This post brought to you by Fellowes. All opinions are 100% mine.
Although my ID hasn’t been stolen, my husband’s debit card number has been stolen twice in the past few years – once at a fast food place and once at an outdoor ATM that someone had put a skimmer on. Luckily, the credit union was on the ball and recognized some questionable purchases before they got through in both cases. So you can understand that I’m very concerned about all the pre-approved offers that show up in the mail daily, bills, and other personal information that could fall into the wrong hands. I’ve had various shredders before, but most of the ones I had cut wide, long strips that could easily be reassembled by a determined thief. They were constantly getting jammed, and I was afraid I’d lose a finger trying to dig out all the clogs. I was very happy to be selected to try out the Fellowes 79Ci shredder when one was offered to The Gadgeteer. No more jams sounds great! Click on any of the following pictures for an enlarged view.
The 79Ci is a large shredder. It’s 21.50″ x 12.75″ x 15.38″, and it comes in a couple of easy-to-assemble pieces. The shredding head is shown above. There’s a master power switch on the back, and another power switch on the front. The exterior of the shredding head is made of silver and black plastic.
Flip the head over to see the shredding teeth. The 79Ci is a cross-cut shredder for extra security. Your documents will be cut into 5/32” x 1-1/2” pieces (classified as Security Level 3). That’s small enough to deter anyone from trying to reassemble your information – except perhaps Abby from the NCIS TV show. 
The 79Ci is heavy enough that you’ll appreciate the included casters. They snap into the bottom of the collection bin easily, but they do require a little effort to get them in – just enough so you know they’ll stay in place. You also get a bottle of Powershred® Shredder Oil & Lubricant for periodic maintenance to extend the life of the cutters. There’s also a few Powershred® Waste Bags for Professional and Deskside Shredders to get you started.
Assembly is very easy – you just snap the shredding head on the collection bin, remove the tape holding the pull-out door closed for shipping, and put in a collection bag. The 6-gallon bin will pull completely out of the shredder cabinet, but the collection bags will make emptying much faster and cleaner.
The PowerShred 79Ci is designed for personal use, and, as its name suggests, it’s a powerful shredder. Fellowes designed the first personal shredder back in 1990, and they’ve stayed at the forefront of technology to make personal shredders better and safer. Shredders I’ve had in years past were noisy, messy, and easy to jam. It seemed that a wrinkled paper was enough to make some of my old shredders jam with the papers half-way through. The 79Ci is designed to be 100% jam-proof. You can send 14 pages through this shredder, and it just eats through staples and paperclips, too. There is a sensor at the throat of the shredder that measures the thickness of the stack of papers and a lighted guide on the right side of the shredding head that shows green or yellow when the stack thickness is okay or red when the stack is too thick. You’ll know before you start feeding it through if the stack is too thick. I tried shredding some papers, and I made sure I had some paperclips in my stacks, too. Everything fed through with no problems, and the paperclips went through without even causing a change in sound. And speaking of sound, Fellowes uses their SilentShred technology in this shredder. As the paper was being shredded, the 79Ci made less noise than shredders I’ve had in the past as they idled. This quiet operation will be especially appreciated by your officemates if you place one of these by your desk at work.
I did try to send through a stack of more than 14 sheets to test the Fellowes 100% jam-proof system. The red light came on, and the shredder stopped before more than 0.25″ of paper fed in. I was able to just lift out the paper with no tugging or pulling. The shredder can also sense when papers have mis-fed, and it will either turbo-power the stack through or automatically reverse it out to prevent jamming. This will make shredding much less frustrating and safer for me in the future. I will admit that I didn’t put one feature to the test. Fellowes’ patented SafeSense Technology senses when a hand comes into contact with the paper opening and immediately stops the shredder. It’s good to know that the 79Ci is designed to keep users safe from injury if they accidentally get their fingers too close to the cutting blades.
The 79Ci can also shred CDs, DVDs, and credit cards. This picture and the previous one show the shredder set up for shredding these items. For shredding papers, the clear plastic flap is to the back, leaving the teeth exposed. Flip the clear plastic bar over the teeth and use the guide slot for shredding disks or cards. The CD I shredded went through as easily, and about as quietly, as did a small stack of papers.
Here you can see the remains of my papers and my CD. The iridescent pieces are all that’s left of the CD. I like the Fellowes PowerShred 79Ci shredder. I can keep it beside my desk and roll it out to quickly shred junk mail as it comes in. I don’t have to worry about jams making it take longer to shred three pieces of junk mail than it took for the Post Office to get them to my door. And it’s quiet enough that it won’t deafen me in the process. Best of all, I know my personal and financial information – on paper or on CD – and expired credit cards will be safely disposed of.
And now, Fellowes is offering you a chance to win a PowerShred 79Ci 100% Jam-Proof Cross-Cut Shredder for yourself. The contest (the “Contest”) is open to anyone who (i) is a legal U.S. resident, and (ii) is at least eighteen (18) years of age. Employees of IZEA Holdings, Inc. (“Sponsor”), Fellowes, Inc and Participating Blogs, and their respective parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, suppliers, advertising agencies, and the families and persons living in the same household as such employees, are not eligible to participate. The Contest is subject to all federal, state, and local laws. Void where prohibited or restricted by law or regulations. To enter at The Gadgeteer, simply leave a comment for this review stating what you would shred if you won (destroying old love letters, etc – that kind of thing). Read the full contest rules and find a list of other participating blogs here. The contest ends at 11:59 p.m. EST on March 8, 2012. Ten lucky winners will be selected and will be notified within 3 days of the ending time.
The CONTEST closed. The winner will be announced soon.
Product Information
| Price: | $239.99 |
| Manufacturer: | Fellowes, Inc |
| Retailer: | Staples |
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Shred all the junk mail, credit card offers which get thicker by the day.
I’d shred my last job performance review.
This product looks awesome especially in this era of identity theft.
Thanks for a great contest.
I’d shred all the papers I can’t since my other shredder died 😛
I would shred what is left of my dignity.
Shred my tax info.
I would shred all those old docs I tried to with my old shredder that couldn’t handle it and died on me. Plus some old data discs and lots of old financial documents my parents have been hanging onto for years. I’d like to take and scan them all in and just hang on to just those things, they might need a paper copy of.
I would shred those old credit card and bank statements that are cluttering up my house!
Pottery Barn catalogs… the horror. When will it stop? If I can’t beat’em, I’ll shred ’em!
I recently bought a desktop scanner (Canon P215) and am steadily working through years of old documents–many into Evernote, some just right into the shred bin. I would love one of these instead of taking everything to the local shred business for by the pound disposal.
http://the-gadgeteer.com/
Lots of old bills and tax stuff that’s no longer good but I don’t dare turn over to the guys who go through the recycles at the curb.
Shredding makes me happy!
I’d shred those stupid balance transfer checks…
I would shred all of my old credit card statements instead of just tearing them up. hope I win.
I would shred the 10 years of financial records that I have finished scanning. Burned out 2 shredders already.
I would shred all the junk mail I get!
I’ve been a victim of identity theft TWICE and, although I haven’t been “damaged” yet, it’s probably just a matter of time the way I’ve been going. I’ve got so much stuff that should be shredded — some of it goes back all the way to 1977! The stuff includes bills, Social Security Reports, old credit cards, pension and profit sharing statements, etc. Anything that could compromise my credit history or personal identity has to go!
They make good stuff. I would love to win one, being retired, money for things like this is harder to come by.
I’d shred all my credit cards!
I would shred old credit cards and bank statements. I have old checkbook “carbon copies” to shred, too. But, those might be too thick for this shredder.
I would love this shredder so I can get rid of my old crappy shredder that I swear jams with more than 3 pages at a time. I would shred the stack of stuff that I have been putting off for a while.
I would shred all the junk mail with my name and address on it! Then, there is that pile of receipts my wife has been saving.
If I won this shredder I would shred a huge stack of coaches applications and background checks.
I’d use this to shred my old shredder …
I need to shred about 20 years of credit card bills!
credit cards, cd’s with sensitive files and credit card offers would be tops on my list.
my last shredder was an absolute dog that would choke on a piece of tissue paper. it would be nice to shred at home rather than bundling up my sensitive items to shred during my lunch break at work!
I would shred bank statements.
I am currently in the process of digitizing most of my files and this would be a fantastic way to dispose of the paper files! Thanks for offering this great contest!
I would replace my10+ year old Fellows shredder
Retirement was easy, UNTIL my girlfriend retired, too. Now I’ve been tasked with cleaning out my file cabinets, one drawer per day. I’m finding that Theodore Sturgeon was correct; 90% of everything IS crud! I have BALES of stuff to discard, and the bulk of that has too much identifying data to toss indiscriminately.
Left NYC for a quieter country life and need to shred decades of paper that are the final relics of the old city life. Didn’t think we had so much and the old shredder keeps choking. I guess in the country we could always burn it…talking about the paper 😉
I would shred a copy of the movie “Alone in the Dark”. I tend to like gaming films, but that was just a pile of crap. LOL
I would shred the American Girl catalogues we keep getting since our girl was born.
I would shred every single piece of college mail in sight.
Shred all humans!
Or, maybe just all those applications for more credit cards. Yeah, like I need to get further in debt.
My mortgage in a scant 27 years!
Shows you how much confidence I have in this shredder!
Excellent review.
Also, my last one died a very loud and painful death just 3 weeks
ago! It lasted 9 months!
I’d shred the box of old financial documents that I’m slowly bringing into work to shred in the mail room – and I jammed THAT shredder once!
I would shred the boxes of receipts from tax years past, the many mixed CDs past lovers have made me and the insane stack of junk mail that I cannot seem to stem arriving at my door. All this and many other things would be shredded to make funfetti to constantly fling around the house so I can have a ticker tape time whenever I feel like it.
I would shred the manual that came with my Swingline Shredder!
I would shred all the credit card offers, credit card convenience checks, and other junk mail. Considering making fire logs out of the leftovers. At least the junk mail could be useful in some way, and there’s a sense of satisfaction in burning it.
I would shred everything that would fit into the slot! Ok, not metal or solid wood products…. or food items…. I guess not leather or rubber things… glass probably wouldn’t work in there either. Ice is out of the question. So that leaves only paper.
I’d shred lot o’ paper!!!
Thanks for the contest opportunity “The-Gadgeteer” 🙂
I get a lot of junk mail and I also save all my old utility bills, so I have a lot of items with my address I need to shred. My current shredder does 5 pages max, so this would certainly cut down on the number of hours I spend shredding.
During our move (2 years ago) we boxed all of our old tax records. They are sitting there. Waiting for a good bonfire or a better shredder option.
Old paper bank statements…. actually any paper statement!
My cats are always in favor of shredding and so am I!
I would shred EVERYTHING paper! Junk mail, balance transfer checks, credit access checks, old tax records, old utility bills, old data discs that are outdated but might have sensitive crap on them, newspaper for the compost bin!
My current cheap-ass shredder jams a lot and just doesn’t do a great job.
I would shred all of the paper things I don’t think I need any more–you know, 15 year old bank statements, credit card offers, pictures of me when I was fat, or had on an ugly shirt. Maybe a picture of me looking at a 15 year old bank statement detailing the purchase of an ugly shirt I still have…too bad the shirt won’t shred.
I’d use this to shred things like credit card offers, ATM receipts, and those convenience checks that credit card companies send you.
old receipts
I would like to win this because there is a lot of papers my husband has to go through and shred. I would also like to help my mother in law shred her papers she has to go through also. We have almost a whole garage full of her stuff!
All (me and my husband) have is a dinky small tiny shredder in our room. There is one in the living room the mother in law bought but it still doesn’t compare to this fellows. I would love to win this!
What I would shred specifically is my mother in laws papers, which are like bank statements or whatever from like over ten years ago probably! My husband has probably the same thing. Papers basically that he doesn’t need to keep from years ago!
We have a huge box of junk mail that we need to shred.
I have paperwork from 1980 that I need to shred. I’ve tried to tackle it with scissors, but made my hand sore for days.
I’ve tried to go to paperless billing where it’s offered, but still get some bills in the mail along with junk, so I shred whatever I don’t keep for records.
The shredder we have says it’ll handle 10 sheets at a time, but in reality chokes on three, so we could use a new one, lol…
I’d shred old financial giving records at church that have been scanned.
All of my really old checks
I would shred all my junk mail.
I would go collect all the justin bieber cd’s i could find and shred them..then shred the shreds. Then melt the shreds down, make more justin bieber cd’s and shred those. Oh, and i have a whole mess of old tax returns and bill statements that i would love to shred….i usually burn them but i know shredding them would be awesome!!!!!!!
I would shred all my old bank statements I still have lying around since the days before I went paperless.
I would shred all of the last 30 years of tax filings, electric bills and oil bills that we have saved “in case we need them”. Then I would have my closet back!
I just opened a couple new high-yield checking and savings accounts, so I’d shred some of my banking info.
every thing with personal info.