Just received this beast from Amazon today & couldn't wait to try it as my old one (Royal Orca) finally died after several years of faithful service & credit card checks were starting to pile up. My old Shredder was a table top model that would only shred a couple of checks at a time & I wanted something more "formidable" Well this critter fits the bill. Its intake is a full 9" so I can unfold a sheet of checks & make fast work of them. Its 7 gal basket means less trips to the garbage. Plenty of indicator lights to give it that "Gee-Whiz" look, & one feature that makes this shredder a must have for families with little children.....a safety lockout that cuts power to the shredder if little fingers are touching the intake area. A size gauge on the front is small but very handy feature so you don't overload the machine. Another handy feature is the pull out basket,makes emptying this thing a breeze. Any complaints? So far just one......the basket assembly seems flimsy, especially on carpet it seems somewhat "wobbly". Take the basket out & it seems it might collapse. The pluses far outweigh the cons so I highly recommend this item.
Pluses:
1. Shredding capabilities are all any home could need
2. A great shredder for a good price
3. safety lockout
4. Shreds credit cards & Cd's
5. Looks great.
6. Indicator lights to tell whats happening
minuses
1. Flimsy basket assembly
Update 7/20/07:
auto shutoff quit working. Major hassle to turn it on & off manually. after a couple of weeks this I e-mailed customer service @ Fellowes & explained the problem. I received an e-mail from a nice CS lady the next asking for clarification of the problem(bad sensor) she e-mailed back the next day that Fellowes was sending a new unit(at their expense) & to return the bad one in the same carton with a downloadable label(also at no expense to me). When I returned home the following week there was my new shredder on the porch. Scheduled a PU for Fed-Ex the next business day. All in all a positive experience. I wish more companies were like Fellowes.
BTW the flimsy baqsket is still going strong :o) Fellowes 32177 Powershred PS-77Cs Shredder
My seven year old Fellows Power Shred PS-80 cross cut shredder finally stopped working after I gave it too much paper (broke a gear). So I replaced it with this PS-77Cs. I noticed that this PS-77Cs shreds more quietly than my previous PS-80. Both will shred credit cards. But my old PS-80 won't shred CDs or DVD's: I noticed that there are two small points (like canine teeth) on each of the PS-77Cs' cutter blades that probably help grab and help pull the plastic cards and CDs in its shredding action.
What I don't like about the PS-77Cs shredder is that it shreds slower than my old PS-80 (probably because of the more powerful motor for shredding 12 sheets versus 5 sheets with my old PS-80). Usually, more torque = slower speed. So I've developed some patience as a result. What's a real disappointment is that the output cross cut pieces from the PS-77Cs are twice the length of my old PS-80 (1 ½"inch for the PS-77Cs versus 3/4"inch for the PS-80).
Something not mentioned in the included instructions: you can carefully flip up the SafeSense /credit card / CD slot up to more easily add the Fellows Cross Cut shredder oil. I think it gives me better control so I don't get the oil onto the safety eyes used to sense when paper is actually in the shredder slot.
UPDATE: March 13, 2010.
Yes, I still have this shredder and it still is working after all these years. It has not slowed down (although the amount of junk mail is less).
I have managed to feed it too much paper all at once but I was always able to clear the jam and more importantly, I didn't strip any gears. I've shred paper, credit cards, CDs, and it takes it all.
It's nice to see that this good shredder is still made.
After just a few weeks of use, this unit just won't stop, I've used compressed air to clean, remove every bits of paper I can see inside, still it just won't shut down. Funny thing is that although a different model, we had the same problem at work with this brand, I wonder if they have a bad design on the sensor.
Update: I called the customer support line, and I was very impressed, I got a person on the line. They offered to replace the shredder and they offered a label for free shipping of the defective one. Once I get it I'll update. Very surprisingly, I was told that I can't leave the unit on "I" all the time (where it start if it detects paper). I was told to leave it on off at all time, and only turn it on when I was feeding it paper. The tech support even told me that they recommend leaving the unit unplugged as much as possible. I found that a bit strange, why have a sensor if you have to turn it on manually anyway. - Paper Shredder - Safe Shredder - Fellowes Shredder - Great Shredder'
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