Adventures In Shredder Shopping
About a year back my old shredder went to the great silicon heaven in the sky and I have been with out one for this whole time. Cleaning out the Crawl space and basement over December has left me with a large amount of paper I need to dispose of securely.
The first this I did was look into what features I really wanted in my new shredder.
1. A few sheets are a time (3 to 5 min)
2. Auto and Reverse (should be standard on all them)
3. Ability to do CD’s
4. Ability to do Credit Cards.
Staples and paper clips I dont really care about since I can just rip the corner off a pack of paper pretty easy.
After looking at the weekly flyers and online a fair amount I ended up getting a Staples Mailmate Shredder Item Number 649935 for $68.72.
It has the following features:
* Features: Shreds 10 folded paper sheets, CDs/DVDs, credit cards, staples & small paper clips
* Heavy Duty Cross-cut: 51-100 uses per day
* Finish: Stainless Steel/Black
* Light weight, pull-out bin and rubberized handle make emptying easy
* Throat Width: 6″ (152.4mm)
* Shred Size: 0.2″ x 1″ (4mm x 25mm)
* Basket Capacity: 1.5 Gallons (5.5L)
* Overheat & Power LEDs
* Overload Protection with Auto Reverse Feature
* Digital Control Switches
* Auto Off Feature: powers down after 30 minutes
* Non-skid rubber feet
* Shred Speed: 5.6 ft/min. (1.7 m/min.)
* Dimensions: 10.2″L X 11.8″W 11″H
* Weight: 15.2 lbs
It sounded like it had everything I wanted out of a shredder, but this was not to be the case. After getting it home I shredder for a few min and then waited a bit and did some more. In no time the unit powered off (the over heat light did not come on). Looking in the manual it said if this happened to leave it for 25 min and then plug it back in and try again. Not a single light would come on….
Back to Staples the next day with my broken shredder.. I didn’t really want to spend much more on a shredder, but also was not feeling the love of this model and didn’t want to get the same kind again. After looking over the remaining options I went with a Staples D-Shape Diamond-Cut Shredder Item Number 703283 for $99.21. So I paid the difference and left with my new shredder with the following specs:
* Features: Medium-duty ultraquiet shredder with up to 50 uses per day
* Basket interlock switching (machine shuts off when shredder basket door is opened)
* Separate slot to shred CDs/DVDs
* Reverse/forward button with red “attention” and “bin full” LEDs
* Overheat/overload protection
* Nonskid rubber feet
* 12-sheet capacity
* 9″ throat size
* 1/5″ x 1-19/50” shred size
* 6-gallon basket capacity
* 1-year manufacturer’s limited warranty, 7-year on cutters (details with product)12-sheet capacity.
So far it seems like a way better unit and I hope it will last for more than the MailMate did.
