Fellowes Jupiter 125 Thermal & Cold Laminator 12.5" Width White (5746301)

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I have 5 laminators and will compare the Jupiter to the Venus 2 125, which I bought for my office about 5 years ago. I'll organize my review to show performance results first and then aesthetics/user interface. The Jupiter is new and the Venus 2 has laminated thousands of pages. Based on the manual and the spec page, both machines are rated for up to 10 mil. I don't keep pouches larger than 5 mil, so I couldn't test thicker than 5 mil. I only do hot laminating, though both are also rated for cold laminating. I ran the same tests several times over 4 days, laminating a total of 56 pages on each machine. Each one did 28 3 mil and 28 5 mil. I used Fellowes brand pouches. I cleaned the rollers every 20 pages and at the end of each day, I used a clean piece of 110 lb cardstock to clean the rollers, which is the recommended interval to run a cleaning sheet. On day 1, I ran 7 sheets, on days 2 & 3 I ran 14 pages and on day 4 I ran 21 pages, that's for each machine. I did a total of 8 runs, each run was a single page to get a single page speed test and then 6 pages in a row to get inches per minute, I averaged results from each run. The average times are +/- 2 seconds from the high and low times. I removed power and allowed the machines to fully cool down between each run. Warmup times for 10 mil*: Jupiter – 1:09 minute, Venus 2 – 1:10 minute. *The Jupiter has a single ready light, the Venus has a ready light for each pouch thickness (3, 4, 5, 7, 10). For the Venus, 3 mil was ready in 30 seconds, 5 mil was ready in 40 seconds. Feed speed for a single page: Jupiter - 15 seconds. Venus 2 - 14 seconds. Inches per minute: Jupiter – 60 inches per minute. Venus 2 – 62 inches per minute. Quality of laminated page: All pages had secure bonds that I was not able to peel apart. Jams: No jams for either Neither the Jupiter or Venus 2 have a feeding tray, that makes it a little difficult to load pages. In general, laminators do not have feeding trays. It takes a few pages to get used to loading them without needing to back the page out and try again. I had no issues with loading the Jupiter, but I have a lot of experience with the Venus, which is nearly identical. Cheaper laminators will simply jam if they aren't loaded right, the Jupiter and Venus 2 do not jam when that happens, they simply stop and you back the page out and put it back in. The power button on the Jupiter fully turns it off, the Venus requires flipping the switch on the back to fully turn it off. Both have touch sensitive buttons, the Jupiter's buttons are slightly sunk in, which makes it much easier to operate without looking at it. The Venus 2 buttons are completely smooth and you cannot feel when you touch one. Cleaning the rollers is important, the pouches will leave glue residue on the rollers, if it's not cleaned up it will mar pages and if it builds up enough, it will damage the laminator. The Jupiter has a reminder light to clean the rollers, the Venus 2 does not have a reminder. The reminder will automatically turn off if you use the Fellowes cleaning sheets, but you can also manually turn it off. I've always used card stock for regular roller cleaning and use a Fellowes cleaning sheet every 100 laminates. There is a different feel to the cleaning sheets, when compared to new card stock, I'm not sure if that makes a difference. My final impressions: I would recommend the Jupiter to anyone looking at this class of laminator. Based on the feel and build quality, I would be confident that it would last for years in a home office with moderate laminating needs. Keep in mind that's it's large and heavy, it's not something you just put in a drawer and take out when you need it, I have a wall shelf system dedicated to printing, binding and laminating. It's about 1 ½ times wider than my color laser printer (HP MFP M479fdw). I received this product free in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.