Price: $98.99
(as of Oct 27, 2024 18:16:14 UTC - Details)

An Amazon Brand.
Micro cut shredder turns paper into tiny pieces (0.16 x 0.5 inches; 4 x 12 mm); meets security level P-4 standards
Shreds up to 12 sheets of 20-pound bond paper at a time, including staples and small paper clips; 8.7-inch-wide entry
Destroys CDs, DVDs, and credit cards (one at a time). For higher security, the paper slot can be used to destroy credit cards as well.
4 mode control switch (auto/on, off, reverse, forward) and LED indicators (on, overload, overheat, bin full, door open)
20 minute runtime; 20 minute cool down; if runs beyond max run time, it automatically shuts off to prevent overheating
After 30 minutes of idle time, the shredder enters sleep mode to save power
Easy to empty 6-gallon pull out bin and casters for smooth rolling mobility
Quality tested: as part of Amazon Basics quality inspections, we test every shredder before shipping it, which means you may see some paper shreds from the testing
Please refer to the user manual, troubleshooting guide, and instructional video before use
Product dimensions: 14.5 x 10.4 x 20.3 inches (LxWxH); weighs 22 pounds
Reviewer: space-time
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Fantastic! Actually shreds into tiny pieces, unlike the warehouse club shredders
Review: Fantastic shredder! This replaced a 15+ year old Royal brand shredder that finally wore out.Well first off, my old Royal was advertised at the time as "cross cut" and it shredded into confetti. Flat little 1/4" by 1/4" squares, way too small to read any printing on. As I recall the shredder was not all that expensive back then either, probably $110 on sale at the time. So I go to my local warehouse club and buy another Royal "cross cut" shredder. I even get the $99 top-end one, not the other $49 Royal. And what do I find? Inch long strips!!! In what universe does that count as "shredded"? I can clearly read text on those strips. Long enough to view part of a bank number, or a credit card CCV code, you name it.I read up on this and discover that these days inch long strips are what you get with a "cross cut". They have now invented a new word, "micro cut", for actual shredding. Go figure. Plus now it seems that most shredders are designed to at least shred credit cards and the better ones like this to shred CDs. Maybe the old Royal could have shredded credit cards. Never even occured to me to try since that just really sounded like something that shouldn't go through a shredder.So I start reseaching "micro cut" shredders and reading the comments. Lol, from the comments it sounds like the vast majority are junk. Break easily, only do a fraction of the rated pages, arrive broken, etc. As confirmation of that I at one point had decided on a $200-or-so micro cut from one of the office supply big box stores. But comments said it rather quickly breaks down and leaves big long strips rather than micro cuts. I go to my local store to have a look, and what do I find in the bin of the one on display, along with the handful of micro cut paper? a dozen big long strips. Geezzzz. New right out of the box and already the thing is broken.While reseaching the micro cut shredders I found this line of AmazonBasics units. Reading through the comments for the various shredder sizes the number of reported problems seemed to drop the bigger (more expensive and rated at more pages) the shredder gets. At the 17 rated pages here the comments seemed largely positive, with the few negatives sounding like outliers. I knew from all the comment about various shredders I've read so far that you really should divide the rated sheet capacity on ANY shredder by 2 to remove the marketing spin. 17 sheets here should be 8 and 8 sheets does sound like about the stiffness of a credit card. If one were to be especially brave and use a 2/3 metric that woudl be 0.67 * 17 = 11 sheets, which should be about the stiffness of a CD. So I'm thinking maybe, just maybe, this shredder would do what it says it does.I ordered it and right off the bat discovered something. See those selections on the right for optional 2 or 3 year extended warranty? You can't go back and buy those after you buy the shredder. I didn't want to buy them until I knew if the thing worked. It does, so I called Amazon and can't buy the extended retroactively. I could probably return it for free to Amazon then re-buy it with the warranty, but no I'm not going to do that.Next up is the packaging. Good job, Amazon. The manufacturer in China properly put the shredder's box in an outer shipping box and let that get beat up in transit, not the shredder's box. If It had arrived without an outer shipping box, just the shredder box with a label stuck on it, I wouldn't have been a happy camper. The outer box is just barely bigger than the shredder's box, large enough for two cats to play in at once (tested). Old TV repairman's trick here for dealing with large heavy things in boxes. Don't take the shredder out of the box, take the box off the shredder. Open the box lid and turn it upside down (the top has protective foam around the top of the shredder), then pull the box off the shredder. Then flip it back around. The shredder comes with the wheels installed.As for the shredder, IT WORKS!! Just as described. The shredded paper is tiny confetti like the old Royal, although it is bent 60 deegrees in the middle. All the micro-cut shredders seem to do that now for some reason. The old Royal left the pieces flat. And yes it does shred credit cards and does it wonderfully. As luck would have it I received a new card in the mail a week after getting the shredder and ran the old card through. Didn't slow the motor a bit, just like shredding a few papers. Couldn't even really tell the plastic shreds from the paper. I had to rub a few pieces between my fingers to feel some plastic shreds from the card. I haven't tried shredding a CD yet. I'll have to work up to the throught of inserting a CD in a paper shredder.I'm going to compare this shredder to the $99 Royal from a warehouse club:* No lid to move or open!! Just turn it on and stick the paper in the slot. Yeah!! The design philosophy seems to be that i'm going to be smart enough not to stick my fingers deep into a paper shredder. Good assumption. Like one or two comments noted the paper has to go in the slot 3 or 4 inches to start the motor, but hey my old Royal did that too. There is your security feature.* No separate slot for credit cards and CDs, just a marked section in the middle of the one slot. Excellent. The warehouse club shredder had two slots very close to each other than I couldn't even see in the dimly lit room where the shredder lives.* Quiet! My old Royal used to be quiet, but 15 years later it could probably wake the neighbors a house away. This one didn't even wake the cat sleeping nearby.* The auto-shutoff works well. The auto shutofff in my old Royal used to be the same way, the shredder would shut down after 15 seconds or so with no paper in the slot, But that eventually died too on the Royal, a couple of years ago. I've just been turning it on and off as needed. Great to have one with the auto-shutoff working again.* I see comments about small pieces of paper not auto-starting the shredder. Pro Tip: the sensor is right in the middle of the slot. In the manual they even have a picture of where it is located in case it needs cleaning. If you are shreeding something skinny, small, whatever, feed it in right in the middle of ths slot. My old Royal was exactly the same way.* The bin pulls out in front. I've seen a picture of a certain shredder with the bin pulling out to the side. What was that manufactuer smoking. Shredders go into tight spaces under desks. Where there is no space on the sides.And a few nuggets of wisdom from the instructions, once i finally had some time to read them:* IT IS DESIGNED FOR SHREDDER BAGS!! I almost didn't buy it because of this seeming omission. My old Royal didn't have shredder bags and micro-cuts, as they call them now, can create quite a mess when some of them stick to the sides of the bin (static electricity I guess). Not a word in the Amazon description about shredder bags, but there it is on page 9 of the manual. There is a hook molded into the top front of the bin on each side to hook the bag, then the back of the bin has a special shapped slot to stuff any bag excess. They have a picture that makes it all clear. The big box office supply store where I looked at shredders has shredder bags.* It should be oiled monthly. In fact on page 8 it discusses oiling and even states failure to do so will void the warranty. Another omission from the Amanzon description. It seems like just common sense the blades in any shredder will last longer and stay rust-free with occasional oil. I oiled my 15 year old Royal about once a month. The big box office supply stores have official "shredder oil" in a bottle, which is what the instructions on this unit say or use, or cooking oil (don't do it! It will gum up I'll betcha. Use the correct stuff). The same big box office store that had the shredder bags also has a package of pre-oiled sheets you can run through shredders. The simple and easy way. If using the oil in a bottle the instructions say to run a bead right across the paper input slot, then put it in reverse for 3 seconds.* It has the typical door open / overheat / overload / power-on LEDs* Shuts itself off after 5 minutes as an "Energy Saving Auto Power-off". Lol, anytime you see the words "energy saving" or "ECO" on something you will find that is usually the poor performance mode that the device was never really designed for, but it sounds good for marketing spin. Run away. In this specific case though it is probably a good thing. So you do have to hit that big "on" button at the start of each shredding session. This answers the question you will have of "Didn't I leave it on last time? Why is it off now?"* Auto-reverse. If you stuff so much in that the "overload" light comes on it auto-reverses to spit it out. Probably a good thing. Why did you stuff that much paper in anyway?* Truth in advertising on page 4: "One folded sheet of paper equates to 2 sheets of paper. Heavier paper, humidity or other than rated wall socket voltage may reduce shredding capacity". Just plain old common sense stuff. Like "coffee is hot" or "knives are sharp".* A little yellow piece of paper inserted in the manual says "As part of AmazonBasics quality inspections, we test every shredder before shippiing it. Because of this, you may see paper shreds in the bin from the testing". Well if this is true, good work Amazon! Reading through the comments for the various shredder models and types it sounds like the out-of-the-box failure rate is over 20%, either immediately or within a few hours/days. With a failure rate like that I would say it is absolutely necessary to test shredders at the factory. Ever buy aftermarket car parts? My experience has been over 50% DOA brand new, right out of the box, and they will only last a year if you are lucky. That is why it is worth going to the dealer and paying 4x. It will work 95% of the time right out of the box so you don't have to spend another day uninstalling/reinstalling and you might get the same 5 years out of it you did with the original part.I'm writing this review just a couple of weeks after receiving the shredder, due to being really happy with it. I have no idea how long term reliability will be. I expect it to be awful, quite frankly, but I'm so happy at that point just to find one that shreds properly I guess I don't even mind if I have to re-purchase it in a year. Which goes back to that extended warranty I can't buy anymore. See if Amazon will refund those warranties (they tell me it is some outside company) if you return the shredder. If so its a no-brainer. Sign up for the 3 year extended warranty, then if you don't like the shredder return it and the warranty.The 17 sheet here is definitely the one to get. If you are looking at smaller Amazon Basics shredders do yourself a big favor and get this one. You know as well as I do that "6 sheet shredder" of just about any brand is probably going to load down after 3 sheets because the motor belongs in a pencil sharpener. Why do that to yourself. Life is too short. Buy this shredder that as some muscle and be happy.

Reviewer: J.P. Lawrence
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Amazon Basics 12-Sheet Micro Cut Paper Shredder is NOT Basic & is Excellent! 5/12/24
Review: This shredder by Amazon is not Basic. It is exceptional. I love this shredder for a number of reasons. First, it is sturdy, quality built and smartly packaged. Second, it uses a Micro paper Cut (the Best cut) that most shredders do not use. You will usually have to pay much more for a good Micro Cut Shredder. No one could take the shredded papers and reconstruct any documents. That is high security. It is cut almost at the per letter level. Third, It has at least a 6 gallon paper bin which is great. Fourth, it shreds and destroys almost anything. Shreds up to 12-sheets of 20-pound bond paper at a time, including staples and small paper clips. It has a slot to destroy CDs, DVDs, and credit cards (one at a time). For higher security, the paper slot can also be used to destroy credit cards as well. I believe they also make a 18-sheet and 150-sheet shredder at a higher cost. I have had many shredders before, and this is the best so far considering the price. I will buy another Amazon Basics 12-sheet shredder or 18-sheet shredder in the near future. After serving 24-years in the military and 15-years in the Department of Defense, I'm trained to shred almost anything with a hint of private or personal information. Not much paper goes in the garbage unless it is micro-shredded. I highly recommend this shredder, especially considering the very reasonable price.

Reviewer: Jeff S
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Awesome Shredder - Small Size
Review: 8 Sheet Shredder with Disc SlotThe shredder works great. The shredder is smaller then my previous shredder. I was worked that the bin would be too small and fill up quickly. Not the case. Shreds into small pieces so bin doesn't fill as quickly as my previous shredder that was larger.Shredder allows for 20 minutes of shredding before thermal protection kicks in. Bin was not full at the 20 min mark. Comes with casters/wheels for moving around. I didn't install them so shredder could be more easily stored. Has an AC cord not adapter. Cord is adequate length.Shredders do need to be oiled. Perhaps why my old shredder died. I didn't oil. Instructions say to use ONLY shredding oil. Unlike some reviews that said you could also use vegetable or cooking oil.I believe instructions recommend oiling once a month. However I have read that a best practice is every time you empty the bin. Oiling a shredder is required no matter of the brand you select. You can also buy lubricanted sheets also mentioned in the instructions. I have read the sheets are not as good as using the oil. Shredding oil is not included.Highly recommend especially given the performance for the small footprint.

Reviewer: Scott
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Very Useful Small Office Shredder
Review: My law office bought this shredder when we expanded beyond a solo practice. We looked into using a shredding service in our area but we don't generate enough paper to be shredded for those services to be cost effective. We decided to purchase an autofeeding shredder and have always had good luck with Amazon Basics products. This is no exception. It shreds great into small pieces and having the autofeed system for large stacks of paper is nice as you can load the shredder and go back to work. It isn't without some minor flaws which is why I gave it four stars. The biggest problems are related to the catch bin. One it really fills pretty fast and two it is hard to put a garbage bag in, but not overly difficult. Also, it can jam if you do certain things. Putting too much light weight paper, like sheets from legal pads, can cause the feeder to pull too many pages at once and then jam, but as long as there aren't too many of those sheets in a row, it works great. It also has problems with partial pages, even when they are lined up correctly. Again, not a big deal because on those rare occasions, you can use the hand feeder. Overall, very nice, but with some quirks. Use it a few times and you'll figure those out and adapt.

Reviewer: D
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Good micro cut shredder
Review: Works as advertised. A true micro cut shredder. Quiet. No issues. Fair price. Let’s see if the machine holds up. Hopefully it will as it’s for a home office so the volume of shredding is minimal.

Reviewer: daniel
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: fonctionne très bien 5 étoiles et plus

Reviewer: Cliente de Amazon
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Bueno pero sin factura

Reviewer: Tony
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Nice shredder for the home. 8 pages is pretty good. This shredder does not take up too much space, works well, and is easy to empty. I am very pleased with this purchase so far. If things change, I will update this info. Can ya dig it ?

Reviewer: Alain Leduc
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Quieter than my previous shredder. However, my previous shredder had a feature where it would turn (totally) off after a while and you would have to press a button to re-enable it. This one does not. I have heard of similar shredders turning themselves on due to a dirty sensor and the thermal protection didn’t kick in resulting in overheating

Reviewer: Film Fan
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I run a small company from home and looked online for reviews of the best shredder for a home office. Must admit I was surprised when the Amazon Basics model was highly recommended by a third-party review site.I haven't put it through any heavy duty use, but so far it has coped admirably with the workload I've given it.The paper is shredded finely enough that it would be extremely difficult to put back together and it has no problems with credit cards.The motor seems quite powerful. I've had other supposed office shredders in the past where you would hear the motor strain if it had to deal with anything more than about 3 or 4 sheets at a time. That's not the case with this model. It's also very quiet compared with pretty much every other shredder I've ever owned.I bought it with some shredder oil and some sharpening paper, and I think that as long as it's maintained properly it's going to turn out to have been a very good purchase.The gears appear to be made from a plastic polymer so it's probably best if it's not run constantly at its maximum workload, but if you keep that in mind and don't push it too hard I'd recommend it as a good choice at a very good price.