Fellowes LX21M 16 Sheet P-4 Micro-Cut, Heavy Duty Paper Shredder for Office, 100% Jam Proof (Black)

Nice shredder that replaces a 10 year old(?), well used, Staples Professional 16 sheet model. Just received it but pleased with design and it’s so quiet! This is for home use so a bit of overkill but as with previous Fellowes units, it will likely run for a decade. A few more good things to point out:- Bags: The unit comes with a few bin bags (online comments that Fellowes states they should not be used apparently doesn’t apply here).- Lubricating oil: This unit comes with a small bottle.- Unit is very well packaged: heavy duty cardboard box and formed heavy paper internal inserts, bagged.Some words to the wise after using many brands/models at work and home:Even if your shredder says it can handle these things, it really is best to avoid them and only feed in paper if you want the longest useful life of your shredder, even with keeping the unit well lubricated, etc. These things tend to get stuck between the cutting blades and/or are hard on the blades over time:- Labels, stickers or paper with adhesives.- Paper clips.- Unopened mail - you never know what’s inside - metal tokens, pads of paper, stickers, etc. especially from charities.- CD’S.- Don’t feed more than about half the number of sheets of paper that the unit is supposed to be able to handle.- Credit cards. Scissors work fine.

I’ve had a Fellowes Shredder before years ago and it was great. Trying to save some pennies, I bought a cheap one from Amazon Basics and it overheated and stopped working after a month. That’s what I get for not spending the extra money and investing in a REAL heavy duty shredder.I love this shredder and look forward to shredding my junk mail.A) It has a sensor that will make it stop shredding if your hand / fingers touch the slot where the paper enters. After about four seconds it will continue to shred again and will do this every time hand / fingers touch the slot. Awesome.B) If you are putting a thick amount of papers in at once a red light around the paper entrance will come on and will not shred. If you are putting in a moderate amount (not too thick , not too thin) an orange light around the paper entrance will come on and sometimes will stop and go in reverse pushing the paper out because it is a tad too much. If you are putting in the required amount for it to shred properly a green light around the paper entrance will come on. I tried putting all three thicknesses in the shredder at the same time and all three lights lit up in the corresponding areas. Awesome.C) Fellowes recommends oiling this shredder after you empty the paper bin each time. YouTube has a great instructional video on how to oil this shredder.D) It is very quiet. A triple A+ for me.E) It comes with clear instructions to follow, a small bottle of oil, and three small trash bags to put your paper in.

My company offered us an allowance up to $250 for an office supply and this is what I chose. Between junk mail, magazines and other paperwork clutter, it was piling up fast.I went through a stack of paperwork roughly 2 feet high in no time. Went through my filing cabinet and this shredder ate all of it with ease. It shreds extremely small and the bin is large enough and very easy to empty without spilling everywhere. There is a handle on top of the bin that you pull and it comes right out.Some other nice features.- The LED indicator tells you how hard the shredder is working during the current shred run. If it is easy, it is blue, medium will be yellow, medium to hard yellow/red, struggling will be red.- One of the best features is the auto shut off sensor. We have kids and are new dog owners. If a hand, paw, really anything comes within 5 inches or so towards the blades, it will immediately shutoff. I read other reviews that stated this can be annoying, but I disagree. I would much rather have this safety feature rather then someone getting hurt.- The junk mail shredding capability is phenomenal. I have now made it a habit to get the mail, shred the junk and empty envelopes, place the bills on the desk and walk away. Office has been clean ever since.It does come with bags and a little bottle of oil. I just oil it every so often before shredding so when I do shred the oil spreads around the blades.Great value and power for the money and well worth the middle of the road cost.

Fellowes is the best paper shredder brand I have had the pleasure to use. Quiet, clean, perfect!I unfortunately purchased the "BONSEN White Paper Shredder for Home Office, 8-Sheet Cross-Cut Paper and Credit Card Small Office Shredders, High Security Level P-4 Ultra Quiet Shredder with 4 Gallons Wastebasket (S3101-W)" and was unsatisfied. It claimed to be quite... it was not. The paper feeder was small, the machine was loud... Fellowes is a far superior brand in my opinion!

This shredder does a good job but is a little too sensitive (I.e. it stops if you hand even lightly brushes the top of the machine). I would have also liked the machine itself to be a little taller since you have to stoop over when loading paper to be shredded unless you are seated; and the shredded paper basket Is also on the small side (which means you have to empty it a lot more frequently)..... Overall it is a good machine but didn’t quite meet my expectations.