Customer Reviews

Fellowes PS80C-2 Shredder

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The PS80C-2 was my second shredder, and a replacement for a smaller, older Fellowes shredder.

The PRO's: 1. Compact desing fits neatly in home/office; 2. Noise level is reasonably low - typical of cross-cut shredders; 3. Properly maintained (oiled and cleared) it is capable of cutting many thousands of pages of plain paper with minimal hassle.

The CON's: 1. As corroborated by another reviewer below (and in spite of manufacturers claims) this model will jam if loaded with more than about 2 standand business envelopes or 4-5 sheets of typical 20lb paper at a time; 2. Thermal protection for the motor makes sense, but is annoying as it will shut this machine down for about 30 minutes after only 10-15 minutes of near-continuous shredding; 3. "Heavy-duty" shredding (items other than light-weight plain paper and/or extended-time use) WILL lead to recurring problems (such as "deep jams" and debris crammed into places that require lengthy and painstaking extrications with tweezers and need-nose pliers) and even the potential for the destruction of critical plastic components such as guide teeth and cutting-cam housings (which would presumably be fabricated from METAL in a more expensive unit). Unfortunately, I've learned this the hard way: I've had to actually disassemble the case and remove the cutting-cams twice now to clear difficult obstructions. This is a dirty and very time consuming exercise. Worse, I've discovered that high-volume shredding of documents of various sizes/thicknesses/types can cause excessive paper chip debris to "backwash" into the motor/cutter housing, which in turn creates significant expansion pressures within this plastic housing. In my case, this lead directly to the BREAKING-OFF of nine of the plastic guide teeth which sorround the cross-cutting cams, and the SHATTERING of the plastic housing assembly in numerous key locations, including 6 of its 8 anchor points. This has rendered my 1.5 year old shredder INOP until replacement parts can be obtained and repairs made. BUMMER!

Overall, the PS80C-2 is probably about average in its price class. Cross-cut shredders seem to be inherently more "delicate" and finicky than traditional strip shredders (the added security offered by cross-cuts comes at the cost of greater restrictions on use). It seems that to obtain the ability to really shred tons of paper of all sorts for more than 10 minutes at a time without jamming/overheating requires a jump up into the "commercial" class of shredders (which start at about 3 times the price of this unit). For VERY LIGHT, CASUAL home use, this unit will probably suffice; if, on the other hand, you tend to shred everything with any personally identifying information on it before discarding, you may be better served splurging for one of the "commercial" models (#320 and higher). That's my intention.

While not an industrial strength, heavy duty shredder, this unit is perfect for a home office. It's size allows for convienient placement next to a desk or under a table. The front loading wastebasket is a great plus. One need not worry about lifting the cutting head off to empty the unit as is the case with so many other models. Operation of the unit is simple and is suprisingly quiet considering it's speed and the size of the shreads (7/32 x 4/5"). A test of the 12 sheet limit barely slowed it down.

I used this shredder at home for about 5 years, and it served me well until it broke. While shopping for a new shredder, I checked the reviews written on my old one, and was surprised how accurately the minor and major problems that I had are desribed in the existing reviews.

It may be a repetition of what has already been written, but: the main advantage of this unit which I think is the only reason to consider its purchase is that it cuts paper in quite small pieces (5/32 by 4/5 inches), smaller than the majority of other shredders in the same price range. You much more often find shredders which cut into almost twice as large 5/32 by 1 3/8" size. Clearly, the smaller the pieces, the safer is the document destruction.

The disadvantages, which one can live with but which are still annoying, is that (a) it tends to jam if you are not careful to make sure that you do not feed in more than 10 pages; unopened junk mail envelopes do not always go through. You can usually clear the jam by reversing the direction, but sometimes this does not work either. Than a screwdriver and tweezers come to the rescure... (b) if you need to shred a large amount of paper (a stack thicker than an inch), it is likely that the shredder will overheat, shut down automatically, and you will have to wait for half an hour to resume the process. The latter, however, is not a surprise cause this shredder is not intended for continous use, and it is indicated in its manual that it needs to cooldown after every 10-15 min of non-stop work. Finally, paper must be held in a very accurate straight and vertical position before feeding it into the shredder, otherwise it will fold and possibly jam.

The major problem which I encountered recently and which ultimately ended this shredder's useful life is remarkably similar to the one described by someone else: two of the plastic guide teeth which separate paper from the cutters broke, which led to almost permanent and unavoidable paper jams and to a serious damage of the plastic housing by paper debries pushed inside by the cutters. (One has to disassemble the shredder to see this housing and the plastic teeth). The only way to keep the shredder running is to manually clean the paper from between the cutters from the grooves where the plastic teeth are missing. Since this has to be done every 20 or so pages, it is not an option. In theory, this problem could be easily fixed by replacing the part with guide teeth, a piece of plastic which cannot possibly cost more than $5, or better yet, the whole plastic housing (four little internal parts). Alas, Fellowes does not provide any repair services for home and office shredders through its authorized repair centers (such luxury as repair is only offered for commercial large shredders which do not fit under a desk), and does not sell any spare parts. They actually state on their web site that their home and office products are not repairable. So, once a little plastic teeth broke, your $200 piece of office machinery goes to trash - no other options offered.

Even though this shredder served me well over the last 5 years and cut into pieces thousands of pages, I will not be buying another Fellowes shredder. Well deserved 3-star rating.

My first shredder died because I did not maintain it - they need to be oiled! But it lasted quite well so I bought the same make but with features I thought desirable. The top remains on the frame when the basket is removed - no struggling with an unwieldy power unit. It is quiet. The tiny pieces of paper take up little space and so it is possible to shred many sheets before emptying the unit. It came well packed and was easy to assemble. Rarely jams and when it does reverse fixes the problem.

I purchased my Fellowes for home use: shredding credit card receipts, old bank statements, etc. The unit received "moderate" use in our home. Certainly not heavy use.

For two years, the unit worked great. Occasional paper-jams were easily unjammed via the reverse function. Occasionally, it would take a bit more effort (removing the top and extricating the jam from the underside).

I found this unit processed 2-3 sheets of paper at a time just fine. But definitely NOT 6-7 sheets at a time. You do have to "baby it" a bit.

As most other reviewers have pointed out - these machines eventually break. The gears inside the motor housing are made of plastic - so it is inevitable. I found this to be a bit perplexing given the beefy nature of the cutting bars themselves (see photo). These bars weigh a good 5 lbs and are still razor sharp after 2 years of use. They are well-made and probably the most expensive component within these units. However, these bars are turned/driven by cheap plastic (nylon?) gears which eventually wear down or break teeth (see the photo I posted).

When my unit quit working, I carefully took it apart - cleaning all the various components as I went deeper into the "guts" of the machine. As I cleaned and aligned, I kept thinking, "I'll have this unit back in 'like new' condition when I'm finished with my little afternoon project".

Until I opened the motor housing.......

That's when I saw the large 3" gear was missing 3 teeth. No fixing that! I'd have to replace the gear.

Now comes the frustrating part: Fellowes does not sell replacement gears for their shredders - even though these would be VERY easy components to replace. I'm sure they'd much rather I spend another $100 and get a new unit, than to sell me a $0.45 plastic gear that would give my unit another 2 years of life!

Overall, I suppose two years' use may have been worth it for the price. But I am not happy that <u>all the other completely fine and functioning components of this machine will end up in my local landfill because of one, small, 3", plastic gear.</u>

CONCLUSION: Shame on Fellowes for creating an environmental mess for no good reason (other than greed).

For some reason, I have previously bought only inexpensive shredders. I treated them like they were heavy duty machines and wondered why they never lasted beyond a couple of years.
Last week when my second shredder died after two years, I decided to go with this model. I could not be happier with it.

It has a 1/3 HP motor and from my limited use so far it appears to be able to handle what I used to throw at my budget models. The motor doesn't labor under several thicknesses of paper and it can take staples small paper clips and even a credit card. So, so far so good. It comes with a 7 year warranty on the cutters and even a little bottle of oil which evidently is something your supposed to use on these things.
Seriously, this model is head and shoulders above the less expensive models, but just one listen to the quiet hum of the motor tells me that I may have a real shredder this time.

I have owned one of these shredders for about a year. I am an individual active realtor working from home and have a lot of things to shred. It has proved to be totally inadequate for my needs. I oil it very often with canola oil (per the instruction manual) at least every time I empty the receptacle bin. But it still jams very frequently. It doesn't handle the listed volume at all. You can only really put 2 or 3 sheets through at a time, and it still jams often. I have gotten the tweezers out for the last time on this shredder! Also, you can't run it for more that about 10 minutes continuously without it shutting itself down for at least 20 minutes to cool down. I just replaced it with the Fellowes C-120C. I just received it today and am really impressed with the difference. The PS80C-2 is probably fine if you don't do much volume. The design is very convenient, and it fits very conveniently under a desk. But be sure to oil it OFTEN!!

I have had my PS80C-2 for a little over 2 years. My cutterhead supposedly had a 20 year warranty. I regularly (every shredding session) oil the cutters with canola oil (recommended in the owner's manual) and my useage is well below the claimed duty rating. Recently, the unit began to jam more frequently and the shreds started exiting as a single mass rather than as loose shreds. I called customer support and they had me inspect the bottom of the cutterhead for broken or missing plastic fingers. Several were missing. Even though these fingers are an integral part of the cutterhead and the cutter head won't function without them, Fellowes claims that they are not part of the cutterhead and that they are not covered by warranty. Still worse, they are not an available part so my only recourse (according to Fellowes) is to buy a new shredder! Fellowes self-serving definition as to what is part of the "cutterhead" and what is not is at best dishonest. Don't buy a Fellowes shredder for the warranty as they will define themselves out of honoring it. I did get a couple of years of use out of it though. So, if you can get a reconditioned unit really inexpensively, it might be worth a shot as a disposable product.

My shredder jamming was getting more frequent with the passage of time, and I could not understand why. I cleaned and oiled the blades regularly. Finally, the shredder just stopped working. So, I took the machine apart to find the reason.
First, I found that the shredding blades fit into individual slots and that the backs of theses slots were closed. No place for any paper residue that gets into there to get out. The backs of the slots were packed "solid" with small pieces of paper. Consequently, any time one more piece of paper was spun into the back of the slot, it was enough to cause the shredder to jam. The only way to remove all of the compacted paper from the backs of the slots is to remove the blades completely. Very poor design!
Second, I found why my shredder stopped working. A sheet metal screw had worked loose and fallen between the drive belt and one of the gears. The little rubber belt had a hole in it and therefor was no good. Since my shredder was out of warranty, asking for a replacement was not an option. So, I called Fellowes Customer Service and asked to purchase a new drive belt. I was astounded to learn that Fellowes does not stock parts. Now I am forced to throw away a shredder that I used very little because a $5 part is not stocked by the manufacturer. I do not believe in a "throw away" way of life. I will never buy anything from Fellowes for that reason.

This is a GREAT Home/Office Shredder. It has a large capacity bin that is very easily accessible without having to lift the heavy motor and blades. Oiling it is a must however, but if you keep it maintained, it will perform very nicely for you. It is surprisingly quiet and doesn't jam very often. Even when it jams (usually because of exceeded page allowance) all one has to do is to flick the switch and remove the half-chewed obstruction. I am more secure and very pleased with this shredders performance. BTW--The shredder is much more stylish than the one pictured here.