GBC 3 Mil Refill for Foton 30 Reloadable Cartridge, 185' Laminating Film (FOTONRC003) 3 Mil Refill / Reloadable / 185 Feet

I'm glad this machine was available and at a reasonable price. We especially love the fact that we can laminate any size item and not waste a bunch of sheets. Previously, we had to buy different sizes of laminating sheets. Well, we do not have to do that anymore. Solid machine which we hope will out last the cheap, smaller machines we have gone through.

Low quality manufacturing. Good for low demand laminating only

After purchasing this laminator for our preschool as a gift, a sensor stopped working within 2 months of use and there is absolutely no customer service. The manufacturer states they do not service this machine and cannot help to fix the problem. Very disappointing especially when this was not cheap. Buyer beware and DO NOT purchase this item or from this seller.

We finally replaced our old and outdated laminating machine with the GBC Foton 30 last fall and could not be happier! All of our teachers have been able to access and use the machine easily and efficiently. Our school has never looked so good! And the ability to wipe off the sheets we laminated in the thicker weight has been invaluable during these COVID-challenged times.

I tried to set this up on my dining room table at first to do some lamination. The unit is quite large and really requires its own dedicated table. However once it is setup it is actually pretty easy to use. Unlike other laminators I have used in the past (mostly they use pouches) this one has its own film cartridge that allows the machine to auto feed. While this is cool if you are laminating large sheets (or many sheets at once) it is more advantageous to have a "pouch" laminator to laminate small cards. For example I used this to laminate a Social Security card as well as a check and it has to use the full width of the film in order to laminate it. Where as with a pouch laminator you can just use a smaller pouch that is the size of what you want to laminate (cards are really the most common thing for me personally) so it might be cheaper to laminate those. I also had some trouble feeding small cards through the system as it really seems that its made for larger formats. The price of the flim is more affordable than pouches (if you are laminating full pages and stuff) but more expensive if you are laminating small things like cards. The auto feed function is nice; but its not every day that you will laminate multiple things at once. All in all I might donate it to my church to have them laminate things in the office (like awards) and go back to using my pouch laminator now that I have reviewed it. It is a great machine if you typically laminate full pages / larger formats! If this review helped you at all; please mark it helpful! Thanks!