Best Consumer Shredder: Reviews AmazonBasics 12-Sheet High Security Micro-Cut Paper/CD/Credit Card Shredder with Pullout Basket

This AmazonBasics 12-Sheet High Security Micro-Cut Paper/CD/Credit Card Shredder is truly a bargain for what it is. It arrived double boxed and in perfect condition. First of all, this shredder is taller than other shredders I have owned standing 20.5 inches tall including the wheels (nice touch). The bin is huge and holds over 6 gallons.

best deals and special offers AmazonBasics 12-Sheet High Security Micro-Cut Paper/CD/Credit Card Shredder with Pullout Basket

Considering this is a micro-cut shredder, it will take you a while until you have to empty it! It even includes a note saying it was tested before shipping and there may be paper shreds in the container. Yep, there where shreds in there. The biggest advantage of the AmazonBasics over my old W-11C is the micro-cut feature. I've gradually upgraded from strip cut, to cross-cut, and now to micro-cut.

• The shred size of 5/32" x 15/32" (4 x 12 mm) is security level 4 rated.
• A shred speed of 6 feet per minute plus a continuous shred duty cycle of 8 minutes
• Ultra quiet operation
• A large 6.7 gallon wastebasket has a capacity of 600 sheets

A standard 8x11 page takes about 8 seconds to be shredded. Same when 5 pages were inserted at the same time. The maximum of 12 pages took a bit longer - 10 seconds. Unopened junk mail credit card offers (including plastic card) took about 7 seconds to shred. A CD took 5 seconds and a single credit card 3 seconds.

The end result was especially impressive - the micro-cut definitely outshines the cross cut Fellowes (see attached photo). Here's a breakdown of the different cut types:

• Strip cut: security level 2, 39 strips per 8.5" x 11" sheet
• Cross-cut: security level 3, 399 particles per 8.5" x 11" sheet
• Micro-cut: security level 4, 3,000 particles per 8.5" x 11" sheet

My first impression was its size. It's kinda tall and a little heavy, but sturdy construction. After using it for 2 days to shred 5 big boxes of my old bills, these are the pros and cons that I find:

AmazonBasics 12-Sheet High Security Micro-Cut Shredder Pros:

• Low noise level. It runs extremely quiet and smooth.
• Shred everything into confetti. There is no way that anyone can reassemble.
• Sturdy construction. This shredder will last for a long period of time.
• Feed up papers at an angle instead of straight down. Other reviewers said it is a flaw design, but I found that it is more for security purposes, since it doesn't have the detector to stop when you put your hand on the feeding area like the 79ci.
• 12 sheets shredding at a time as advertised.

AmazonBasics 12-Sheet High Security Micro-Cut Shredder  Cons:

• Brightly green light when turn it on. You can hurt your eyes when looking directly at it.
• Really loud noise when shredding CD. Although it shred papers and credit cards really quietly, but when it comes to CD, it is extremely loud. It kinda hurts my ears. So be careful when shredding CD with this shredder.

I am very pleased with my AmazonBasics shredder and look forward to other AmazonBasics products. This exceeded all my expectations - everything was as promised, and the bonus is it's really quiet. Looking at the specs of this compared with a $200+ Fellowes (that's not even micro cut) makes this an obvious winner.

This AmazonBasics 12-Sheet High Security Micro-Cut Paper/CD/Credit Card Shredder with Pullout Basket product earned 86 customer reviews and 96% are satisfied (as 06/02/2014). I can totally deal with cons of this shredder. The pros outweighs the cons. This is the best performance to price ratio shredder that you can buy. It does micro cuts and cost $70 cheaper than 79ci.