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More power in shredders, even kitchen appliances pay off

Good morning folks, today I talked about and showed how investing on more powerful electronic home products will not necessarily leave a larger carbon footprint or dig much deeper in your wallet. But will be worth the initial higher purchase price.

Lets start with a common tech item in every small home business and many family homes with a regular amount of printed paper to safely and securely dispose.

 

The Fellowes 73Ci cross shreds paper staples, credits cards and CD or DVD discs with varrying power use for home and SMB use. supplied

The paper shredder. The unsung office hero in any office at work or home. Prices start at $30 and easily go up to several thousand so picking the right home model can involve some research on your part.

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So what do you get for a starter “light” use $30-$50 shredder compared to a pricier model like the Fellowes 73Ci, $197, available in most stores.

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They both do cross cuts and are safe to use when you hand feed them and can unjam themselves by running in reverse

But paying more money, in this case four times as much for the 73Ci versus an Aurora 6-sheet model for casual home use, as in my home model, will not likely pay itself off in time alone.

The Fellowes 73Ci is twice as large, but easily moves out of the way on caster wheels. It is much quieter and easier to feed with one hand and in addition to paper, staples and credit cards, it also chews up CD disks, like other similarly  priced models. It has twice the cross- shredded storage capacity and easier to unload. It looks nicer too.

It has a more powerful motor to handle 12 pages instead of six, and can run almost twice as long before needing to cool down after continuous use.

This means it has a more powerful motor and at its peak runs at twice the wattage, 275w, but shreds twice the amount of paper. Interestingly, the 73Ci is designed to consume less wattage, depending on how many sheets you feed it, in this case, the same 148w, as the Aurora, when shredding just six pages, or just one at 55w.

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What you are paying more for is a less obtrusive, easier to use and higher sheet capacity when you need it. http://www.fellowes.com/ca

Buying kitchen appliances that have more powerful motors pays off too, in terms of preparing or cooking food.

The Cuisinart CPM-100C hot air popcorn maker, $49.99 at London Drugs or Home Outfitters, has a large 1,500 watt heating element, twice that of competitors, that pops the kernels quicker and more complete.

Same goes for the Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus food processor with a larger 250w motor. It breezes through anything food you are preparing, more quickly.

We always compare the wattage on these products, often only showing under the base of each model and go for higher wattage with power to spare for better performance, even in small jobs.

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