Swingline GBC Thermal Laminator Machine, Inspire, 9 Inch, Quick Warm-Up, 3 or 5 Mil, with 5 Standard Laminating Pouches for Home, Office and Classroom, Black (1701857)

I spent a long time researching on the perfect laminator to buy. I did not want to spend more than $50 yet I wanted something that was compact, lightweight and would give me great results consistently. My main use of the laminator is to make flash cards for my young child who manages to fold, bend and rip regular paper flash cards. I spent hours reading reviews for the Scotch Thermal Laminator (TL901C-T), Scotch Thermal Laminator 2 Roller System (TL901), AmazonBasics Thermal Laminator, and the Purple Cows (3016c). I narrowed it down to the Scotch (TL901C-T), AmazonBasics and Swingline. The AmazonBasics, while the most compact and cheapest, seemed to be least consistent in results. I read too many reviews about jams. The Scotch is a best seller on Amazon but it's also about $10 more than the Swingline. Ultimately, I went with the Swingline because it was cheaper, smaller and seemed to yield good results per other reviewers.I am happy to report that this laminator has lived up to my expectations. I have laminated my child's artwork, photos and heavy cardstock for flash cards. I am thrilled with the performance of this laminator. It takes about 3 minutes to heat up. It sounds long but it takes me about that amount of time (maybe more) to lay out everything I want to laminate and put them in their pouches. A green light will light up to let you know the laminator is ready. I have experienced absolutely no wait time between laminates. I have laminated up to 14 pouches in a row with no issues whatsoever. It takes about 45-60 seconds to laminate an 8"x11" pouch. There is a cold laminate option which I haven't used and don't think I really will need to use at all. The only thing I wish this had was some sort of guide for the pouch so that it would be fed in perfectly each time. There had been a few times where I fed in the pouch slightly crooked and made me nervous that it would come out warped but it has not happened at all.All in all, I'm super happy with this purchase.

I am very pleased with my purchase of the Swingline Thermal Laminator, Inspire Plus- it is so easy to use and does not take long to warm up. I appreciate the indicator light that lets me know when the laminator is ready to process my projects. I also appreciate that the machine has a cool lamination function for products that are heat-sensitive. The machine also has a button that allows you to manually pull the laminating paper through the machine in the event that it jams. (I have not experienced any jamming while using my machine.) This laminator is efficient- it does not take long for the machine to process your project and the best part is that you only have to put it through the laminator once. Disclaimer: Please make sure that you are processing your projects at the right thickness- move the slider that corresponds to the type of project that you're working on and read your user manual so that you can ensure that the materials in your project will not cause the machine to malfunction! I have a four year old son and being able to preserve some of his projects and achievements is very important to me. I am also in the process of laminating worksheets for my son to use dry erase markers on to help him continue to learn concepts when he is on break from pre-school and to work on after-school.

Edited July 2022: I was able to, relatively easily, unjam the laminator and it is continuing to work great for me. I don’t use it as often as in the past, but it has been very reliable for me minus the one time it jammed up.I really wanted to love this laminator. I bought it August 2015 and used it often as I am a teacher and was preparing for another year of school. It worked fine when I first used it. I didn't use it consistently as I had a boatload of laminating in the beginning of the year and less as the school year went on. I pulled it back out when I found more things to laminate in the dead of winter, and again, worked well. Occasionally I'd get some bent corners, but nothing terrible. However, when I brought it out today to try, it laminated a few pages great, and then the third page jammed it up. In fact the page is currently inside the turned-off machine because I can't get it out. It was a bummer as I bought it mega-on sale and will probably never see that price again. I know you get what you pay for, but I feel like I didn't even get that much use out of it. Disappointing!

Works beautifully and consistently.I did have an issue that was mentioned by others, when laminating more than a few pages at a time (or if you leave it on longer than a few pages worth of lamination time) it does heat up too much and will wrinkle your page as it jams up. I caught this early, turned the unit off let it cool down and re-ran the page. It smoothed it out pretty well, but now I know not to let the machine overheat. I follow a 20 minuet rule now, which seems to work well for me, after being on for 20 I turn it off for about 20 before heating it up again.Other than that, it's great for small laminating jobs. Well worth the price!

Laminates a lot slower than my previous laminator, but overall good quality and suits its purpose.

My Swingline GBC Thermal Laminator Machine has lasted for 9 years. I don't laminate a ton with it, but I probably use it every few months to laminate a handful of things. It is still going strong, even after my daughter got a laminator sheet melted inside by putting the wrong side first. I highly recommend this laminator.

The media could not be loaded. Just got this today and already tried it! It worked great. I had no issues at all. It moves a little slow but meh, who cares, lol. The plastic is a little sturdier than what I'm used to (school laminator, I'm a teacher). I was wondering how the cutting would go since the plastic was thicker. It went fine!! Wasn't hard to cut and the paper inside stayed sealed. I like the idea of having this at home for quick little things I need for school without having to wait for lamination day : / or go and pay elsewhere.

Útil, práctico, fácil de utilizar. Ya tengo tiempo con el, y me sigue funcionando perfectamente.

The fact that it cannot be used at all in the UK. Waste of money and seller is breaching all regulations!! So Amazon, are you going to replace the item as it's gone past the refund stage due to the fact I wanted to buy a transformer in order to make it work but was told it was the wrong voltage and not compatible with UK voltage/wiring.

This laminator works like a charm. I did over 400 copies over a few days, using it for several hours at a time with no problem. No jamming, no overheating. Easy to enter the document within the side guides. Its not fast but I didn't except that for the price. I just watched Netflix while doing my laminating! I highly recommend this over similar products at this price level.

Me gusta prácticamente todo, es muy fácil de usar y el resultado me encanta.

I love this. I purchased this to do foiling for card making. After reading reviews upon reviews upon reviews for laminators, I decided to purchase this one.It has both cold laminating and hot laminating (not warm, but hot). Easy set up (just plug it in and turn it on), easy to operate and super quiet. It also comes 4 or 5 pouches.Very pleased with this purchase. I’d definitely recommend this.