Customer Reviews

Fellowes MS-460Ci 100% Jam Proof Micro-Cut Shredder (32406)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a very nice shredder. Purchased for home office use it is probably not stressed too much so I cannot really comment about durability to any great extent, but in terms of power, features, and size, it far exceeds the other shredders that we have used. It is a large shredder by home standards, about the height/width of an old full tower computer case but deeper so you do have to find a place for it. It has wheels so it can be moved about easily because it is pretty heavy duty, which is a plus of course. There are all sorts of cool features such as a sensor that tells you if you've put in too much/little paper to maximize your shredding with an 8-position LED scale. It also has a sensor bar that turns off the shredder if anyone physically touches the opening-a plus for kids/pets. One of the things I like best is the microcut style and large basket. Our last Ativa shredder was a crosscut style but the shreddings would not "nest" well in the smallish basket and it would quickly fill up and the shredder would get already-shredded pieces going back in to the teeth because they weren't falling away far enough into the bin. It was a constant pulling off the shredder to push down the clippings. This shredder experiences none of that because the clippings are so small they easily fall to the bottom of the large bin and emptying the bin is much less frequent. Some other features are that it will tell you when you need to oil it, it has a cd slot, etc., etc. It's not cheap, but after some less than stellar performances from cheaper past products, we decided it was worth it. All in all, very happy with the purchase.

Quieter than anticipated. Runs smoothly and the antijam and safety features have been tested and work quite well. I have used it enough to cause it to overheat, about 20 minutes of continuous multiple sheet feed is about all it could take, and it went into auto shutdown (with red light indicator) and cool down mode; no problem though, once it cooled off it finished shredding the sheets that were in it and was ready to go again. Only drawback is the bin is smaller than what I thought I would need, I recommend mulitplying by 1.5 your anticipated usage to have a more accurate bin size or otherwise be prepared to empty frequently. Bin full window is very handy. The auto clear of the cutters after reinserting the bin is a good feature that also keeps this machine from jamming. I highly recommend this for personal or small business use.

Based upon the specification verbage, I was disappointed in the noice level and amount of sheets this machine (MS-460Ci) is able to shred per pass. I presently have a Fellowes MS-460CS, in addition to this new purchase; which has a much lower noise level. I bought that machine over two years ago and couldn't be happier. I needed an additional shredder for another office facility and purchased the MS-460Ci because the specifications stated that it could shred up to twelve sheets per pass; which I haven't been able to do. It does however shred the paper into "micro-particles", which I am pleased with. If I had to do it all over again, I would have purchased another MS-460CS; which also has a much lower price point.

Contrary to pre-purchase ads, the 460Ci shredder is NOT QUIET. It is less noisy than my now-replaced Royal strip-shredder BUT louder than a recently acquired Sears dishwasher. Both items were advertised as "quiet". I would rate the 460Ci noise level as minimally acceptible; Fellowes failed to meet my expectations for a quiet machine (a main decision factor before buying the 460Ci).

Also contrary to pre-purchase ads, the 460Ci DOES NOT "like" paper clips. I first became aware of this factoid in the nearly content-free owner's manuel that came inside the shipping box. The manuel further states that the 460Ci will shred credit cards, CDs, and "standard staples". Other staples are NOT RECOMMENDED! (A buyer should not have to guess what this means.)

Information I needed to know for my pre-purchase decision BUT NOT PROVIDED in tech specs at either Amazon or Fellowes web sites:
Power cord attaches to top rear right of shredder.
Power cord length is 5.5 feet (no alternative cord offered by Fellowes).
Casters on bottom of shredder are removable; without them, the device
is about 2 inches shorter in height.

I got above info by phone from the Fellowes customer service center, which was friendly and helpful each time I called. After purchase, I called again for an explanation of the small black plastic box that came attached inside the much larger bin for the shreddings. Was informed that the little black box was an optional bin for shreddings from credit cards and CDs; and yes, you must remove the little box before shredding paper. Would have thought that such a requirement would be explained in the owner's manual; hence my observation that it is nearly content-free. The manual also fails to mention anything about user-required oiling of the machine.

After reading the reviews on this item several times, I finally went for it. There are a lot of shredders that are cheaper, but I was really interested in the Micro-cut. It is absolutely the best for securtity reasons. It has sufficient power. The noise level is acceptable. It is a larger shredder and it is impossible to make it where you can't hear it operating. Most of the time you are only operating for 30 seconds or less. The final reason I decided to buy it was the price. Even though it is not cheap, the same shredder at an office supply store would have run %30 more. I am a Prime member so it was deliverd to my home in 2 days just like any other Prime purchase. For my home office needs I really expect this to be the last shredder I will buy. I do not believe in shredding staples and paper clips as some models say you can. It has to have an affect on the overall longevity of the unit. I would recomend this unit to anyone who is serious about shredding important documents with maximum security. After all, that is the reason we shred our documents in the first place.

I've been needing a shredder for my home office for a long time, and not wanting to throw out confidential stuff, I've been building up quite a backlog of documents needing shredding. This helped me evaluate the MS-460Ci by running it nonstop over a few day period. Here are my impressions:

- Out of the box, it's easy to setup...really no assembly required. Thankfully, since the instruction manual is rather sparse.

- It's somewhat heavier than I thought, but fairly easy to roll around on the built-in casters.

- The size is just about perfect...any smaller, you'd be constantly emptying it, and any larger, I wouldn't have room for it.

- I find it simple to operate - just feed documents in and the rest is fairly automatic.

- The capacity is a bit less than I would have found ideal. The claim of 12 sheets per pass is based on thin (20 lb) paper...realistically, five to seven is about what I'm getting.

- The feed speed is a bit slower than I would have liked.

- The output is truly "micro-cut"...closer to powdered paper pulp than confetti.

- Unlike a few of the other reviewers, I found it quieter than expected...not much more than a quiet hum - the quietest shredder I've used.

- I was able to get about an hour of intermittent use before the thermal overload feature kicked in. Waited about 20 minutes before going again.

- The power draw seems reasonable...not enough to dim the lights (I get this with my office shredder sometimes).

- After shredding about fifty pounds of documents, I've yet to experience a single jam.

No real complaints yet except for two small things: the user manual is incredibly sparse, and I wish the bin fit standard sized trash bags rather than the somewhat custom sized bags Fellowes makes for this unit.

Overall, I'm happy with the product and feel that it's worth the price for what you get.

PROS: Originally I bought the Fellowes 3228901 Intellishred SB-89Ci Shredder. Less expensive but the strips were (to me) too large and sort of readable. Also, most irritating, because the strips were large and "fluffed up" in the bin, after a short while the "bin full" light would go on and I'd have to open the bin and press the strips down. Many times.

This shredder shreds in miniscule bits and the bin takes forever to fill up.

Also, it does take 12 sheets...at least of the copy paper I use. And...for me, it is quiet enough.

Questions: A minor thing but the "teeth" are farther down and the paper has to be put in farther to begin shredding. This is only a problem when there are shorter papers, credit card receipts, for example.

Cons: They do not tell you that it should be oiled much, much more than other shredders. And that it can jam (although almost never...and easily rectifiable, if you know what to do). The mechanism for clearing is to alternate the right/left arrrows that are on the outer circle of the off/on button. I mention this only because I had to work this through with a very impatient (rude?) customer service rep who kept saying "push the left/right arrows on top of the machine." Well, they were on the "top" of the machine....but in the bottom right corner and, because the tiny arrows are simply raised on a silver semi-circle, they are virtually invisible.

A very poorly conceived, not detailed, instruction book with lots of missing, necessary information.

Poorly selected, poorly trained, customer reps...okay, rep.

I bought my Fellowes 460Ci shredder in August 2010 to replace another brand and model I've had for some years, that I've never liked. I've had at least 5 previous shredders in all. All the previous models had their various short comings... mostly they were poorly designed in one way or more. As I've wised up on paper shredders over time, I've come to realize, to get the one I really want, I have to pay more.

I love how quiet this model is, and it has all the features I need and want. I'm very pleased with it so far. The first day I used it, I filled all the bags that came with it. However, it quickly dawned on me that instead of throwing the bags out, I could just dump the shredded bits into larger containers and reuse the bags, until they wear out. No point in bagging the bits if I don't need to. I take the larger containers to the recycle place about once a month.

I use my shredder at least once a week. I wanted one that was quieter, more secure (confetti cut), had a larger waste basket that isn't mesh (mesh ones are terrible as they shed dust everywhere), was more efficient (handles more sheets), and has wheels to move out of my way, since I have a small office. However, all the features I wanted seemed to be out of my price range, until I found this one. Also, I think the price of them has come down over the years. Might be the recession tho.

If you want your shredder to work at maximum efficiency, it's essential to oil the blades often! The blades need oil to keep from jamming up. The directions don't say how often to do this (no shredder I've had before even mentioned oiling as being necessary, but it is), and as there isn't a counter on the machine, I really don't know how many papers I'm putting through it in an hour. So, to be on the safe side, I just oil it every hour, if I'm doing a lot of shredding. Also, I recommend you stop shredding before the motor gets too hot, and let it cool down. This takes about 30 mins. You really don't want to burn the motor out. If I haven't used my shredder for a while, I oil it again before I begin using it again. You can buy oil at any office supply store or online. Buy it in bulk to save money, if you plan to do a lot of shredding.

I've gone through many shredders in the past 8 yrs; it actually equates to more than one a year and I haven't been "cheap" in my purchases. When my last one fried I unfortunately was in a position that I had to replace it quickly. I investigated many options and even read up and Consumer Reports. I do believe this will be the best investment I've ever made in a shredder. The only negatives for me is that I think the safety features are a little *over-the-top* as it's quite easy to disable the machine unnecessarily. In my opinion, it's also quite a bit heavier than I would like but both those issues are nothing when considering the job it does. However, if you're someplace where there are small children around, I'm happy to say that I do believe they'd be absolutely safe even when turned on as it's difficult to roll on a carpeted surface and is very difficult to tip over as well. The item seemed to me a tiny bit pricy at the time but since then, in the realm of today's shredders the cost is actually quite modest. The "Micro Cut" is just that and in being so you can shred a little more than 2 reams of papers before needing to empty it and unlike shredders of old, there's no mess to deal with when you do empty it. It's quite convenient.

This is a totally great shredder. Super quiet, a fellowes (I have always had really great service from Fellowes), and shreds a standard piece of paper into like 3,000 pretty much rice size shreds. The no jam feature is great. Be sure to buy Fellows shredder oil. You need to oil once per bin full of paper, which is a lot of paper. The amazon price of about $300.00 on a $600.00 shredder and free shipping is totally great. I could not be more pleased!