Next time the Sox win the Series, I've Got My Confetti!
Written: Dec 29 '05
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Pros: confetti-cut shredder that also chews up credit cards
Cons: not ready for heavy duty use - but doesn't claim to be.
The Bottom Line: The bottom line has been shredded.
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| scmrak's Full Review: Staples SPL-826X (Cross-Cut) Shredder |
I was talking to Mom one night not long ago when I learned that my sister's credit card had been stolen and a bunch of merchandise charged on it (and shipped to her house - what's up with that?). Mom allowed as how she was worried about identity theft - who isn't - and had for some time been shredding all her canceled checks and other financial stuff... by hand. Yep, my eighty-something mother would take a handful of paper and snip it into pieces with her old pinking shears. Oh, well, it gave her something to do...
I couldn't have that, so next time I saw Mom I gave her our Fellowes strip-cut shredder, which left us in the market for a replacement. This time I wanted confetti instead of strips, and that five-sheet model might have been just a little too light-duty for our needs. Pickings are slim out here on the edge of the prairie, but we found a handful of confetti-style shredders rated light to medium duty, and picked out the one that seemed the best deal - a Staples 8-Sheet Cross-Cut Shredder (SPL-826X). Though listed at $70, it was on sale for $55 and had a $15 rebate, bringing it down to about the same price we paid for that five-sheet strip-cut. Now we have a shredder that turns our "sensitive" material into a pile of confetti - little pieces 5/32nds x one inch (4 x 25mm) instead of quarter-inch strips. I'm liking this better already...
Staples quotes these specifications and features for their medium-duty shredder:
Medium-duty: rated for 25-50 uses per day
Continuous feed: runs at slightly under 10 feet (3 meters) per minute
Capacity: eight sheets of 20-lb bond paper, with staples; or one credit card
Mouth opening: 8-5/8 inches
Additional Features: auto start/stop, reverse function, overheat protection and auto shutdown, safety interlock, credit card slot, 5-gallon mesh basket
What's all that stuff mean? I can slip a standard sheet of paper into the entry slot on the shredder and, within about six seconds, it's converted into little chips of paper an inch long and about an eighth of an inch wide. The shredder handles standard staples effortlessly (but don't try to feed it heavy-duty staples or paper clips), and it'll take as many as eight sheets at a time - though it slows down as the pile gets thicker - and turn them all into pretty confetti for your next ticker-tape parade. At 219mm, the opening is wide enough for either letter paper or for A4 if you're of that persuasion. Oh, and not only does it chop up paper, it also makes confetti out of credit cards, though only one at a time. All the paper chips drop into a bin made of wire mesh so that you can see how full the thing is. If you get too eager and jam the shredder, there's a "reverse" button to back out the stuck sheets.
There are sensors all over the unit: a safety interlock on the underside of the shredding head prevents it from running unless the head is resting on the basket. A second sensor in the mouth turns the shredder head ON when you shove in a sheet of paper, and about three seconds after the paper is gone the head shuts off automatically. If you're attempting to shred the records of the Iran-Contra affair and the head overheats from being pushed too hard, however, a third sensor shuts the shredder down until it's cooled off.
Upside/Downside: This isn't a shredder for a large financial office that'll put it to heavy use. It's rated only for up to fifty uses per day, so continuous use would soon fry the motor. It's fine for a home office or for light duty, though.
• A cross-cut shredder is an improvement over strip-cut shredders, because a miscreant would have to be extremely driven to try to piece back together about 600 little "chips" for every sheet of paper. This one's "confetti" size is a little smaller than many shredders, which make paper chips about two inches long and a quarter of an inch wide. It's also slower, though, partially because of its "thoroughness."
• It's a tough little guy, taking staples pretty much in stride.
• It's versatile because of that credit-card slot - and a lot easier to use than trying to chop up old credit cards with scissors.
• It has a fairly good warranty: one year on the case and the motor, and seven years on the cutter blades.
• It's not even ugly - the black shredder head and basket sit unobtrusively in one corner of the library, noticeable only because of a green LED glowing on the head.
The only downside I've seen is that the safety interlock switch is set up to be engaged by a small tab in the basket, so the head cannot be used in any other basket. Fortunately, the basket is large enough that I'm not tempted to try to find a larger replacement.
Heartily recommended.
Also reviewed:
Fellowes P500 Personal Shredder
Recommended:
Yes
Purchase Price (if leased, monthly payment): 55
Machine age (Months in use): 1
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