Seems to be a very good unit. They've put the muscle where it needs to be, in the top, where the motor and gears are. Fairly quiet and compact. Seemed to be the best value 12-sheet shredder on Amazon. But you don't need any special shredder oil - per the manual (which would ideally be posted to read before purchase):
"We recommend you oil your shredder once a month with vegetable or cooking oil (nothing petroleum based). Drizzle some oil on a few pieces of paper and feed those pages through the shredder." Aurora 31215 12-Sheet Medium-Duty Cross-Cut Shredder
I am glad I went with this shredder..I have been using it pretty hard for two months and all is well. My two year old with the best intentions jammed a large envelop into the shredder..and surprise it reversed the package back out without effort.
I needed a simple shredder for home to get rid of years of accumulated bank and brokerage statements, credit card statements and other sensitive papers which have been piling up in shoe boxes. Also for occasional use to get of this stuff in future, instead of letting it pile up again. I have heard some people want to shred stuff like junk mail, envelopes, glossy paper, etc - that seems like a silly waste of time to me, as well as wearing out your shredder and bulking up your trash.
After checking out reviews and specs on many shredders I picked this one as it had mainly good reviews,was rated "medium-duty", seemed to do what I wanted, looked good in the photos and was priced right on Amazon. Turned out to be a great choice, as it easily shreds the papers into small pieces, feeds easily, hasn't gotten jammed yet, and turns on and off automatically when paper is inserted. It supposedly will take 12 pages at a time, but I usually feed 5 or 6 to be sure it doesn't get overloaded. No problem. The shredder sits on top of its basket which is just about right size for home use and has a small window to see how full it is. I have not used it for CDs or credit cards, and probably won't, scissors can do that job easily enough. It has wheels on the bottom so it can be rolled instead of carried. I just roll it into a closet when not needed. Bottom line: I am extremely pleased with this shredder and recommend it, at least for normal home use.
The first time I used this I thought okay it's not bad. Then I decided to shred some tax information and the paper jammed on the sides (both sides). There is not release on this, so if reverse doesn't move it, there is no way to get the paper out.
I contacted Aurora via email, they called me within half an hour (very impressive) and told me to put a tablespoon of vegetable oil on the paper that was jammed in there and wait 30 minutes. I did as instructed and that did work, I was then able to use tweezers to start pulling out the paper that was stuck in there.
It now works fine, I did not overload it, it just didn't go through correctly and jammed.
One other thing - I thought cross cut meant it would shredd into tiny pieces - it does not. I cuts in short strips not tiny little squares.
I have read about this unit getting clogged. I too , clogged mine but I find that it was done by putting papers or envelopes with lables or stamps with gummed backings. I used tweezers to clear it and have had no problem since. It is a paper shredder. Use it too shred paper, nothing else! It also has slots for shredding credit cards and disks. I have not tried it for those thing. For paper it works great.
I found that because this shredder is compact and has wheels, I can stick it under my desk and use it whenever I want. The wheels make a big difference in this product's design. I've had several shredders before and they were extremely difficult to move. As a result, that made me reluctant to use them, making shredding a major chore. This shredder makes shredding easy and works very well. It also allows up to 12 sheets of paper to shed at a time. Other ones that I owned only allowed up to 8 sheets.
The Aurora UA1215XB shredder is a solid cross-cut device suitable for home use. The cross-cut doesn't confetti, rather it makes longer strips BUT it is still effective. The wastebasket is a bit small, but my 2 small kids love watching the paper fall in the wastebasket window (a good feature). Well worth the bucks. - Shredder - Home Office - Paper Shredder - Home Shredder'
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