Shreddin' away!

About a month ago, my husband was going to Office Max, and so I said- “get a paper shredder.” The one we had was just a simple strip cut Mainstays brand shredder, and I think I was on the verge of killing it. So, he came back with Fellowes Powershred DS-1 that he bought for $99.99.

Since we own our own business, there are things that I need to shred up, such as old invoices, old faxes with info on them, and those notorious credit card applications that seem to arrive here daily. This shredder is a confetti cut shredder, and it shreds paper into 3.9 cm x 35mm size pieces. I don’t think anyone could piece any items back together like they could with a strip cut shredder. This unit comes fully assembled, all you have to do is unpack it and plug it in.

The shredder stands at about 2 feet tall and 15 inches wide across the top. It is black, and it has an included wire wastebasket that is silver. There is a step located on the front of the wastebasket that you step on to empty the basket. The shredder will not operate it without the basket in tact.

The manual states the capabilities of the machine are that it is able to shred paper, small paper clips, credit cards, and staples. It will not shred continuous forms, adhesive labels, transparencies, newspaper, cardboard, large paper clips, laminates. The shredder can handle up to 11 sheets of paper per shred, and up to 10 to 20 shreddings per day. You can continuously run it for 4 to 5 minutes.

The shredder features a Safe Sense touch guard sensor on the top. With this sensor, when a hand is still on the paper to be shredded, the unit will not operate. Also, if there is a hand on the sensor, the unit will not operate either. On the right of the top of the unit, there is the on/off and reverse button. You can have it placed on the on function and it will be in standby mode, but my house has 2 youngsters in it, so I just keep it off when I am not using it. Also, on the top, you will see a red and green light with a temperature icon beside it. If the unit gets too hot during continuous use, it will cut off and require a 20 minute cool down period.


As with any shredder, be sure to keep this away from kids and pets. Unplug this when not in use. Be sure to keep foreign objects such as gloves, jewelry, clothing, hair, and such away from the shredder openings. If an object should enter the openings, hit the reverse button to back it out. Do not used canned air, aerosol, or petroleum based products to clean this unit.

As far as maintenance, the manual says to run it in reverse for one minute regularly. You need to lubricate the shredder when the capacity decreases, or the motor sounds differently, or when the bin is full. Just apply oil directly across the top of the entry slot. We bought some sort of cleaning sheets that lubricate it from Office Max to do the maintenance.


Experience:

We have had this for about a month now, and have had no problems with it. It was a pretty good price, it was more expensive than our old one, but it is much better in capabilities. It is attractive as far as paper shredders go, and the basket is easy to remove from under the shredder and dump into a garbage bag. Also, when emptying the shredder, I don’t find that little pieces of paper fly out from the shredder when emptying like my old one did. I had to get the vacuum out every time I dumped our old one. I like that it has the sensor on it, with youngsters in the house. Even though I keep the unit turned off while not using, and the kids know they are not supposed to use it, I still like having the sensor there.

As far as shredding capabilities, I have found it will shred through stuff really easily. I have even shredded stuff that was still in the envelope and it powered right through it. It goes through credit cards, cardstock, copy paper, and magazine pages. If there are staples in it, it goes right through them with no trouble at all. I have found I can do a stack of about 10 pages at once with no trouble.

The only complaint I would have would be the motor is a little noisy, but it is nothing I can’t get over. I have not noticed any change in performance, and it gets used several times a day. Highly recommended- a good price for a good shredder.



****Just a note****

On Feb. 4, 08 this shredder croaked- but it was still under the manufacturer warranty- and I was sent a free replacement. Turns out the oiling sheets that Office Max had suggested we use was not enough oil- the manufacturer suggests to use household oil or 2 or 3 lubricating sheets.