ideal. 2604 Continuous Operation Cross Cut Centralized Office Paper, Staple, Paper Clip, CD, DVD Shredder Machine with Automatic Oiler, 23 to 25 Sheet Feed Capacity, 26 gal Bin

I absolutely love this shredder! I have used many shredders throughout my life and I had no idea that a high quality shredder existed until I discovered this line called ideal. This shredder is a power horse when it comes to shredding and I was able to shred my boxes of built up paper and whole pieces of junk mail without any issues. I don't know if it's the fact that this machine is 100% German made but everything is high quality...even the wooden cabinet and sturdy bin inside of it. I also never knew when to oil my shredder so I love how the auto oiler takes my worries away. I even noticed on the oiler they put these little protection straps around the cap so I couldn't accidentally throw it out (picture attached). I paid good money but I know my investment in this shredder will last me for many years to come. I would highly recommend this shredder to anyone...you will not be let down.

Purchased the Ideal 2604 P-4 shredder. I am very satisfied with this unit. This is a commercial level heavy duty shredder, that I purchased for home use. The motor will accept continuous paper feeds and fill the entire 26 gallon bin without overheating or stopping. The motor can continuously run and will not stop to dissipate heat, unlike the smaller home shredding units. This unit will easily accept a dozen sheets, but does not appear to accept the advertised 25 sheets. The motor easily reverses to spit out an overloaded feed. The automatic oiling feature is very convenient. The safety guard protects against inadvertent positioning of fingers near the feeder. Opening the receptacle bin door or moving the safety bar automatically stops the shredder. There is an indicator light that informs you if the feed size is too large. The system will automatically stop if the bin is too full. Make sure you order extra 16 oz Ideal oil for this unit. The P-4 level cross cut security level shredding is extremely secure and adequate for home or commercial use. I see no need or cost to move up to an espionage P-5 security level that, for home use. This Ideal shredder is solidly built and very heavy. The unit is delivered in 2 separate boxes and is definitely a two person setup. The receptacle container/bin and shredder unit are accurately engineered to fit nicely. Setup is fast and intuitive. The unit is setup on wheels to easily move around. The heavy duty plastic receptacle bin can accept standard trash can plastic bags, that are much less expensive than the Ideal plastic bags. Only drawback is dropping of the shredded particles into the cabinet when the bin is pulled out, but this is true of all shredders. I researched the purchase of a commercial unit for home use, and most of the purchase decision is based upon the limited reviews available, so there is a bit of leap of faith in purchasing such an expensive unit for home use. I was not at all satisfied with any of the smaller home units, where the units were limited in the handling of the number of sheets, and suffered from overheating and the small bin sizes. I required a heavy duty shredder. To my pleasant surprise, this Ideal 2604, despite the high purchase price, in my opinion, is phenomenal. The engineering seems solid.

Wanda in customer service was incredibly knowledgeable and just outright amazing! I had a few questions on deciding which model would best suite our needs and her insight on each model was incredibly helpful. I really appreciated her help. Also, important to note that in case you need customer service you will get a live human being who actually is familiar with the product and can provide assistance. Clearly this is a quality made shredder meant to handle our large volume. Since it's a commercial grade shredder it is heavy so you'll need two people to set the shredder on the base. Although very sturdy, the wheeled base makes it easy to maneuver into the space you need it to be. It is packaged very well ensuring a safe delivery and the instructions are easy to understand. I love that it shreds quickly and in small pieces, however, the downside is that it can be very messy. Not all of it can makes it into the bin so when it's time to change the bag it can be very messy as it's in the bin, outside the bin and on the floor. That being said, the quality of this machine makes up for the mess. It is also a little louder than I expected but our previous machine was not commercial grade so that is probably the difference. So for these two reasons I am giving it 4.5 stars instead of 5.

This is not a long-term owner review; just initial impressions. We received the shredder last week and set it up today. Assembly was easy. Initial priming of shredder oil was a little fun to find (all manuals have 8 languages) but not difficult. Afterwards... we ran ~12 banker boxes of paper through the machine. It never got hot. It chewed through staples. We removed all the paper clips we could find but a few got passed us; didn't slow the machine. It jammed a couple times (our fault) but all of the jams were relatively easy to clear; the machine even detected this and backed out the paper. It shreds paper at the actual advertised rate. Plenty of safety features; container fill sensor, door sensor, jam sensor, safety cover sensor... Overall, we're impressed by the machine.

I wish I could give more than 5 stars. Through the years I have purchased numerous paper shredders to only see them die. THIS THING IS A BEAST! Recently I was sent a letter from the Eisenhower foundation which contained a 50-cent piece. Not knowing there was a coin in the envelope with the literature, I was shredding what I thought was junk mail. This machine made it halfway through the coin before I realized what was happening and stopped it. I reversed the feed and removed the coin and went right back to shredding whole envelopes. It did not damage the machine. A truly impressive paper shredder. Make sure to always have oil on hand, it will not operate without it. When you buy one decide which of your children will inherit it, it will out live you.