Are you running out of space in your home or office but still need a paper shredder to protect yourself from identity theft? If so, the Fellowes PowerShred P-58Cs might be the product you needed. This is a pretty basic shredder that was designed for use at work and in the home, especially those places that need a device that won't take up much room. Let's take a close look at this machine and see what it has to offer.
Strengths:
Heavy Duty Caster
The P58-Cs was designed to help you save space. The machine is only 9.5 inches wide so it can fit in the slim space between a desk and filing cabinet, a bookshelf and wall, and so on. The shredder isn't very tall either (16 inches), so you can find a place for it even in the most crowded work area.
This is a shredder that can destroy up to 9 pieces of paper in a single pass. (That's about 11 feet of paper per minute.) It has a 8.75-inch feed opening that can easily accommodate letter- and legal-sized documents.
The P58-Cs offers Level 3 security so it's great for shredding financial information, computer printouts, and so on. The security rating is due to this device being a cross-cut model that will reduce a sheet of paper into hundreds of tiny 5/32" x 2" particles.
Envelopes and credit cards can be run through this device for more security. Staples don't need to be removed from documents beforehand because the machine can cut them up.
Each unit features Fellowes' popular SafeSense technology that will make the shredder shut down when body parts get too close to the paper feed area.
The device is equipped with a sheet capacity selector. This will help ensure that you're shredding just the right amount every time, both boosting your productivity and reducing the risk of a paper jam. You can use the machine's reverse mode if you do happen to run into a jam.
The machine's cutting head has a great 5-year warranty.
Weaknesses:
Due to the small size of this device, it has a waste bin with a rather small capacity of 5 gallons. This machine isn't able to handle continuous, heavy-duty use both due to the waste bin size and the lack of a continuous-duty motor. In fact, the device needs a full 15 minutes to cool off after being used for 5 minutes. Paper clips, CD's, DVD's, and floppy disks can't be destroyed with the P-58Cs. This is one of the more utilitarian-looking shredders available from Fellowes. It lacks the style and pizzazz of some of their other machines, such as the PowerShred SB-125i, so this isn't the product to get if looks matter to you. The machine lacks casters so moving it around might be tricky and awkward. Although the P-58Cs has a reverse mode and sheet capacity indicator, it lacks any real dedicated anti-jam feature. Thus, you'll probably have to deal with a paper jam at some point.Overall, the Fellowes PowerShred P-58Cs is a very good shredder, albeit a basic one. It would be good for deskside use by an individual both at home and in a small office, but it shouldn't be used in an environment that needs a continuous-duty machine or by people needing multimedia shredding capabilities. But for those wanting a basic, space-saving machine, the P-58Cs should do just fine.