Fellowes 79Ci 100% Jam Proof Cross-Cut Paper Shredder

The 79Ci is the smallest of Fellowes' 100% Jam Proof machines and the one most small offices end up buying: sixteen sheets a pass at DIN 66399 P-4, a 9-inch throat, a 6-gallon bin and twenty minutes of run time.

The Jam Proof designation is worth taking seriously rather than dismissing as a slogan. The system measures the stack at the throat and prevents an overload from engaging the cutters, which changes the common failure mode from a stalled head somebody has to clear into a machine that simply declines the handful. On a shredder shared by five or six people, that is the difference between a device that stays in service and one that quietly stops being used.

Key Features

• Sixteen sheets per pass on 20 lb paper at DIN 66399 P-4.
• Cross-cut at 5/32 x 1 1/2 in (4 x 38 mm, about 152 mm² per particle).
• 100% Jam Proof System, which blocks overloads before they reach the cutters.
• SafeSense technology — the machine stops if hands touch the paper entry, which matters in an office where the shredder sits at floor level.
• SilentShred acoustic design for shared rooms.
• Shreds paper, credit cards, CDs and DVDs, staples and small paper clips.
• Nine-inch (230 mm) paper entry and a 6-gallon pull-out bin.
• 20 minutes on, 30 minutes off, at 120 V, 60 Hz, 4 A.

Read the excluded materials before you buy for a specific job. Fellowes lists adhesive labels, continuous form paper, transparencies, newspaper, cardboard, large paper clips, laminates, file folders, X-rays and plastics other than credit cards and discs as materials this machine will not shred. The large paper clip exclusion catches people out: small clips are fine, binder clips and heavy-gauge clips are not.

Specifications

Sheet ratings are Fellowes' figures for 8.5 x 11 in, 20 lb paper at rated voltage. Fellowes describes the acoustic design as SilentShred but publishes no decibel value, so no noise row is shown.

What's in the Box

Shredder with 6-gallon pull-out bin and power cord. Fellowes specifies its own non-aerosol vegetable-based shredder oil, part 35250, and asks that the machine be oiled each time the waste bin is emptied. Aerosol lubricants must not be used in any shredder.

Who Should Buy This — and Who Should Not

Buy the 79Ci for a small office, a reception area or a home office that needs a capable machine rather than a token one. Sixteen sheets, twenty minutes and a materials list that includes cards and discs cover almost everything a small business generates, and SafeSense makes it defensible in a space where people walk past it all day.

Do not buy it if the bin will be the bottleneck. Six gallons is small for a sixteen-sheet machine and you will empty it often; the 99Ci offers 18 sheets, a 9-gallon bin and a 40-minute run time in the same product family, and for most buyers weighing the two it is the better value. Do not buy it if a policy names P-5 — the Microshred 225Mi is Fellowes' micro-cut answer at roughly 24 mm². And if the machine will be fed all day by a department, the continuous-duty Powershred 125Ci is the right class of machine.