Fellowes 3229901 PowerShred 99Ci 17 Sheet Cross-Cut Shredder
by Fellowes
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List Price: Our Price: $203.03 You Save: $385.45 (65%) Availability: Usually ships in 3-4 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Fellowes 3229901 PowerShred 99Ci 17 Sheet Cross-Cut Shredder
Customer Review: Great shredder for home
Summary: 5 Stars
Got lots of junk mail? Concerned about identity theft? Tired of spending hours shredding paper so you can protect yourself? Burned out the motor on smaller shredders? Well, this shredder will take care of most household shredding needs I would think.
I've had three smaller shredders. Two strip cut and one cross cut. The Royal cross cut died suddenly as did the Fellowes cross cut. To be honest, I probably overloaded them over time. And I never oiled them - they didn't come with oil. Probably should have been doing that, though. I also didn't want to spend all day shredding & would put the max through them. They were 3 and 5 sheet shredders. I do think that wears shredders out faster. The GBC strip cut still works, but they say that's not enough to protect identity these days.
I really liked the little Fellowes shredder I had, so I stayed with that brand, just traded up to a much larger unit. We've owned the Fellowes 3229901 Intellishred a year now. I shred everything with a name & address on it. This unit shreds a lot in each pass, cuts it nice and small, will do CDs, credit cards, and staples. Haven't managed to jam it yet and have been using it a year. If you put in too much paper, it stops & reverses automatically. If you do jam the machine, you can reverse manually. It has a nice readout gauge to tell you whether you are near to putting in too much in one pass, so you really shouldn't run into that problem if you watch the gauge.
The ability of the unit to detect if a hand or kitty tail is near the slot is nice - chances of you shredding your finger or your furry friend are about zero. It would still grab a tie or something else not alive, though...
I'm still using the first bag - it came with 3. I just empty the contents into the trash & put the bag back in. It's starting to get a few holes in it so will probably switch to bag #2 soon. I do oil every time I empty the bag like the instructions say to. I also open most window-envelope junk mail & recycle the envelopes as the instructions say that the "gum" on envelopes can over time gum up the cutter.
The one annoyance for this machine is that the little confetti pieces do get a little messy when taking the door off to empty the bag. But that's minor & it sweeps out nicely with a little hand broom if you have one & need it to be completely clean inside before you replace the door.
So far, I'm happy with this unit.
Customer Review: Great Office Shredder
Summary: 4 Stars
Jan 12, 2009 Review Update: We contacted Fellowes and they actually replaced the entire unit. I would like to note that Fellowes has now redesigned the plastic pin making it a) stronger and b) replaceable... that is.... it is now attached with 4 small screws instead of being molded to the wastebasket. My guess is that they were having to replace a lot of wastebaskets due to broken pins. The redesign is much improved over the old design. Closing the wastebasket is still a challenge as you have to give it a semi-forceful palm slap, but at least the pin appears more sturdy.
One other note. The instructions indicate that you are to turn this until off after every use. We started having an issue with the unit running constantly, but Fellowes has replaced our unit and we are careful to turn it off after each use.
Review Update: I would like to mention that closing the shredder waste basket can be a challenge. You have to apply a forceful push to the middle of the basket to get it to close properly. Unfortunately, this caused us to break the plastic pin on the waste basket that depresses the "basket in place" switch. I ended up having to insert a paper clip and some tape to keep the switch in the engaged position.
Original Review: We needed a larger capacity shredder for our corporate office of about 10-12 people. We have a couple of smaller shredders, but they are noisy and have a smaller capacity. After reading the other reviews, I decided on this shredder.
Shredder placement: We wanted this shredder to be easily accessible to our office. The primary users of this shredder decided to place it in the open area where there are about eight cubicles. To meet this requirement, the shredder could not be disruptive to the workforce.
Based upon our actual users, they have not complained about it being excessively loud (certainly not that high pitched grinding associated with other shredders), it has not been disruptive to the work area, it is used everyday, it has not jammed and our shredder 'usage' has actually increased with this product. The waste capacity is satisfactory for our office (we have to empty the basket about once per week).
Overall, our office has been extremely satisfied with this product and I would highly recommend it.
Customer Review: Replacement unit works like a charm and much, much quieter than my original SB-99Ci
Summary: 4 Stars
I originally bought a SB-99Ci shredder via Amazon.com back in July/August 2008. I must admit that I was always a little disappointed with the operating noise which I found was far from the advertized "SilentShred(tm) offers ultra-quiet shredder performance for shared workspaces". However it seemed to work pretty well. Never a problem with jamming, a quick press of the forward button for a couple of seconds when it did seize up (very rare) and the motor would power through to clear whatever was in it. I'm not sure that it's always capable of 17 sheets, but I suppose it all depends on the paper density, humidity, etc. which will obviously affect what it can do. Having said all that, it was a great machine while it lasted... Then a couple of weeks ago the auto function stopped working. I followed the instruction manual in as far as cleaning around the IR paper sensor area just inside the opening (which you can't see!) with rubbing alcohol and cotton buds, but alas to no avail. It would just run continuously until overheating in just a few minutes so I had to keep shutting it off between grabbing piles of papers from across my office. I phoned Fellowes, explained what was happening, and they sent me a new shredder which I received yesterday. The one hugely noticeable difference with the new replacement compared with the malfunctioning one is just how very quiet it is. I could hardly believe it. I used to oil my old one each time I replaced the shredder bag, so it was well and regularly maintained, but this one is just like night and day in comparison as far as noise is concerned. I am now thinking that perhaps there was always something not quite right with my original machine, but how would you know without having another one along side it as a comparison? Obviously I have not used the replacement for very long now, but it is far quieter than my old machine, so much so that I just had to write a note to explain my experience. I can not fault the customer service at Fellowes, who I found to be very efficient and responsive to a customer experiencing problems with one of their machines. Obviously I can not speak for the long term durability of this product based on my experience, but so far so good ;-)Customer Review: Shredder OK for Heavy Home Use-Reconsider if for Business
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this to replace a 7yr old ATIVA that finally burned out. I have a home based business and was attracted to the price, power shred feature and Fellowes name. I wanted the larger basket so I didn't have to empty it so often. I use this shredder lightly at least every other day and at least three times a month with heavy - 2 wastebaskets worth- of paper & junk mail.
The machine is solid, quieter and smooth when shredding. Not real fast. When you have an armful of paper to shred, the power shred feature of stopping, reversing, then forward again is a hindrance. You can press the button manually to move it along faster. The feeder throat is a bit deeper before it catches and starts to shred. You really have to push what you are feeding into it before it grabs and starts. When working on an accumulated pile of stuff to shred and got ahead of myself I found it was stopping, doing the automatic reverse,and I was already feeding the next handful and had to stop and wait for this to do it's thing. Seems more sensitive to what it's handling which puts it in the stop/reverse/forward mode a lot. It also gets hot and requires a longer cooldown more frequently than I was accustomed to with the ATIVA. As the basket fills, you need to frequently press down the shredded bits to keep the area clear. It looks to me to be more sensitive to being full than it should be. There's still room in the bucket and the sensor stops the flow.(?) The output seems to pile on itself instead of spreading across open space in receptacle which stops it until you clear the path again. Again, machine seems to be more sensitive than it needs to be. A 13gal standard drawstring kitchen bag will work with a little fiddling. I taped a ltr size manila file folder to the inside front of the plastic basket to cover corners that ripped the bag as I pulled it out the first time. Lets you fill the basket to the max and remove it easily now. I've had it for almost two months. It's adequate. True test over time is yet to be seen. It seems OK for the price. I didn't want to spend $1k for a shredder. You get what you pay for. If you need speed you may not be happy with this.
Customer Review: S8-99Ci Intellishredder is a powerful, quiet shredder
Summary: 5 Stars
From my home-based office, I write, edit, and review technical documents that contain confidential, proprietary company information. Printed copies of these documents, plus solicitations from banks that contain my personal identification information, credit card receipts, online ourchase confirmations, etc., are items that I shred on an ongiong basis. My first shredder, which I bought at a nice price from Sam's Club, did on OK job, but it was slow (only three sheets of paper at a time) and noisy. Eventually, the "worm/screww" mechanism started to jam. Clearing the jam was a real nuisance because the jammed paper formed a clog that has extrtemely hard and tight, requiring strong probes and pokes with a sharp object (a letter opener, in my case). It took upwards of five or six minutes to clear each jam, and jams happened every two or three extended sessions of use. It started driving my crazy. This new shredder is a dream. It handles larger piles of papers (17 sheets) at a time, has a low-pitched rumble that suggests power and competence, and it has a built-in safety feature that shuts the motor of as soon as it senses something (you finger, tie, etc.) getting too close to the feeding slot. (I also appreciate its ability to shred credit cards with no muss and no fuss.) Its large bin that easily slides out for emptying is well designed. This is a big improvement over my first shredder, which required me to lift off a heavy, awkwardly-balanced lid to get at the bin underneath. This new model has casters for easy rolling, a feature that I disabled because a) the unit is easy to lift and move (although mine is in one place and there is no need to move it), and b) the casters raise the height of the shredder so that it just fails to fit underneath my work table. I removed the casters and slid the shredder partially under the table so that the feeder slot remains covered. It works beautifully. I'v only had this shredder for two months, but I use it regularly and it has perfomred well. I highly recommend it for light to moderate shredding jobs.