Fellowes Powershred C-380 / C-380C

One (more) thing to look out for – the powershred 380 is an older model so this review is more of a tip than a do buy/don't buy review. The Powershred is a commercial grade heavy duty shredder. Or so they would lead you to believe. I purchased one secondhand recently it was working fine for the first few days then made a noise and stopped working. I stripped down the unit to find a very well built motor and gearbox . I mean this thing was built solid - Except for one thing. It had a nylon gear in amongst all the metal gears. It seems rather than fit a clutch it may have been cheaper and less noisy option to fit a nylon gear to fail if the mechanism should jam.

The nylon gear has a custom design it cannot be re manufactured on a standard lathe, A friend went to a great deal of effort to try as the part is not readily available if at all.

So much for the advertised all steel construction and Jam free operation in the brochure. Needless to say this has reduced the item to junk.

Take care when buying a shredder. Enquire whether it has any plastic gears and whether it has a clutch.

Ring your local repair shop and ask what is the most common failure and what it costs to repair that failure.

As for me I have a friend who wants it for the very heavy steel parts. Oh well...