Fellowes Powershred 99Ci Cross-Cut Office Shredder

Papers Please! – We bought this for home use (as opposed to office) and the primary purpose was not to simply shred the odd bit of work paper but to shred everything in sight that could be re-tasked (recycled) for garden use. This is not the orthodox use of this machine and in some cases, probably warranty bending BUT it does exactly what we want! I did an… Read more

unreasonable amount of research on these machines via Blogs, Youtube, other product review sites etc to make sure this kind of machine is capable enough to perform this task. There's lots of reading and many people for and against. Those against were really only saying beware of the inks and other chemicals that go into the ground as opposed to these machines being unable to perform the task of home recycling. After all, I wanted this to do lots of cardboard and that was a very specific requirement which I actually found other people doing and that sealed the deal for me.

In the time we've had it (since Aug 2019) I have shredded everything. Every kind of paper you can think of including all those waxed and glossy brochures down to tissue paper wrapping paper. You can grind up to 18 sheets thick which allowed me to do a lot of boxes too. Not the kind you get a kitchen table sent in but all those product boxes that contain biscuits, modems, cornflakes, toys etc etc. The machine hasn't missed a beat. I did try the harder corrugated cardboard on some bigger boxes and got a 70/30 hit rate with some pieces just not making it through.

It's got good safety features (you can't put your fingers in it as it cuts out if you try) and if you remove the bin it does likewise. The other important things to note are the length of time you can stand there grinding stuff through before it overheats. This one allows for 30 minutes of constant use which is more than enough and it stays pretty quiet. Those were some of the biggest selling points when you compare so many of them. But it's not a cheap unit. You can get cheap ones at Big W but I wouldn't bother. Wait for deals to get this and you can save heaps off the retail. You get what you pay for, so go with quality.

I highly recommend this for homes wanting to recycle their waste and get it into the garden. It's fast, quiet, efficient and very durable. Do yourself a favour and go through your house, remove all that paperwork you've kept for no good reason (special occasion cards, work expenses, tax docs, old manuals, old bills, bank transactions, superannuation reports.... the list goes on) and turn them into pulp. No-one can reconstruct the information as it has a security rating on the output that means it cannot be reconstructed. So much better than binning it or dumping it.