Amazon Basics 150-Sheet Autofeed Micro-Cut Paper and Credit Card Shredder, High Security Level P-4 with 8.5-Gallon Bin, 60-Minute Continuous Run Time, Black

Amazon Basics 150-Sheet Autofeed Micro-Cut Paper Shredder - I've had this from January 2022 to November 2024 so far, and it's been great. That's close to three years now, no problems. I've owned three shredders at other times before this, bought only one of them, none with all these features, and they've each eventually failed in one way or another. I use a paper shredder lubricating sheet each time the bin fills, to help preserve this machine's lifespan and keep it shredding well; these are items specifically designed to be passed through shredders to lubricate the gears and shredding teeth. You can also "do-it-yourself lubricate" the machine without having to buy such, and the instructions that come with the machine detail both ways, but I find this is the most convenient way for me. I really love the features, especially: - that it micro-shreds - the large capacity bin that holds a *lot* of shredding before needing to empty it - pulling the bin out of the enclosure (instead of lifting a heavy machine off the top of a bin and fitting it carefully back into aligned place) - the ability to shred 10 standard sheets of paper at once - the ability to place a stack of (150) sheets of paper under the pop-top, close it, and let them auto-feed though the shredder all on their own - not worrying if there's a staple (if there's more than one on top of each other, I'd pull them for piece of mind, though) - (a minor thing here, but I've used it) the ability to shred credit cards, and similar cards that come in junk mail [Don't forget to empty the bin first or place something to catch the plastic bits, to keep the plastic out of the shredded paper if you recycle it!] - (another small thing) wheels that rotate 360 degrees and roll easily -- so I can stash it out of the way, and pull it back out, just that bit more easily It's also got a number of other safety and informational display features that are nice. The price was in-line with prices for other shredders considering all its features. It makes noise, of course, but I can still watch TV or listen to an audiobook while shredding -- heh heh -- boxes of old bills and other papers. It doesn't manage to keep every shred in the bin -- just know that some are going to escape into the back of the bin enclosure and you'll eventually need to dump or sweep them out, including out of the track the bin slides in an out on. This is especially going to happen if you let the bin get *really* full to overflowing some. It also makes *some* paper dust, so if you're sensitive to that, you'll take that into account as you pull the bin out and dump it, especially when it's pretty full. This is probably universal to every micro-shredding paper shredder, though, too. *If you need to*, wear a mask and/or have a filter running right by it, or even roll it outside to empty it. Note that I'm healthy enough and this isn't really a problem for me, but it's the find of thing I'm aware of because of friends with asthma. :-) Since the shredding teeth dump shreds closer to the back, you can make the bin's capacity last longer -- that is, go a bit longer between emptyings -- if you pull the mound of shreds accumulating under the teeth towards the front of the bin before it gets to the top. If you've a pet or child who likes to walk across or swat or pat at the easy-press touch-button controls on top, be easier, knowing that there is a master power rocker switch on the back. Setting that to off turns off the top controls for safety and peace of mind, without having to unplug the machine -- which should also work. Five stars -- I'm really pleased with this purchase, and would buy it again if I had to.

I love this thing! I finally don't have weeks/months worth of useless mail and credit card offers piled up everywhere. So it is a bit larger than I expected but, I did not read exact measurements before ordering. It works very well. I typically use the top feeder vs the inside flat one, only because of convenience. It handles credit cards and very thick envelopes easily but, you should probably do really thick unopened letters one at a time. I've tested it well with things that almost to thick and the end product is still very well shredded. I really like the tiny pieces you end up with after shredded. The inside feeder is great as well but it prefers flat paper, sometimes deep folds interfere with the rollers and it has difficulty getting those pieces in. This is for home use currently, I think it would be good for business also. It has not stopped or overheated.

Since I couldn't find everything I wanted in one shredder at a good price I will do a pro ad con for this item. Paper feeders Pro: I love the stack feeder inside. I had to shred paper work that was saved all the way from the 1950's till now and I knew there would be a lot of "stacks" of tax returns and other items so I really liked the inside feeder that easily handled large stacks. Con: Not a big deal at all but if a paper was short (not standard size) the machine would stop so I could take it out and shred after. This was not a big deal but I spent some time for the most part going through stacks to make sure they were all the same standard size. Since there was a lot all one size, it was worth it. Auto shredder vs. auto shredder Pro: The paper feeder on the top is really easy to feed. I only had a couple misfeeds with some curved paper that slipped between the shredder and the lid but they were easy to pull out. Con: I can't really say it is a "con" as I knew when I bought it it did not have an auto feeder on the top. I knew it but still wish it had one for all the other sized papers. If you don't shred a lot of standard size one with auto feeder might be better but if you only shred random, it is a strong shredder and I feel was worth the trade off. Moving Pro: Easy rolling from location to location. This was great because it is a pretty large shredder and with the wheels you can easily just stash away and bring it out when you need it. My old shredder was small but heavy and I had to leave out because moving it was just a pain. Con: No real "con" her other than it is big, but that is not a bad thing. Sound: Pro: Really quiet for a shredder. I have only had one other shredder for the last 10 years but it always seemed super loud to me. I hated it. This one I sat in the living room with my husband watching TV and just shred away without really a bother. Con: I don't see a con to this. Catch Tub Pro: Large catch basin for the shredding. Not only was it large but easy to pull it out to empty it. Light weight so easy to carry all the way out front to big trash can so not to use up trash bags. Also the shredding is cut very small. I couldn't help playing with it a little it cut it so small. Con: When you pull out the catch basin, it tends to not tell you until it is pretty full. When you open it, the paper will spill some of the shred to the base inside that holds the catch bucket. Not much falls out at one time but you figure if you pull it, move paper up and put back in before dumping, each time a little paper falls to the back and then you have to scoop it up. After a few times of emptying the buck I had to vacuum it out so the tub would roll back in easy. I am not going to say this was a big deal. I don't think on average I will be doing hours of shredding so really you don't have to do this often but with a lot of shredding I would have vacuum ready. I would say 100% if you shred stacks of paper, this is great. I will be happy to have it even with out using the auto feeder all the time because the bucket is huge and it moves so easy and is so easy to empty. I really really like it.

In general I like this unit but it has a few drawbacks. 1) sometimes when you feed from the top it tries to go into the feeding area and won’t go down 2) the feeding area works with a lot of documents but it tends to not feed when you get down to the last few pages. It is huge and barely goes under a tall table. 3) it is pretty heavy but at least it had wheels. It is not a great value for the money because it is rather expensive to have these short comings not seen in a cheap shredder. It does a good cross cut and when it works right is easy to use. I don’t think it is great for home use unless you have a lot of items to shred.

Warning! Make sure you carefully stack the same kind of letter size and weight paper on the feeder. Never mix paper of different weights on the automatic feeder! Automatic feeder will take letter size paper only, never legal or any other size. In few hours after receiving the unit I shredded enough paper to fill a 55 liter garbage bag, see photo. This machine did this in less than 4 hours. It did it so quiet that my wife ask if it was on. She said, the fan is noisier than this shredder! I tested the unit with a stack of 20 sheets of legal paper through the manual feeder at once and it went through without an issue. The fun ended when a group of about 5 letter size paper, but of heavier weight, all where caught at once by the automatic feeder and something broke inside the machine and the tooth no longer rotate. Call AMAZON and now I have to wait another month to receive the replacement. As in this occasion I will have to be more careful and let the little monster, my Aurora AU820MA which I bought on 2015, to take care of all my irregular papers and chew them up while the mother, the Amazon Basics 150 sheets microcut takes care of stacs of 150 letter size sheets within minutes. Yes, the fastest I can feed my little Aurora is at about 20 to 30 sheets per full bin, while the beast will chew up 150 letter size paper and sit and wait for the little one to finish. I have to empty the Aurora after about 50 to 60 sheets while I empty the big Aurora (Amazon Basics) after 300 letter size sheets. I fill the 55 gallon waste bag of micro cut letter size paper after about 3 hours of continuous auto feed. The heat warning never light up. The lights on where to empty the bin or to remove a paper of slightly different size. There was never a warning for different weight paper until the jam that broke the unit. It was not a heavy weight paper, just the check or investment account report type of slightly thicker paper. I will report on the return and replacement. I still have over 300 pounds of letter size paper waiting for the next beast. UPDATE JULY 9th 2020 I received this shredder today at 13:00 hrs. I immediately started to shreds the over 300 Pounds of letter size paper. After 3 days of about 9 to 14 hours intervals I completed the task. The shredder never over heated. It barely went warm on our hot Caribbean weather the time I ran it for little over 14 non stop hours. I did kept adding canola oil to the gears every 2 150 sheet load and empty the basket after every 150 sheet. That save me a lot of cleaning and cleansing time. And as before, any pieces of paper of a non compatible size or weight was shredded by my old reliable Aurora AU820MA from 2015 which still is going strong for small jobs. The 300 pounds of paper filled 4 X 55 litters bags and a 30 litters one. I highly recommend this beast if used consciously. Please use about the same paper size and weight on the auto feeder. When oiling be careful just to oil the metal tooths and gears and never spill oil on the automatic feeder bed! Hope this personal experience helps!

A great paper shredder that can handle large tasks without overheating … for quite some time in a reasonably small package. Works much better than our old one, takes up less space, and does the job.

I just received this today, and it’s awesome. Being able to load 100+ pages into the feeder and walk away while it shreds everything is a total game-changer. A few years ago, I bought a more expensive Fellowes shredder that required hand-feeding, and it eventually stopped working properly. This one is a much better value by comparison. It was just delivered a few hours ago, and I’ve already shredded over 600 pages, without any issues. Highly recommend. If anything changes or performance declines, I’ll update this review, but so far, it’s been excellent.

I wouldn't recommend this one. It works fine, but there's some design flaws that make using it a real pain. My main issues with this shredder: 1. There's a bar across the bin which doesn't allow you to effectively use shred bags. I know you can just dump it, but since it's a larger bin, it would be much easier to use bags. That's not possible with this design. 2. The shredded paper falls into the back of the bin, so the back fills up much quicker than the front. By the time the Bin Full notification comes on, the back is overfilled and when you pull the bin out, a bunch of shredded paper falls out of the back. The only way to avoid this is to tip the shredder forward before pulling the bucket out. Again, it's just a pain to use. The good: It works fine. Shreds paper effectively and securely. I rarely have any issues with jams. I bought this shredder based off the great reviews, but it looks like the majority of the good reviews are about the smaller version. Most reviews of this larger version have the same complaints that I do. I will be getting rid of this one and purchasing a new one.