Bonsaii 6-Sheet Cross Cut Review

This shredder from Bonsaii is best used for light home use. Its 3.4-gallon waste bin capacity and short stature take up little space, and it weighs 6.3 lbs.

Performance Comparison

Shredding Quality

In our shredding quality tests, the Bonsaii 6-Sheet produced varied results. This machine cross-cuts sheets of paper into relatively small pieces. It's not as secure as micro-cutting models, but it should suffice for the needs of most at-home users. It can handle up to 8 sheets of printer paper at a time, shreds through a staple or two just fine, and can shred a credit card. The 8 sheets were the maximum capacity that we pushed this shredder to shred. We generally suggest sticking to the 6-sheet capacity the manufacturer claims to increase the longevity of this product.

However, most shredders can handle much larger loads without getting jammed. The Bonsaii did not shred even thin envelopes of junk mail very well. It ended up only cutting the envelope in one direction, leaving long pieces of paper that would be easy to reassemble. This model also had a large amount of shredded paper bits that got stuck in the blades after a shred session. Most distressing, this shredder started to smell like it was overheating within about a minute of using it to shred stacks at its capacity. We cannot say this model strikes us as robust.

Speed

There is nothing fast about the Bonsaii 6-Sheet shredder. For a single sheet of printer paper, the Bonsaii averaged 5 seconds per sheet and managed to shred 20 sheets of paper (in stacked sets) in about 29 seconds. Trying to shred as many pages as possible in a minute, we completely shredded 48 pages within this timeframe. Overall, this model doesn't feed paper as smoothly as other models, which increased variation in how quickly sets of sheets can be loaded into the shredder. Sometimes, we would be holding the paper in the blades for a few seconds before the machine actually “grabbed” the paper in its jaws. While there are faster machines, this speed is still probably acceptable for many people who just want to shred small amounts on occasion.

Ease of Use

Thanks to its simplicity, this machine is easy to use. Unbox it, plug it in, and shred away. The auto-stop function is a nice safety feature that stops the blades from spinning once the lid is lifted, which is nice. When we jammed up the machine intentionally, the “reverse” function allowed us to fix the jam quickly. There is a window to see how much paper waste is in the bin, which is handy. It's lightweight and small, so lifting off the lid and dumping the bin's contents is light work.

The small size is appealing to those seeking a paper shredder with a small footprint. It fills up pretty quickly, but again, for occasional home use, this is of little concern. Another quip we have is that the slider that changes the settings is not smooth. It's also counterintuitive, sliding to the left to move the blades forward and to the right to move the blades backward. On a few occasions, we found ourselves putting the machine in reverse when trying to shred papers, an annoyance if nothing more.

Noise

This machine is loud and high-pitched. You'll want to turn it off as quickly as possible after using it. Sleeping babies and office mates will fall victim to the loud sounds this machine makes.

Should You Buy the Bonsaii 6-Sheet Cross Cut?

The ideal user of this paper shredder is someone who wants a small, lightweight model that they pull out of the closet a few times a year to shred up some sensitive documents. It is not robust nor pleasant enough to use for us to recommend it for office use. It is inexpensive, and it did not break down during our test period, but our testers would rather spend a little more than keep this machine.

What Other Paper Shredder Should You Consider?

For a home shredder at just a few bucks more, take a look at the Amazon Basics 8-Sheet Cross-Cut model. It can handle larger loads, it's faster, and is more reliable. Though it is slightly taller, we like its thinner footprint that takes up less floor space. It is just as noisy, though, as the Bonsaii. For a leap in price, the Aurora AU1230XA Anti-Jam 12-Sheet Crosscut grants the most reliability of the three, able to handle more regular home office needs. It's also considerably less noisy.