What an outstanding product! Finally an inexpensive way to securely cross-cut shred sensitive documents and materials. Anyone aware of the potential danger of banking, credit card, and other identity theft issues related to disposing of sensitive personal document materials will love this shredder.

Can't believe we got this high quality shredder for only $9.99 ($19.99 at Menards with a $10.00 rebate offer). Even at the full $39.99 retail price, advertised on the Royal site, it's a steal! Bought 3 for personal home use and purchasing more for gift purposes.

Those unfamiliar with shredders will find this model has all the bells and whistles. Not only does it cut in 1/8" strips but, cross-cuts those strips every 1-1/2". That means that any document shredded is cut into 1/8" X 1-1/2" tiny pieces. Small enough pieces to keep any lazy thief from ever attempting to reconstruct. Besides, once you do a lot of shredding all the tiny pieces become intermingled whereby, representing quite a reconstruction task for any number of people.

Don't let the low price make you think this is a cheap product. Every component is quality engineered with the entire unit being covered by a comprehensive one-year parts and labor warranty. The large metal perforated wastebasket along with the all steel cutters and cross cutters should provide any user with long-term dependability. In essence, every component material used in the construction indicates considerable engineering forethought.

The only slight downside to the entire construction from a consumer care standpoint should be mentioned. The metal wastebasket has a small right angle piece of steel welded to the rear top side of the basket. When the shredder main body is installed onto the metal wastebasket the inner angled steel piece must fit into a safety micro-switch slot in the rear bottom side of the main body. Care should be taken when inserting the shredder body onto this piece as it can be easily bent. Bending prevents the shredder body from being fully seated besides not allowing the micro-switch to be activated to power the unit. However, the right angle steel piece can easily be repositioned if bent out of kilter.

The shredder has a motor overload protection device that stops the unit if overheated through prolonged high use. Instructions state that normal use cycles should be 2 minutes on and 4 minutes off. We found that this to be an adequate initial procedure to follow, but we decided to challenge these parameters. Shredding checks, bank statements, normal size letters, etc. one piece at a time usually allowed for longer use times before overheating stopped the unit. Shredding multiple thickness items definitely lowers the use time to that which is suggested in the instructions.

An 'auto', 'off', and 'reverse' slide positioning switch provides fool-proof operation. The 'auto' selection works flawlessly. Once set to 'auto' simply insert document and the unit does the rest automatically. Put the wrong document in and you can reverse (but will lose that portion shredded).

Warning: Always remove staples or paper-clips before shredding. Both can damage the cutting mechanism. Always be cautious of catching neckties or long hair in the shredding mechanism. Adult fingers should not fit into shredder opening, but check for smaller digits. Tongues will most likely fit for those of you daring enough to try.

The bottom line is this is an excellent product for an unheard of low price. What used to cost hundreds to thousands is now available for anyone's budget. Shredding has become of age for all consumers interested in maintaining their paper privacy.

P.S. We have the Royal HT500x. We don't know what the Adler name addition designation denotes.