Customer Reviews

X-ACTO Powerhouse Electric Sharpener, Black (1799)

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

 

 

It's classy, compact and does a great job of sharpening pencils to a perfect point in a jiffy.

Unlike other electric sharpeners it doesn't seem to keep grinding away until your pencil is but a nub, but stops when the exact point is reached. Also, it is an even point rather than one sided. There is no necessity for you to keep turning the pencil in order to achieve an even sharpening.

Don't bother with this pencil sharpener. It doesn't sharpen evenly (i.e. half the circumference of the sharpened graphite will still be covered by wood) and there's no auto-stop feature, despite what other reviewers may say. This thing will definitely eat pencils until they are gone.

I couldn't even get a good sharp point on pencils most of the time; usually the very tip is broken and squared off.

The 10-year warranty is great but I can't imagine ten years of crummy pencils. I'll probably switch back to Panasonic.

We had several different pencil sharpeners, all of them lower cost than this one. However, we were consistently disappointed that the sharpeners would start to clog, then they would bog down. Finally, they would not sharpen as well. After getting annoyed with poor quality sharpening, we got rid of our previous pencil sharpener and move up to this beastie.

This pencil sharpener is heavy and classy-looking. It looks professional and sturdy. We have sharpened a lot of pencils in it and it is still going strong. The cutters are X-Acto brand blades. X-Acto makes high quality blades for hobbiests, and the quality of the blades shows in the sharpening. Pencils are sharpened evenly and only until the point is precisely sharp.

When you combine the 10-year warranty with the quality of the cut and the appearance of the pencil sharpener, you have a device that anyone, executives included, would be proud to have on their desktop. Give this one to the kids and they will never have an excuse that they need to sharpen their pencils before they do their homework. This is an excellent product!

I am a first-grade teacher, and choose to sharpen student pencils to save time. I am having problems with this sharpener. It seems to bind up and stop sharpening unless I have the pencil in just the right place. It started out working well, but it hasn't lasted. I have had it just over 6 weeks. I thought this one was supposed to be the best.

Well, I have reviewed the X-ACTO Standup electric pencil sharpener, as well as the X-ACTO mighty mite electric pencil sharpener, and gave them a 5 star rating, but we didn't need that many pencils sharpened at those times. However, We are sharpening a wooden box full of fresh pencils for my sister, Mary, and she usually needs 15 to 20 pencils. The Standup electric pencil sharpener was claimed to shave the wood quietly, but it rather shaves it with a high pitched sound. But the Powerhouse doesn't. It shaves the wood very quietly, and also very quickly. I have had my Translucent Blue Unit since may, and it is still working like new. Most electric pencil sharpeners start squeaking very loudly when you take the pencil out at this age, no matter if they are empty or full, but unlike those sharpeners, the Powerhouse only squeaks when you take the pencil out, as a reminder that it needs emptyed, and it does not squeak very loud. I'm just taking a break, and getting ready to do some more pencils to put in my sister's wooden box full of pencils. Yours Truely Ian David Wiseman, The electric pencil sharpener reviewer.

I am an 4th grade teacher and this sharpener is the worst one i have ever used. It makes a terribly loud horrible noise, it breaks all of my pencil's tips and above all, it barely sharpens anything!! I am going out of my mind and wish I could find a good one.

This is my 2nd electric sharpener this year. Both of them have been X-Acto which is a name I have trusted in cutting blades, but the electric sharpeners aren't good quality. This specific model worked fine for a month and now it stops and starts while sharpening if it works at all. I have taken it apart and there is nothing trapped in the blades - it's just a poor quality machine.

This is usually a good brand. But this model leaves a lot to be desired. The sharpener may be ok for cheap pencils, but do not use it for expensive sketch, colored, and other art pencils. I used this to sharpen 3 old colored pencils and threw it away. The sharpener ruined all 3 pencils, thank goodness they were close to being used up.

The "pencil saver" feature is a joke, the shapener will "eat" the whole pencil.

For some reason there were 2 grooves on the sides (on the part that went inside the sharpner) of all the pencils I tried to sharpen. Now Im not talking a little scratch on the pencil, I have deep grooves. Making the pencils hard and uncomfortable to hold. Not to mention unsafe because of spliners! I've never had this to happen before even with dirt cheap sharpeners.

Good points:

1. Sharpens to a fine sharp point.

2. The extra long cord is very nice.

3. The unit is nice and heavy, does not slide around.

I could live with this shapener except for the grooves it makes in the sides of the pencils. And in all fairness this may be a resault of me getting a defective machine but I'm still going to get a different model.

We have only had this pencil sharpener for a few months but so far we really like it. We homeschool and use the sharpener several times daily and the pencils are nice and sharp. You can tell when the pencil is sharp so it doesn't keep eating the pencil.

Before I purchased this sharpener, I really tried to find a review by a fellow artist so that I could get an account of how it does with various kinds of pencils. I even looked on most of the online art supply stores for reviews. I didn't have any luck, so I'll make one myself for all my fellow pencil dorks...
I am an illustrator and use various pencils daily. I just got 'The Powerhouse' and sharpened about 15 different pencil types and here's what I found. Overall, it will eat an entire pencil if you let it, which is the main reason it got 3 stars. I was hoping for a sharpener with a stopping mechanism and this one does not have one. So here are some specific pencils I sharpened and the results...
The Prisma Turquoise and Staedtler pencils: Sharp small point on hard lead, large point on soft lead
Prisma Col-Erase and Very Thins: Sharp small point
Regular Prismacolor colored pencils: Large sharp point
EF/ Stanford Ebony's: Large sharp point
Various Woodless Graphite: Good sharp point
Progresso woodless colored pencils: Good Sharp Point
General's White Charcoal pencil (558): Broke inside the machine and I had to take the entire thing apart... not a bad fix though.
Hope this helps!