Home > Consumer Reviews > Fellowes 32057 Powershred P-57Cs Shredder

I did a fair amount of research before purchasing this shredder. The child-safe finger feature was most important to me, as was the durability. After the first few uses the plastic shield inside the shredder which ostensibly guides the shredded paper into the wastecan fell off, but the functioning of the shredder doesn't seem to be affected. Aside from this minor issue, the shredder seems solidly made and has been excellent--it rarely jams and when it does it's easy to clear with the reverse feature. Its recovery time is very reasonable when you're working it hard (take a break yourself, too!). It's not as noisy as my old shredder. It is somewhat messy to empty, however, since the shreds are small, but that's a good thing when you're looking to keep identity theft at bay. I was pleased with how quickly it arrived. I would definitely purchase this shredder again for moderate household use.
UPDATE: Still going strong on June 1, 2009.
UPDATE: August, 2009. Of course just after I wrote my June update, the gears broke under extra heavy use. I called Fellowes customer service and ordered a new gear kit at $18.25 including shipping. Works like new now, and I guess I'm not terribly upset given the years of service it provided before needing a spare part. My advice, though, is to follow the manufacturer's recommended occasional oiling procedure found in the instruction manual (I never oiled) in order to avoid this problem.

While it was working, I loved it, but my new shredder just jammed on perhaps three sheets, and though I got the paper out, shredded bits are stuck between the blades. I got some of them out with scissors and a knife (yes, I'd unplugged it first), but still...the motor's jammed, and nothing's going in or out.

Contacted Fellowes CS today; if there's a good outcome, I may up the star rating on this product.

Update 1/23: Fellowes will send out a replacement shredder. I'm happy about Fellowes customer service, but I see I can't up the star rating. Thinking about it, since this rating is for the shredder itself, it should probably stay at 2. If this hadn't been advertised as having a capacity of 8, it would be fine--but buyer beware! Don't try to shred more than about 3 sheets at a time.

Update 1/29: The replacement arrived in good condition. Now that I know to stick to 2 sheets--3 at maximum--I think it will serve me fine. But remember--don't even think of putting 8 sheets through this thing. (It's still a pretty decent price for a 3-sheet-capacity machine if you're getting it at the discount--but not worth it if you're paying full list.)

Update 3/2: Still working fine, still shredding only 2 sheets at a time.

Update 2/1/09: Still working fine after a year. I feel comfortable doing 3 at a time, but no more. I wonder how long this'll last?

I had 7 years of documents/financial statements at home and wanted to get rid of them.
This little fellow did a fine job taking care of that.

A couple of points:

- The sensor was a bit annoying. A lot of the statements are folded and with the sensor on, the machine would stop a few times until I wiggled the doc. So I turned the sensor off.

- It would get hot after a few minutes of constant shredding. The first time I used it, I think I went on 10 minutes of constant shredding. It was running a bit slow, so I decided to put some oil. When I came back with the oil, it wouldn't turn on. I had to wait half an hour for it to cool down and decide to work again.

- I generally shred 2 or 3 pages together. It works perfectly. It has a hard time shredding more than that.

Overall, it's an excellent bang for your buck (if you're just shredding your personal statements). If you own a business and need to shred a lot of documents, I would recommend a more robust one.

For the $$ this is the best home use shredder. I tried store brand and they broke. This one is relatively quite and strong enough for all those credit card applications I get in the mail. Make sure you do not let the gum-backed "sample" credit cards go through though.

Fellowes makes one of the better "confetti" paper shredders in this price category. It's certainly not perfect; but I have used this paper shredder for a while now and overall I have been satisfied. In this price category this is about the best you can get.

But make no mistake about it--this machine by Fellowes shreds lots of things rather well--many less expensive models simply cannot shred credit cards or handle staples. This one can. Some people may say that a shredded CD makes a mess in the wastepaper can directly below the shredder; but I have not found this to be the case.

I also like the way you can dispose of things using the receptacle in the front of the machine; and the reverse feature does a good job at removing paper jams. It even has a feature that stops the shredder automatically if it senses hands too close to the machine when operating--that's a wonderful feature if kids are running around in your home!

Fellowes says this can shred up to 160 pages in one day, but it works at its best when you're shredding less than that, I would say. Shred roughly ten to twenty pages at a time; and then shut it off. Wait a few minutes before shredding more documents if you're doing a large job. This is a disappointment; but again for the price it's still pretty good.

One other thing that disappoints me is how the shredder wastepaper basket seems to fill up rather quickly. I suppose that the shredded piece of paper leave room (and air) between them and the air simply takes up the space between the shreds of paper. I guess that would be the case with any shredder. It also seems to slow down after ten or twelve pages have been shredded. Oh, well.

Overall, for routine everyday use this really is a fine shredder. You'll have to be patient with it when you have large amounts of things to shred; but again in this price category you won't get much better.

Four stars.