• Fellowes’s anti-jamming technology makes this a mostly worry-free shredder.
• Its sensible body design can sit flush alongside a desk, which is rare for a shredder.
• The downside to serious shredding: paper bits can be tough to clean up, especially if the bin drawer isn’t closed correctly.

In 2026, when everyone is afraid of digital identity theft, it is easy to forget that we all still leave a paper trail. It is likely that you still have sensitive information that arrives and survives in printed form—financial statements, insurance records, shipping labels, shopping receipts, and tax documents.

If you need to shred lots of documents with sensitive information, the Fellowes LX220 is a near-flawless home office paper shredder. It offers a high single-feed capacity, higher-than-average runtime, an anti-jamming mechanism, and a lower-than-average cooldown time. And the shredder’s physical form factor—long, rather than wide—makes it well-suited to sit next to a desk in a home office. Fellowes has a long, solid reputation for producing and supporting high-quality shredders, and the LX220 proves that reputation right.

During testing, I found the LX220’s advertised “20-sheet capacity” for simultaneously shredding a single stack of paper closer to 16 to 18 sheets. (I’ve found that most shredder makers overstate capacity a bit.) And even at 16 to 18 sheets, you can move through reams of documents quickly with fewer repetitive feeds. Combined with the LX220’s runtime—the amount of time you can continuously shred before the machine needs a cooldown—it can generally handle most real-world jobs. You should be able to process around 500 sheets of paper in a single session.

Perhaps even more important than capacity, though, is the fact that Fellowes’s jam-prevention technology really works (really!). I ran the LX220 through multiple sessions and kept going until I ran out of a variety of scraps and junk mail of varying sizes, shapes, and thicknesses to feed it. Feeding a shredder stacks of odd-sized and shaped paper, including those annoying credit card offers with those phony glued-on sample cards, tends to make me nervous. Most shredders would eventually jam with this kind of workload.

But not this monster. It digested a steady stream of junk mail, stapled packets, overstuffed tax forms, glossy catalogs, promotional cards, and more without fail. Even thick stapled documents and those annoying credit card offers with glued-on cardboard or plastic credit cards proved to be no problem for the LX220’s shredding teeth.

It also ensures that the documents you’ve shredded cannot be pieced back together. Modern shredders feature a cross- or micro-cut shredding process, which minces a standard piece of printer paper into roughly 1,200 tiny bits the size of raw pastina. The LX220 technically shreds to security level P-4, which is one step short of national-security–grade P-5: It’s enough to make sure your private information cannot be recreated from the scraps.

That high level of security does come with a small drawback, though. Like many hearty eaters, the LX220 often leaves a bit of a mess behind. Running a stack of too-thick paper can scatter some tiny bits around. Shaking the bin to level and settle paper during long shredding sessions or not securely shutting the bin drawer caused tiny bits to escape into the machine rather than the drawer. My advice? Line the bin drawer with a clear plastic liner. And, yes, you can buy six-gallon recycling bags to limit shredded bit escapes.

I also found that narrow scraps and oddly sized pieces occasionally needed a gentle nudge before the rollers grabbed them properly. Once engaged, though, the Fellowes had little trouble straightening slightly askew pages on its own. These are relatively minor issues, though. Generally speaking, this shredder will do what you need it to do, quickly and without any hiccups.

A longer runtime becomes an important consideration for shredders in office setups, as it allows you to complete longer shredding tasks efficiently—it is yet another feather in the LX220’s cap. It can handle nearly 45 minutes of shredding before it needs to cool down, far more than the smaller Amazon Basics 12-Sheet shredder, which we recommend for budget-conscious shoppers.

Where most brands overstate their shredders’ runtime, I found that Fellowes set the bar low: The brand’s estimated runtime is 30 minutes, but I was able to continuously feed the LX220 stacks of paper for nearly 40 minutes before its yellow temperature warning light illuminated, followed by roughly four additional minutes before the red warning light forced a shutdown.

Its recovery time is even more impressive. After overheating, the LX220 returned to full operation after just 15 minutes during my test, which is about the same amount of time it took me to empty the bin and clean up all the tiny paper particles scattered around the machine during disposal. That’s fast! Many other shredders, regardless of price, require around 40 minutes of non-use before you can restart shredding.

Sizewise, the LX220 trades the typical squat, wide shredder shape for a taller, narrower footprint designed to sit alongside a desk like a wastebasket. Its unique footprint alignment is perfect for small offices with big shredding needs. While heavier than most shredders at 35 pounds, it sits on four wheels, which makes it easy to move around as needed.

At the top, over the drawer bin, is the LX220’s “Intellibar” button array, which features two single- and double-arrow icon buttons for forward- and reverse-feed if paper needs to be backed out mid-feed.

On either side of these directional controls are four status/warning lights for high shredder temperature, unable-to-shred (too-thick a stack, for instance), cooldown warning, and bin-full alert. Perpendicular to the Intellibar, parallel to the shredder’s mouth, is a row of additional barely visible warning icons, none of which lit up during my testing.

I triggered the yellow temperature-warning light followed by the red thermal shutdown indicator on the side after extended continuous shredding—way beyond its expected 30-minute runtime. Yet, the LX220 never totally shut down simply because I tried to jam too much paper down its throat.

When the LX220 is asleep—when the blue “ready” LED isn’t lit—just slip in something to shred to wake it up or just hit one of the directional arrows.

The LX220 is not the newest paper shredder, nor is it the cheapest, but it is the best model I’ve tested to date. It delivers the most consistent operation and the fewest jam headaches. There’s no bigger compliment you can bestow on a paper shredder.

At $300, the LX220 is probably overkill for folks who shred only the occasional credit card offer or bank statement. But for home offices, small businesses, remote workers, or anyone regularly feeding thick stacks of sensitive paperwork into a shredder, it will be money well-spent.

Shop the Fellowes Powershred LX220 Paper Shredder