Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Our old shredder cut paper in strips 1/4" wide, the length of the paper. Although far better than not shredding, a very patient individual could reconstruct readable documents from these strips. This shredder cuts paper into 3/16" x 1" pieces, plus the ends are angled and ragged. This makes it highly unlikely that anyone would even attempt to reassemble a cross-cut document, much less one document from among hundreds of pages of co-mingled confetti. So, if you're serious about shredding, buy a cross-shredder device. In addition to paper, this thing utterly destroys CDs and credit cards - as the pieces are 3/16" wide, but even shorter than 1".
The shredder is shipped in the factory box, with large Kapox protectors at each end, with the device itself wrapped in plastic, for more protection. Our unit arrived unscathed. It comes fully assembled. Plug it in and go. The instruction "manual" is very thin, but this device isn't complicated. Remove any glue after peeling off the label, with paint thinner - quick, and zero damage.
This shredder has only three buttons. On/off, forward, and reverse. The on-off button's green LED illuminates when it's on; this means the device is ready to be fed paper. The motor starts when it senses something in the input slot. The forward and reverse buttons are only necessary when it overloads (i.e., paper stops feeding).
Our home-office has hardwood floors, and rolling the Royal about on its four casters is a cinch. Each caster can be locked, if you want the unit to stay put. The all matte-black plastic construction is attractive. It stops working when the integral bin is full. It's simple to empty - pull the bin out with the handle and dump/recycle the chopped-up remains. The bin has to be fully inserted to resume shredding.
From an electrical point of view, this shredder doesn't even register 1 watt (on a Kill-A-Watt meter), while in "ready" status, and draws variable wattage when in use, depending on the load. E.g., one sheet of paper draws about 35 watts and a full load (chopping up a CD) draws 273 watts. Since it uses almost no measurable electricity at idle, it would seem that the principle reason to turn the device off is if small children are in the house. On that note, the feed slots are designed so little fingers can't (shouldn't?) fit - however, you never know what a kid might do.
We're very satisfied with the 160MX for our home office, but don't confuse Royal's sales-pitch of "office ready" as meaning it's OK for any office (e.g., a small business). That may not be the case because of sheet-capacity, the 10-minute-maximum run-time, and/or it's plastic (although solid) construction. Instructions say to let the motor cool for 30 minutes after 10 minutes of use at maximum capacity; however, the motor doesn't get as hot when shedding only a few sheets at a time.
As of this writing, Amazon sells shredders from $15 to commercial-grade shredders up to $5,984. That makes this device clearly aimed at the lower end of that scale - the home-owner. Royal says it takes up to16 sheets of 20 lb. bond paper at a time. We use 24 lb. Kodak bond paper exclusively, and this shredder will only comfortably take about 10 sheets of that weight paper at a time. More than that and it just stops, requiring use of the reverse button or pulling the partially shredded paper out, then re-feeding less thickness. Because of this, it's easier to just stay below the maximum when feeding it.
The LCD display is blank when off, or says "ready auto", "forward", "reverse", "bin full", "overload", or "overheat". Technically, this machine doesn't "jam", so there's no indicator for that - instead, if you exceed its capacity to pull in material and shred it, an "overload" results and the motor stops. The instructions do no mention periodic maintenance as being required.
The 5-star rating is because this an excellent choice for a home-office, and based on the competition in this price range, an excellent value. I.e., we couldn't find another model with comparable features for near this price.
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Royal 16-Sheet Cross-Cut Shredder
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