Fellowes M-8C Cross Cut Personal Shredder

Short version: a terrific shredder that powers through the pages with no trouble, and can even shred your credit card. I paid just £39.95 and it is an absolute bargain which will save me untold thousands compared with my previous reckless behaviour. I had around 800 sheets to shred and this shredder powered through them.Longer version:I have files and files at home - bank statements, insurance, tax returns - plus lots of work crap from the endless cycle of meetings. Every couple of years I have a major tidy up, filing new stuff and clearing out anything old. That creates a big pile of paper which I used to throw in the recycling. Yes, I was one of THOSE people, who can't understand how their identity got stolen and wants to blame the bank for their own incompetence. In short, I was a bell-end.Thankfully, it never happened. I got away with it and it's time to shut the stable door with the horse still inside.Shred everything. Don't worry about deciding whether or not something contains personal information, just shred the lot.Just before I stopped being a bell-end, I though 'I bet a proper shredder is going to cost quite a bit, maybe I shouldn't bother.' What a pillock.I paid £39.95 for a highly rated shredder, and the other customers are spot on - it does a proper job and is a true bargain. It is basically a shredder unit sat on its own bin, although it looks a lot nice than that description suggests.It claims to take up to 8 pages or 70gsm paper. As a keen reviewer I couldn't resist testing it to the limit. I got to 10 paper of 80gsm with no trouble. It really struggled on 11 pages and I had to jig backwards and forwards a bit to get it all down.After 5 minutes of action it will give itself a 30 minute break to cool down. Five minutes will get you through several hundred sheets, so it is plenty of time. Also, it is sensing the temperature, so the 5 and 30 minutes are approximate - it will stop when it is too hot, however long it has been going, and restart when it thinks it is ready.My 11-page test made it need a rest, which seemed only reasonable.Safety-wise it covers all the bases - master on/off switch, a lock switch, and then a forward / neutral / reverse switch. So to get it going from scratch that is three switches. HOWEVER, you can then leave them all on and it will sit there waiting to detect paper. Or your cat's tail.So don't do that. Move it into neutral then use the lock switch.It has one more safety feature: if you lift the head off the bin, it will cut out. It has a recessed pressure switch so that it knows if it is on the bin. Obviously you'd put it in neutral first before lifting the head off. Probably.Pricing:The Amazon price for this shredder has ranged between £39.99 and £70.04 in the past 12 months, with about 60% of the time at £39.99. If it is higher than that as you read this, add it to your wish list and check back regularly.It is delivered in its branded box with no Amazon over-box, so bear that in mind if you are buying it as a gift. Wait, why would this ever be a gift?Anyway, top notch, 5-stars, would buy again in a heartbeat, etc.

This is the best shredder we have ever bought. Well worth the extra money. Shreds quickly into confetti-type pieces and never jams, as long as you follow the instructions.

Fellowes M-8C Cross Cut 8 Sheet Personal Shredder for me personally was a good purchase and one which we needed for a long time especially in today's world where not even your own bin is sacred to the nosy parkers! I bought this mainly because my last shredder was of the same make and it did give us many years' service.The Fellowed M-8C Cross Cut Shredder does works well but for me the 8 sheets which the makers promise must be of a cheap quality paper as I tried 8 sheets of normal quality printing paper and it totally jammed up. I hit the reverse button and it worked OK but I had to get a long thin object and slowly unblock the sheaf of papers which was stopping the shredder from doing its job. I actually would recommend if the quality of paper is of the cheaper thinner kind yes it will take the eight sheets as promised but if you are using the better quality thicker paper no more than five sheets is more its limit.I do actually like the shredder as it is not overly noisy compared to my last one and it works very well shredding the paper to undistinguishable small shreds of paper. If constantly shredding your papers the Fellowes M-8C Cross Cut will work continuous for five minutes then at this stage if the blades are hot a red warning light will turn on it is recommended for the long life of your shredder stop shredding and therefore to turn your machine off to allow the shredding blades to cool down.It is recommended by Fellowes to oil the blades using their own oil Fellowes Shredder Oil 355ml each time you need to empty the paper bin, for me I actually do a zig-zag of oil over a sheet of paper then shred this paper therefore the oil is coating all blades without soaking the blades. Everyone has their own way of doing this and how often they do it is up to their own shredding needs. I actually use this Swordfish 240ml Shredder Lubricant Bottle and find this works very well and I have also used the Aurora SP1000 Shredder Lubrication and Sharpening Sheets (Pack of 12), I do like the sheets as they are convenient to use and I do find they work very well plus keeping the shredder blades in a good sharp condition. I find even using the sheets once a month for the good condition of the blades a very good idea as I found the blades even after five years of use still producing good shredding results until the actual machine slowly give up and ceased to work.One reason I do like is the actual design of the shredder as it has a darkened window on the side which shows you how full the actual bin/container is without having to lift the actual top of each time you want to check how much paper there is in the plastic bin. It is a nice shape and sits neatly in a corner and with nice rounded edges it does look good as well as being a good working model makes this a good purchase for me personally.While using the shredder I did not find the actual machine overly loud compared to other models I have tried plus the fact there is a safety lock which is discreetly positioned at the front, I always have this on even when I unplug the shredder which I always do as having children constantly in and out of the house I am terrified of them being injured. This lock works well and because it is discreetly designed there is less chance of the child realising this must be released for the shredder to be switched on for using. Also the on/off button is positioned at the top so both these must be used for the shredder to work which makes it even harder for a child to turn it on, even because of this safety device I still unplug the machine when not in use.I would recommend the Fellowes M-8C Cross Cut 8 Sheet Personal Shredder as a good purchase for the home or even a small office as it does work well but it will not take big piles of paper and it does slow down if there is more than 5 sheets of paper this is the only reason I took one star of the actual rating but this is easily overcome by keeping a close eye on the amount of paper which is being shredded at any one time.

The shredder worked alright for one day and then became clogged whilst only shredding two sheets of paper. I put it into reverse, a process which I have used with other shredders but it then became jammed. The shredder is designed to only work in forward motion when activated by a sensor which means that when it is jammed there is no way of getting it into forward motion to clear the jam. It works in reverse but will not go forward. The slot is compacted and I can not clear it with any suitable tools. I have returned the product.

No smell, great shreadability,easy to use, good quality cut