According to recent news reports, Las Vegas is listed as one of the worse cities per capital for identity theft. Just last year we had someone ram their van through the wall at a DMV and steal their computer systems. My wife wants to start recycling since she feels we don't – yet I tell her that technically we do for there is a guy who each week goes through all of the trash bins in our apartment complex pulling out cans and bottles (and who knows what else!). On an average week I get four to five credit offers that I used to throw into the trash without opening (used to!).

For a while now I've wanted to buy a shredder but have been passing on the idea because of price. It just sucks to buy something and spend money doing it to make something so simple as your trash feel safe. It's like those Glad scented trash bags which is supposed to make your trash smell better. Please, it's a trash bag for gosh sake! Still, in this day and age I knew we needed a shredder – and so the idea kept popping into my head.


WHY MAINSTAYS:
On the day we bought our Mainstays Shredder we were not in Walmart that day looking for a shredder. We were looking for file folders and hangers and came across the Mainstays Shredder for it was being displayed on the same shelf. There were three things that drew us to the Mainstays and were the primary factors as to why we ended up placing one into our basket:

► Price: Walmart had it listed at $24.99
► Crosscut: Shreds pieces both vertically and horizontally churning out confetti.
► Included Wastebasket: Black to match shredder, little window to see when shredder is getting full.

Upon returning home I unpacked the shredder which was extremely simple. There are really only two parts in the box; the shredder and the wastebasket. After removing all the packaging materials I placed the heavy shredder unit on top of the basket and it fit snugly into place. The wastebasket sat on our carpet just fine although it was a little wobbly if slightly pushed.

The Mainstays Shredder has three basic functions:
► Auto: The unit will automatically turn on and shred when paper is placed into the slot on top of the shredder.
► Off: The unit is off.
► Rev: Used to reverse paper out in case of jams.

Perhaps a little more excited than I should be I ran into the office to grab some old bills to use in the shredder. Unlike some small shredder which sell for around the same price as the Mainstays Shredder – the Mainstays has a slot big enough to easily fit 8 1/2 by 11" paper.

After shredding a bit I pulled the heavy unit off the wastebasket to see the final results. 90% of the time the pieces of paper where shredded into confetti. 10% of it looked like the horizontal cut had failed to work properly. Taking shredding to the next level I put my hand into the basket and gave the contents a nice whirl to mix everything up.


WHY NOT THE MAINSTAYS SHREDDER:
I can only think of four reasons you may want to not consider the Mainstays Shredder.

The first being what I mentioned above. It seems 10% of the time the horizontal shred fails to work.

You can only shred about four to six papers max at a time. Any more and the shredder clogs up. In most cases you can use the "Rev" function to clear out the jammed papers but in some cases you must unplug the unit, remove it from the wastebasket, and then clear it out with your hands. In very rare cases you have to get some pliers to help you pull jammed pieces of paper out.

The "shred sensor" in the unit is only in the middle of the input slot. Since I shred most letter sized pieces of paper this is not much of a problem. But when I shred receipts I have to line it up just right or it won't shred. Plus it could start shredding then stop once the piece of paper moved away from the sensor.

The shredder does not claim to shred Compact Disks, credit cards, or paper clips. Staples not an issue.


BOTTOM LINE:
At $24.99 the Mainstays Shredder has been perfect for our small home office. We bought it only to shred paper and with a little patience I can shred piles of paper in no time. If you are in the market and don't to spend a lot of money – I highly recommend you check out a Mainstays Shredder.



Recommended: Yes

Purchase Price (if leased, monthly payment): 24.99
Machine age (Months in use): 3