind there are six of us that use this shredder regularly. The Fellowes Powershred PS-70 could also easily be used at home, should you wish to. For example, if you have a home office, or work out of your home, this would be a welcome addition. Even if you get a lot of junk mail, this could be your answer to getting rid of personal documents and forms. In an age where identity theft is on the rise, a shredder is becoming more and more of a necessity rather than a luxury.


In our department, we have lots of documents which must remain secure and if they are outdated, we need to purge them. We deal with a lot of paper on a daily basis (although we're trying to gradually move toward less paper and more online information) and much of it is confidential and involves student records. Typically our really big shredding jobs are taken care of during the summer months, but it's safe to say that we do utilize our Fellowes Powershred PS-70 Monday through Friday, even if we just have a few pages to shred on a particular day.


This is NOT a cross-cut shredder, rather it shreds pages straight down. It is known as a strip cutter. It can take up to 14 pages at a time with no problem. I know some of the people that use it try to stuff 20 or more sheets in at once and you can hear the machine's motor working hard. We've tried to warn those offenders not to put too much paper in at once as it could cause the shredder to jam up. (I should add that I have never heard the shredder stop completely because of overstuffing paper into it - it just keeps going.) I usually stick with shredding 4 -6 sheets at a time. No use overworking the shredder. When it shreds, the strips of paper are small, just under 1/4 inch wide, rendering them quite unreadable (unless you have the time and infinite patience to tape them all back together, but why would you?). Although we do not normally do this, the Fellowes Powershred PS-70 is also able to shred CDs, plastic-coated cards, such as credit cards and paper clips. It’s really a handy feature NOT to have to remove staples and paperclips speeding up the process as you place the pages into the shredder. The opening into which the pages are fed is 9 inches wide, so will accommodate 8-1/2 x 11 sheets with a little room to spare.


There is a warning to keep fingers out. Should papers become jammed, make sure to unplug the shredder first, before attempting to get paper pieces out of the shredding area. There is a reverse button also (which turns on a red light), which you might use if you have started to accidentally shred something you should not! A neutral button turns the shredder off. In our office, we tend to just leave it in the "on" position, which displays a green light. We have not yet had to do any maintenance on this machine at all.


This Fellowes Powershred PS-70 is a powerful machine that is approximately 18 inches tall and 12 inches wide. The receptacle/basket is quite large, but I noticed that we have no problem filling it up on a regular basis way too quickly. Who empties it is another matter, but I won't get into that today. It's also an attractive looking machine with rounded corners. Ours is an off-white (taupe) color, but silver/black is also available. The receptacle basket is light and slides out easily. The shredder will not operate if the basket is not pushed all the way into place. There is a clear plastic shield which acts as a protection in the unlikely event that pieces might fly out (which I have never seen happen) or if there is a temptation to stick your hand in to pull a piece of paper out (bad idea).


This particular Fellowes shredder sells for approximately $100, give or take depending on where you buy it. It can be purchased at Staples, Office Max or online at the website:

http://fellowes.com/Fellowes/site/home.aspx

Treat this machine with care and it will last a good long time. It's a well-made, durable machine and your co-workers and you will get good use of it.




~thanks for reading~


©gkm.



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