Fellowes Powershred 99Ci 18-Sheet 100% Jam-Proof Heavy Duty Crosscut Paper Shredder Machine for Office and Home, Black/Gray 3229904

When this first arrived, putting it together took a couple minutes at most. I started out by taking some of the junk mail that came in the mail that same day and put it to the test. To my surprise, it handled it very well! I could see the thicker junk mail becoming a hassle with it as when you put in a piece of mail or what have you, it will tell you how burdened the shredder is based on how thick the paper is that you put into it. You can gauge pretty quickly what you can and can't put through this thing.I personally bought this because I find myself throwing away a LOT of mail that has my personal information on it and that makes me uncomfortable. Already, this shredder has brought me a lot of comfort knowing someone won't be able to go through my trash and open up a huge line of credit under my name. You just never know these days and can never be too safe. Never again will I throw away whole pieces of mail! I also have a lot of government documents with my social security number on them that will find their new home in the wastebasket of this shredder, too!Probably the most surprising aspect of this shredder is how quiet it operates! I was very surprised as was my roommate at how quiet it is. It's WAY quieter than the one I've become accustomed to at work where we shred our sensitive documents.Overall, I would highly recommend this. Yeah, the price is steep but if you want something that's built to last and is very high quality, I proudly say this would receive my highest recommendation for paper shredders.FYI, it comes with a little bottle of lube so don't feel like you HAVE to buy a bigger bottle right off the bat like I did. I'm glad I did because I won't have to do it later but for someone who is unsure whether they need one or not and is on a budget, it's definitely not an essential purchase right off the bat.UPDATE: 3/31/2014I just shredded a Bowflex Catalog and it made mincemeat out of it. I've filled and emptied the trash basket probably 3 full times now. That's a LOT of shredding, and so far 99% of the things that I throw its way it can handle with no problem. This was a great purchase for my home office.

This shredder is worth every penny. I first bought this same shredder in 2014 and it lasted me through 3 long distance moves until 2025 when I broke it when attempting to shred a thick, all metal credit card. How stupid can I be? I was furious with myself because this machine was 11 years old and working perfectly. So I went back to my old orders on Amazon and found the same machine so I ordered it again. I remember in 2014 when I ordered it, it arrived damaged so I called Fellowes directly and they sent me a new machine at no charge. I didn’t have to send the old one back. In 2014, the Fellowes customer service was so good that I told them I really respected the company because it was clear they stood behind their products. I was right so I made up my mind I will always buy Fellowes shredders and I am sticking to that promise. This is a wonderful machine that tolerates a lot of abuse from me and my husband. I shouldn’t admit this but I never properly maintained my shredder by oiling it and it still did a fantastic job over these years

This is one tough shredder. I took it out of the box and promptly shredded 5 years' worth of paper in two days; I figure at least a thousand pages plus staples, paper clips (accidentally), credit cards and CDs. I hit the hi temp cutout twice and just let it calm down for a few hours. Worked perfectly.It's a bit louder than I imagined but I think I'm too picky. This is a very good product at a great Amazon price with no shipping charge. All good.I've never used a shredder that didn't have it's problems with changing bags (I NEVER save files at work, everything is shredded as soon as I'm done with it so I have changed a few bags in my life). The first thing I did was ignore the instructions and FORGET paying for those special bags and the oil!I took the bag frame out and just let the shreds go directly into the collector. I set up an el-cheapo green trash bag in the shipping box. When the collector filled up, I poured the contents into the trash bag and what little spilled was caught by the box. Works great, no torn bags, no outrageous cost. Any large cardboard box that's tall and fairly narrow will work.I had read the reviews here before I bought the shredder and I saw the back-and-forth about the cutter oil. I'm no rocket scientist but under no conditions would I ever put a vegetable oil on machinery that will get hot - the oil HAS to break down and become gummy. Maybe I'm too tough on the machine but that's me. So, I sprayed the rollers with that old standby WD40. While it's too early to tell whether it will work in the long term, I can tell you that I've used WD40 for over 10 years on a small desk top shredder that has absolutely been abused and the little booger just keeps on working.Hope this helps!This is an addendum. I just helped one of our folks fix a jam on a small Fellowes at work. They hadn't emptied the box in FOREVER and it took us quite a while to clean it out. The shreds were packed SOLID on the underside of the cutters. Cleaned that out and fired right back up. Gotta love these things. This one at work is OLD and abused.___________________________________________________________It's been over two years now and although I admit that I'm not running a commercial enterprise, this is one tough shredder. I tend to be careful about letting the thermal overload protection kick in but there are just times when I have a bunch of stuff that needs to be cleared out of a year's worth of filing. Last January, I retired and cleaned out my files in one shot by putting the shredder on top of 2x4s over a BIG trash can. It was a bit cold in the garage so I let the whole mechanism cool down to about 50* and started shredding the pile. Dumped all the trash right into the trash can and the relatively low temperature kept the shredder running for the duration. I was done in record time. I now shred EVERYTHING. VERY happy with this purchase. I especially like how it will back up when it's overfilled and then just grind away 'till the stuff is gone.