<p>The motor on my shredder has apparently burnt out after a couple of hours of solid use. The thing was never all it was cracked up to be. It said that it would shred eight sheets at once but it used to whine after about 3. Any recommendations for a reasonably priced shredder that will hold up for personal (non-commercial) use?</p>
<p>After going through three cheap shredders in a year, I finally bought a Fellowes PS 77C for around $179 about six months ago- it’s fantastic. I shred everything and it eats through anything, including credit and key cards. I have yet to jam it.</p>
<p>We also have a Fellowes brand shredder. It’s pretty forgiving and hardy…can’t remember what we paid (it was about 3 yrs ago), but we got it at Costco when they had one of their coupon sales going on.</p>
<p>I actually asked for a new shredder for Christmas, but I guess no one was listening. Due to identity theft, I’ve really increased the amount of papers I shred, and need something that is a little more efficient.</p>
<p>The one I have now says it shreds up to six pages, but if I put anything more than two-three in, I cross my fingers.</p>
<p>With the better shredders mentioned above, would you put something through it that has staples in it? Would you put all those credit card offers that come in the mail in it, unopened? That’s what I want.</p>
<p>Mine goes through staples as if they aren’t even there. I never remove staples now. I routinely put the junk mail envelopes through unopened. By the way, the $179 was Canadian, so it probably was less in USD.</p>
<p>Fellows are pretty good as are the more heavy duty Staples brand. You get what you pay for though and at less than $200 you will not get a unit that holds up over time. The Fellows and Staples brand units I use in my office and at home will eat stapled papers and credit cards all day. My office unit cost in the high $200 low $300 range and my home unit cost about $179-$200.</p>
<p>Sounds like I need to watch the Costco flyers for a sale on the Fellows, then.</p>
<p>I can’t believe I’m actually excited about getting a good shredder.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone.</p>
<p>Thanks! I appreciate it.</p>
<p>We love our Fellows. Best price was on Amazon. Free shipping and no tax…</p>
<p>“Recommendations for a sturdy shredder?”</p>
<p>For a $100 or so you can adopt a young cat: very sturdy and can shred anything, but requires a monthly maintenance fee.</p>
<p>bunsenburner - but it would cost us so much more in the long run, as I’m the only family member that is not seriously allergic to cats. We’d have too many visits to the ER!</p>
<p>Problem is very few of us shred our daily mail daily, which most shredders can handle. We save up a huge pile of paper and then go to work. After about an hour of use the average shredder gives up. </p>
<p>(I tried to shred about 13 years of accumulation before we moved! 
)</p>
<p>I just glanced over and I have a fellows also. It has been running great for probably 10 years. Only does 4-5 sheets at a time so it was probably the low end - but goes and goes…</p>
<p>NJRes, that’s what backyard bonfires are for 
Of course I was just kidding about the cat, but mine is a very good shredder. We also have a Fellowes (got it from Costco; it is one of the more expensive models and works great). The nice thing about Costco is their greast return policy.</p>
<p>We have a Fellows - one of the more expensive units. It works great for maybe about 10 minutes and then the motor overheats and shuts down. It is fine again when the motor resets after about an hour. Ten minutes of operation sounds like a lot but a shredder operates pretty slowly and 10 minues doesn’t do that much - maybe the equivalent of a quarter ream of standard paper.</p>