Are you in the market for a pouch laminator, but are having a tough time settling on any one model? Many of our customers have been taking a serious look at Fellowes’ line of pouch laminators. Fellowes is well known for their line of paper shredders, but is their line of pouch laminators any good? I will be reviewing the Fellowes Jupiter JL-125 pouch laminator.

To start with, the Jupiter JL-125 is one nice looking laminator. It features a rounded, glossy outer shell that is reminiscent of something you would find on a sci-fi spaceship. The design is very contemporary and fits in very well with most offices. It is extremely compact, takes up a fairly small footprint and can easily be stored in a cupboard or drawer.

Looks aren’t everything. The real question is “how well does it work?” To start with, the Jupiter JL-125 uses a four-roller system for laminating products. This is actually pretty nice. The general rule for pouch laminators is the more rollers the better the end result. Many two-roller systems require pouches to be run through twice. The four roller system cuts down on cloudy finishes and bubbles in the lamination.

Once plugged in, the Jupiter JL-125 takes about four-minutes to warm up. This is pretty good and is in line with what most comparable pouch laminators do. The laminator has a green indicator light and makes an audible sound when it is ready to be used. Because the Jupiter JL-125 uses special heat shielding technology, this laminator is easy to handle when fully warmed up.

The Jupiter JL-125 is similar to the Fellowes Saturn SL-125, but is designed for higher volume use and can handle thicker pouches. The JL-125 can handle laminating pouches up to 7 mils thick.

One thing I really like about the Jupiter JL-125 is the reverse mode. This makes it really easy to back out miss-fed pouches and re-position material. Although it claims not to require a carrier, I would still recommend using one. It also includes a laminating film starter kit.

Here are some great alternatives to the JL-125.

• Banner American PL12A Pouch Laminator
• Akiles UltraLam 250B Laminating Machine
• Tamerica TCC-330 Pouch Laminator

The Fellowes Jupiter JL-125 is a great all-purpose laminator for light to medium-volume use. You can find the Fellowes Jupiter JL-125 here. You can find our entire selection of pouch laminating machines here.

Do you own the Jupiter JL-125? Let me know what you think about it by posting a comment. Have a great day!

Fellowes is well known for making a wide variety of paper shredders, but did you know they make laminators too? One of Fellowes most popular pouch laminators is the Cosmic CL-95 personal pouch laminator. This laminator is capable of laminating documents up to 9 ½-inches wide, which means it is capable of handling standard 8 ½ x 11-inch paper. So is this the right laminator for you?

Let’s break down this laminator. First of all, it weighs about 6.6 pounds, which means it isn’t terribly heavy and can be carried around from one place to another without any problems. It also includes a handle. This means the Fellowes Cosmic CL-95 can easily be used in the office as well as at home.

This laminator isn’t going to break any records for speed, taking about one minute to laminate a sheet of paper. This shouldn’t be an issue, however, if you are only laminating a few documents throughout the day. I definitely wouldn’t rate this as a high-volume laminator. For the price you can’t really complain.

From the minute you plug in the CL-95, it takes about five minutes to completely warm up. This isn’t too bad. It uses HeatGuard technology as well, which means you shouldn’t have to worry about being burned while using this laminator.

The biggest pro that I have found with the Fellowes Cosmic CL-95 is that it has a release lever that disengages the rollers for easy re-positioning of material. If you have ever experienced a jam in a pouch laminator you’ll understand why this is so nice.

The biggest con I have with this laminator is that it can only used lamination pouches up to 3 mils thick. Most laminators can handle at least a 5 mil thick pouch. The thinner 3 mil pouches can be difficult to find as most smaller pouches are only available in 5, 7 and 10 mil thicknesses. The higher the mil (thousandths of an inch), the thicker the pouch.

My overall conclusion with the Fellowes Cosmic CL-95 is that it is good for low-volume lamination, but if the budget is there, another laminator may provide you with more flexibility. You will find our Fellowes Cosmic CL-95 personal pouch laminator here.

Good Alternatives to the Fellowes Cosmic CL-95:

• Sircle HQ-230 9″ Pouch Laminator
• Banner American PL100 Pouch Laminator
• Sircle HQ-330 13″ Pouch Laminator
• Sircle SG-230 9″ Pouch Laminator

Our entire selection of pouch laminators can be found here.