Martin YaleModel 1624 Handheld Battery Operated Letter Opener, 1.75", Black

This is one great compact letter opener. It has plenty of power to open almost any envelop I will be getting a a few more as gifts.Edit on 8-13-15. I bough this in June of 2014. It is still going strong after a little more than a year, and opens my envelops clean and straight. I have recently purchased another one for my mother. She is thrilled with it toolMy opinion is that this is worth the price as it has lasted me over a year and still working well. I would recommend this to anyone that has a normal amount of household mail. I would imagine that it would work very well in a small office setting too. I still give it 5 stars

I got this because I am disabled and can only use one hand, and it's impossible for me to get envelopes open neatly. Only a small initial problem with the unit, since it does an excellent job pulling envelopes through and slitting them open, the feeding action would make it slide a bit on the table. That was easily solved with a couple items from the junk drawer, a small piece of non-slip fabric and a bit of glue, attached to the bottom - voila, works great one-handed, doesn't slip at all (with two hands, that wouldn't be necessary). Have fed it about a hundred envelopes, always feeds, hasn't jammed once, makes super clean cut, only a 1/16" or so, doesn't bother the contents, still working on the original batteries (4-AA). Perfect for home use, very satisfied with quality and operation. There are many others for much more money, might be more heavy duty, but don't see how they could be better for what I need.

works fast and nice clean cut. batteries were easy to install.

I've been using this for about a year and a half, and I love it! And I hate it! The batteries seem to last forever, which is good. It opens letters with one sheet inside cleanly and crisply if you hold the envelope precisely and correctly, with a satisfying "sn-n-n-t-t" sound. Hold the envelope imprecisely, and it cuts half of the slice and leaves you to open the rest with your finger.If you get an envelope with several sheets—from some desperate person pleading for the last survivor of the red-spotted amoebas—no matter how you hold the envelope, this cutter simply marks a groove and lets you open it by hand with your finger. Intense frustration!

This letter opener seems to work well but getting it to completely cut the end of the envelope requires you to learn how fast it operates. The first few envelopes got cut only partially because it runs the envelope through pretty fast. In addition you always end up with this little sliver of paper that sort of goes flying so you want to open your envelopes over a trash/recycling bin. Otherwise you'll be picking up the little slivers of paper from the floor.

perfect Five-star product. great for anyone dealing with loss of strength in their left hand( grasping an envelope is required to operate a manual letter opener). this product zips off only about 3/32" from the edge of the envelope--And this is the only reasonably priced opener that ships from the USA That I found on Amazon.Edit: so now it is almost 3 months since I purchased this product. And I would like to update my review. Number one negative: if there is more than one piece of thin paper inside the envelope, it chokes and stops, and then you have the pull on the envelope to yank it back out. Eventually, a buildup of paper jams caused it to stop working completely. I was able to use a paperclip to clear the jammed bits of paper and get it working again, but it took a while.Second negative: as someone else mentioned the envelope tends to ride up and then the knives stop cutting the envelope.I am thinking of just buying a conventional slicer, and taping it to the edge of my countertop. And open up envelopes that way. Since my stroke in July, I can't use my left arm, so my options are limited.

So I thought it was dead on arrival when nothing happened after putting in alkaline batteries. So I put in Lithium batteries and it worked- but not very well. It made a terrible grinding sound and in some cases it did not complete the task. It is also deceptively small; about the size of two packs of cigarettes. From other desciptions the noise means that it will fail after the 30 day return period. HENCE, IT'S GOING BACK TODAY.

I bought myself one of these 1624's from an office supply house this past summer.Have used it for a few months and I have nothing but good things to say to you about this little machine.Then through Amazon dot Com, I bought two more as gifts, because I like mine so much.And I like the people to whom I sent these 1624's.Now what does that tell you?About how much I like the 1624.Need I go into detail about the little machine's selling points, or gift-giving points?Ok, you asked for it.A number of years ago, it dawned on me:If you're pretty sure that you'll use something every day, then go ahead and buy it.Well, I use my 1624 every day and it puts fun into what was always a minor nuisance.Zip those suckers open lickety-split.Trust me, it's fun.What surprised me is that I'm still on the first set of AA batteries that I originally installed last summer and it still opens the mail real fast.I like this little hand-held battery-operated letter opener.It's fast.Quick.Easy.Fun.No electric wires, no transformer, no desk space needed.Unobtrusive, inconspicuous, handy as heck.My 1624 is just a little friend of mine.You might think that it looks like a toy, but no, don't judge it by its outward appearance folks.And don't be afraid that you'll be buying new batteries every week.Nope.Good little machine.Amazing.C L Smith

Wenn er funktioniert bestimmt okay, habe ihn aber trotz frischer Batterien nicht zum Laufen bekommen. Es war nur ein leises Klicken zu vernehmen, als ob der oder die Motoren blockiert sind. Verarbeitung wirkt auch nicht sehr hochwertig, weiß aber auch nicht ob man das für den Preis erwarten kann. Geht jedenfalls als Defekt zurück.

Works well.

This device is light and portable. It opens every letter.

Works great! Be careful to shake your mail before you use it so you don't slice your bills in half! :-)

Lief nur 1 Tag, danach AKKU gewechselt weil ich das als Ursache sah, mit neuen Akkus ging es auch nicht, zurückgeschickt.