Customer Reviews

Fellowes 32197 Powershred SB-97Cs Shredder

5 star:		(142)
4 star:		(39)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This unit does a great job! My old shredder was very slow and I had to open all junk mail because my old shredder would jam when I tried to feed in whole letters with envelopes, especially if they contained plastic cards such as credit cards. This new unit has no problems with such things. Shredding my junk mail with this unit takes far less time than with the old unit!

The only impovement I would like to see is to make the slot slightly wider so all mail can be fed in sideways. Right now a lot of my junk mail is about 1/2 inch too long and must be fed in lenghtwise. If the slot had been 1/2 inch wider I would have given this product five stars rather than four.

This shredder is well worth the money. It is fast, powerful, and convenient to use. The only minor drawback is the challenge in changing the bag without having to vacuum out the shredded paper pieces in the slide-out wastebasket compartment. My wife and I just use the dustbuster, since the problem is nearly unavoidable. Even so, we are both very happy with this shredder.

This shredder is built rock solid and will shred anything. I have been through a few shredders before buying this one and thought I would take the plunge and get a larger shredder. Easily shreds documents, cards, cds - great to keep you personal info - well personal. It will easily shred thicker paper and a small stack of documents with ease. I recently shredded a large pile of old documents no longer needed and the unit did not overheat.

Keep in mind - this is a big shredder - but functions very well and is easy to maintain and clean the shredding mechanism when needed. Also looks cool.

Wow, is this shredder ever messy! Yeah, I read how messy it was, but until you actually see the pile left in the bottom of the base housing, you can't get a clear picture (I'm talking a handful here, sometimes more, not counting another handful or two left hanging from the shredder mechanism). The cause is simple enough. The cutter assembly (for whatever reason) leaves "gobs" of cut paper hanging down that gets partially scraped off when removing the basket ... and guess where a lot of it ends up? This might happen to other shredders with a removable basket, but I don't know this for a fact. I suspect a slightly shorter basket would help alleviate much of this problem. Still, I feel there is something basically wrong in its design to allow the amount of paper that is caught and left hanging. My old Fellowes P50CM (which I still have) doesn't have a mess problem because you lift off the head assembly to empty the basket. Plus, my old unit doesn't leave huge gobs of paper hanging down (just a few bits). Then again, my old shredder is a light-weight tinker toy (3-sheet capacity) compared to this powerhouse.

What else don't I like about it? It's pretty big, but not unreasonably so (I measured 25-1/4 H x 10-1/4 W x 18 D) and heavy, but I knew that going in. Actually it's not all that obtrusive looking and can be rolled around easily. It's also not as quiet as I had hoped (although it's not that loud). The saving grace is that as it munches through the paper the sound that it emits is at a lower frequency and not the high-pitched annoying whine of my old shredder. And the thicker the stack being shredded, the quieter the machine is. I suspect that the large housing amplifies and deepens the sound somewhat (a "tub" effect). I also wish the paper slot was a little longer (it is 9-inches long, which is the same as my old unit, so care needs to be taken, especially with legal documents -- a very small tilt when loading and the paper will bind up at the corners). There is also no window to see how quickly the basket is filling up (it would be blocked by the solid plastic basket anyway). Instead, this unit use a sensor. An indicator lights up when the basket is full (too full IMO, causing more paper to gather at the blades). As a safety feature it will not allow you to continue shredding without emptying the basket or mashing the paper down (nor will it operate without the drawer being fully seated). Since a small amount of sheet paper creates a large volume of cut paper (I estimate you can shred about one ream of paper per basket of shreds), I recommend not relying on the indicator light. I partially pull out the drawer and check it often since it can fill up the generous sized basket in a hurry (of course, that probably leads to more spillage).

The unit itself, while no beauty, isn't unattractive (it actually looks like its picture -- some will like it, some won't). It came fully assembled, including the casters, so all one has to do is lift it out of the box, unwrap the protective material, and roll it to where you want it used. It comes pre-oiled as it should (I could readily smell the oil when unpacking) and is ready to tear into your reams of paper (after you have read the instruction sheet, which is inside the basket along with the oil and plastic bags). Since it requires you to add oil through the paper slot, getting the right amount of oil and full coverage is a hit and miss prospect. It is recommended that you do this procedure (oil, shred a sheet of paper and hit reverse for 3 seconds, then repeat the procedure) at the end of each basket full of shredding. You gotta be kidding me! Twice per basket? That's a lot of oil (so order the larger bottle to go along with what the manufacturer supplies). I think I'll be ordering the oil sheets in the near future and try them out or just go to the grocery store and buy some vegetable oil (I wonder how much vegetable oil I can buy for $6.99?).

Shredding? This is what it's all about, and this shredder does it well. I haven't tried the limit yet (17 sheets of 20-pound bond) to test out its claim that it won't jam, but since it had absolutely no problem tearing through 12 to 14 sheets of 24-pound bond, 17 sheets of regular paper should be a cinch. Even more impressive, I didn't hear it bogging down whatsoever, and 24-pound bond is pretty hefty paper. I ended up filling up 3 baskets of paper in one sitting (I could have shredded more) without it turning off (my old unit would shut itself down in about 2 minutes or less). While it's no speed demon, it does cut through paper reasonably fast (12 sheets of 8-1/2 x 11 paper in about 5 seconds per pass), but really it's no faster than my old unit, and may even be a second slower (of course it cuts through 5 or 6 times as much paper per pass!). It also took care of a couple of old credit cards without issue. I haven't chewed up a CD yet, but have no doubts it will work fine (you slide the credit card feeder over the paper slot to cut CDs or credit cards). It also comes with a touch sensor. If your fingers touch the metal at the opening the unit stops until you remove your fingers. Yes, it works. It looks to be kid proof (but don't let your children near it).

How secure are the shreds? Secure enough for me (surprisingly, my old shredder cut the paper into lengths half the size -- about 3/4-inch lengths instead of this shredder's 1-1/2-inch lengths). If someone wants to go through my garbage and try to piece these bits back together, be my guest. If you are looking for extreme security (and quietness ... or so I've read), then you might be better off with the MS-450CS or the more expensive MS-460CS -- the cuts are amazingly small -- little more than 1/4-inch long. I almost purchased the 460, but wanted to chew through twice as much paper on a single pass (I have boxes full of old documents and manuscripts that I need to get rid of).

So far, the SB-97CS has fulfilled most of my expectations (I've had this for only a week, but I've worked it very hard). It's a nice, solid unit that's fairly attractive and "reasonably" quiet in a carpeted room (I'm judging this against my older shredder that is a real screecher), but make no mistake, it is messy (have your vacuum cleaner ready) and it leaves far too much paper hanging from the shredder assembly mechanism.

So what do I rate it? Between 1 and 10, I'd rate this product a 7 (or a marginal 4 stars, which means I think it's a good product). It cuts through a lot of paper effortlessly, and doesn't shut down every few minutes (it is rated for 20 minutes of continuous use, but I have yet to test that). The SB-97CS seems like it would be a solid workhorse in most homes or small office environments. Since my older and cheaper Fellowes shredder is still going (and I didn't even bother to oil it) I expect this one will last (but only time will tell). However, once I get rid of all my stored documents in a few weeks, I might be wishing I had opted for the MS-460 (sigh ... the grass is always greener...).

We shred a lot of docs due to sensitive material. I found this baby about a couple month's ago. It's a workhorse. So far no regrets at all. It is a bit messy cleaning a full bag, but that's why they invented vacuums. tall kitchen trash bags fit perfectly. I buy the draw string type so it's snap to remove and seal. This unit is the high end of a home shredder and lower to mid of office (commercial). Buy it,. You'll be very happy you did.

I received this shredder about a month ago. In the first few days I ran 3 large trash bags of documents through it. It makes my old budget shredder look like a toy! So - the pluses - quiet, fast, munches through 10 sheets of paper with staples at once like it was nothing. Now the minuses - after about 15 minutes of continuous use, the top where the vent is gets very hot. Now I try to stagger it's use. Also, when I first started using it it was extremely quiet, it has gotten a little noisier after just 4 weeks of usage, even with frequent oiling. In it's defense, my use in a medium size office is probably much heavier than most small offices. In summary, it works great, but for my usage, easily 100+ pages a day (and sometimes much more) if I could do it over, I would buy an even heavier duty Fellowes.

I have owned one other Fellows shredder I bought at Costco. The shredder shred paper just fine and as advertised, but the Auto Feed Sensor malfunctioned and quit working entirely.
At first on my older model, it was possible to clean the sensor following Fellows instructions, Q-tip with rubbing alcohol, but it finally just stopped working all together, an electronic failure in the circuitry is my best guess.
I purchased this newer Fellowes Power Shredder because I feel having a non-working safety sensor is bad for kid and pets. But only after about 1-month of occasional shredding the sensor started getting flakey and completely stopped working. I noticed the shredder would turn itself on when I would turn on my microwave which shares a power strip with it which I thought was very strange. I don't have electrical problems in my home and my best guess is that these Fellowes Auto Feed Sensors are not designed well at all as many, many people complain about them breaking.
Yes cleaning them does work...for a while but they have a very nasty habit of just failing after some time, but with the Fellows Power Shredder it just broke, cleaning made not difference.
Mine is new enough I could return it under warranty for a replacement, BUT having to pack it up an pay for shipping the heavy item is just not work the hassle.
Fellows shredder from my experience are solid well working machines with the exception that the buyer should be aware of this safety issue and expect them to become MANUAL type shredders sooner or later.

PRO - wheels; large basket; auto shut off when full; pull out basket much easier to empty than having to lift the top of shredder out of the basket as my previous shredders; uses household vegetable oil for maintenance.
CON - When emptying basket it makes a mess even with a bag in the basket bin.
ADVICE - Oil after each emptying of basket.

Love it. I burnt up 2 smaller shredders in the last 3 years. This one seems to be much more durable.

I bought this to replace an Executive shredder that ended up not being able to shred more than 3 sheets at a time. This shredder is amazing; it comes with disposable bags so you don't end up with shredded paper all over the floor while trying to hold open a garbage bag... It does what it says, 17 sheets at a time. It has two safety features; one is that if your hands touch the metal anywhere near the opening it stops. Second is that it has a cover that slides over the opening for shredding DVD's so the sharp plastic doesn't kick back out. I also bought extra oil although it does come with a small bottle. I ordered this from Amazon and not one of the "affiliate" sites. Free shipping was worth it because the box is neither small nor all that light weight. It ships in its original box, which may appear mangled when it arrives but the packaging protected it perfectly.

I would encourage ANYONE in the market for a shredder to first identify WHERE the machine is to be placed! If you want something "cute" and compact, then, keep looking. This SB-97Cs is a work horse, in every sense of the word. Consequently, it may not appeal to one's feminine traits. Although the size can be a bit formidable for home use, it's power and relatively quiet operation set the standard for all others. I was surprised at just how quiet it was! The controls are easy to master, and the safety features are good to have for the occasional inquisitve child. Having had a lessor (un-named) shredder, I knew that my shredding needs were beyond the waste-paper-basket sized machines for less money. Being one who regularly shreds credit card "bait" checks, and other sensitve info that accumulates through the years, this SB-97Cs shredder was a must have. I doubt that I'll outgrow this machine. I've had this shredder for only a couple of months now, and I expect to have it for many years to come. It IS NECESSARY to oil the cutters after each full basket, though. If you are the disciplined and conscientious type, this is not a problem. However, I can see the lifespan of this machine being cut short by the negligent types who don't read instructions...