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 have used this laminator since 2016 and think it is great! I combine it with the Scotch 3mil thermal pouches and I am able to cut out images without leaving any space around the edges. I’ve used up to 110lb cardstock with no issues (it could probably go thicker, but I haven’t needed to). It also doesn’t take up much space and isn’t particularly delicate (I stuff it in a kallax cube squished between a few other things on its side). Considering I bought this for ~$25 9 years ago and it still works and looks like it did out of the box, I’d consider it to still be great value for the money for the longevity and quality.

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.

I was a little concerned about ordering this laminator based on the mixed reviews but we have use this brand before and have always loved their products. This laminator was no different. It did take a little bit of user adjustment to get it to work perfectly every time but once we figured it out it was smooth sailing.I love the convenience of being able to laminate things at home. My little one is in to making place mats right now. Everyone he knows gets a place mat with a picture and their name on it.The unit is not a commercial grade and it doesn't claim to be, but it does handle most home usage without any problems. Again the only issues we have had with it were when we were not following the directions.Overall this is a nice unit at a great price. Just the convenience of being able to laminate things at home makes it a nice purchase.

*Updated*I was able to take the top off of this product by removing the four screws on the bottom. After I removed the previously jammed paper I ran a sheet through without the top to make sure there wasn't another jam. The machine worked wonderfully and I didn't see any sort of shifting in the paper itself as it went through the feed. I was also able to laminate my butterfly wings without any issue even using a smaller sheet. I am happy with how this product works now that I was able to fix it.I tried to use this for the first time, and a brand new sheet with flat butterfly wings got stuck. I figured it was my own ignorance, so I took the machine apart to unclog it, and found a piece of paper already jammed inside. The box came sealed with tape, so it was probably a return. Highly recommend opening your product up first because my first time using it caused everything to melt that I tried to laminate. I will update my review on the actual machine once I get it running again. Very disappointed a return item wasn’t inspected before resale.