Review on Aurora AU1580MA: High Security 15-Sheet Micro-Cut Shredder with 60 Minutes Continuous Run Time by Karoly Reddick

I have had a good Fellowes shredder with similar characteristics for over 15 years. Same capacity at 13 pages but slightly smaller basket. My old shredder still works but makes all sorts of noises and can't reliably shred 10 pages without sounding like it's about to fall apart. So I took a chance with this Aurora 1580 because I needed to shred about 20 very thick binders of old bank and brokerage statements that I knew the old shredder couldn't handle. I placed a standard 13 gallon garbage bag in the trash can and started chopping. Yes, I got tired of shredding before the car stopped me. I've experimented with its limitations and it didn't stick until I got 20 sheets of sheets of a mix of 20lb and 24lb paper (including staples). This clearly exceeds the declared capacity. For the sake of a smile, I tried to put a stack of papers in with a single standard-size paperclip and it passed like it wasn't there. I won't get into the habit of sticking paperclips in, but I had to make sure the advertised features were true. I also skimmed about 30 CDs with ease. The only thing I didn't like about CD shredding is that the machine ejects a tiny amount of shiny reflective paint/foil out of the feed hole that needs to be vacuumed. It's a little, but still annoying. As with any other paper shredder, shredded pieces of paper will still fall out when you pull out the drawer to empty the bin. The top of the 13 gallon trash bags fit into slots cut in the top of the trash can to hold the bag. Suggest putting the bag on its side, which you think is the first/logical way to throw it in the bin. This allows the bottom of the bag to expand toward the front of the container as it fills. (You must see this to understand what I'm talking about). You can probably pack some more shredded material into slightly larger bags, but maybe just half a gallon more. This makes it a powerful document shredder that can easily process thousands of pages and also easily shred CDs and credit cards. It's heavy, but that's why you buy it: to handle just about anything you want to grind. Clear purchase!