Holiday Gift Guide: Fellowes Powershred 73Ci Review

Still looking for those end of the year gifts, or perhaps a little extra something to start the New Year with some safety and security. Earlier this month we introduced our readers to the new Fellowes Powershred 73Ci. Here are our thoughts and opinions after putting the cross cut shredder through its paces.

Here are some of the features:

• 100% Jam Proof System that eliminates paper jams and powers through tough jobs
• Proprietary Energy Savings System which maximizes shredder energy savings 100% of the time – both in use and out of use
• Capacitive touch screen controls
• Heavy-duty Cross-Cut blades that destroy a single sheet of paper into 397 particles, making it nearly impossible to piece back together yet tough enough to cut through credit cards, paper clips, staples, and CD/DVDs

The first thing you'll notice after grabbing and opening the box is that this shredder is a monster. Thanks to its heavy-duty motor it carries a little more weight than you'd really expect. Don't let that stop you though, it comes equipped with wheeled waste bin that allows you to easily maneuver the machine around the office and makes waste collecting a snap. Inside the box are the shredder, waste bin, machine oil for the gears, four metal swivel casters (which will need to be attached), recyclable bags, and an instruction manual with basic usage details.

The setup is pretty straight forward. Start by attaching the casters, which fit snugly onto the bottom of the bin, and snap in so there’s no need tool. Of course, you can also leave the wheels off, but as mentioned this thing is rather heavy so the casters make it easier to maneuver.

Once the casters and bin are in place, hoist the beefy top onto the bin and that is it, you are now ready to shred. Just flip the power switch on the back and plug the unit into any AC outlet. The front touch panel comes alive as blue LEDs show off the power button, forward and reverse keys. To start shredding, all you have to do is just insert some paper straight in and let go. This thing is rather powerful and can chew through stacks of paper in no time.

In our testing we tested the claims that it could shred up to twelve sheets of paper, we even tossed a few DVDs and Credit Cards at it. The motor seems to have a couple stages, when shredding a light load is seems to run slow and quiet and then a second stage kicks in when shredding heavier loads. Running a DVD through doesn't seem to slow it down at all. Though we did noticed a bit of a slow when processing several sheets of fairly dense paper, but it never jammed up.

The Powershred 73Ci is equipped with SafeSense Technology, which stops shredding when hands touch the paper opening. However, the intake area has a sloped recession and is rather deep, so it seems really unlikely that the feature would ever be put to the test, even by a child.

My final thoughts and opinion

Keeping personal information safe these days is a must! We see reports almost daily about how prevalent ID Theft is. For anyone looking to step up their protect, either at home or at the office Powershred 73Ci is a powerful option. I personally like the fact that I can shred optical disks and Credit Cards with a breeze. I know in my own life I've all to often forgot how much personal information or pictures a DVD might contain. So adding that extra level of protection is a necessity for me these days.


The 73Ci is available at office superstores and their online counterparts for a suggested retail price of $199.99. For more information on keeping your personal identification secure this holiday season be sure to follow @FellowesInc and hashtag #IDSafetySeason


This post was created in partnership with Fellowes. All opinions are my own.