Fellowes, FEL5734801, Venus2 125 Laminator & Pouch Starter Kit, 1, Black,Silver

OHH MY GOSH!!! This Laminator is by far the nicest and smoothest machine I've ever seen. this thing is build to last and it sure does do a really good job! I cant believe how fast it heats up also, as soon as i turn it on almost and its ready, I'm able to run very thick material thru it and get a perfect seal literally in seconds after turning it on. if you need quality, quick work, reliability, then get this Fellowes Venus 2 NOW!

Fellowes Venus 2 125 Lamination Machine It came very well packaged in factory box. It had two foam inserts on each side to keep it stable. The machine was inside a moderately loose fitting bag and the three prong power cord was packaged in a smaller bag and taped to the front to prevent it from moving. The rear feeder tray was packaged in its own plastic bag and placed in front of several papers and a re-sealable bag that contained the User's Manual and a Registration card. In another package it contained 10x 3 mil lamination pouches. It contained a helpful tips sheet as well. It was very simple to set up. Make sure receiver tray is a minimum of 20” away from the wall before using. The machine turns on in the back and goes through a function check before it starts heating the cycles. It has three cycle options. Standby, auto with heat and cold. It also has a reverse button. It can do up to 10 mil lamination pouches. I used the heat cycle and one of the provided pouches and laminated the Helpful Tips and Tricks paper for longevity. It takes about 30 seconds, or less for it to heat up. It is cool to the touch when hot. If the blue light is showing it will be a cold lamination. Green for hot. Wait for the lights to stop blinking and green on the thickness you want. Then all you do is stick the paper in the lamination pouch and flatten it out. Feed the item in through the front as centered as possible. Watch it as it rolls through and once it is out on the back, remove it promptly to avoid a possible roller jam. The manual states that the item night be hot upon removal. The item was not hot for me to the touch. However, I highly recommend that you take heed of the warning anyway. Especially with the thicker items. The machine is quiet, doesn't heat up the surface it is sitting on, and works quickly and smoothly. I highly recommend this product. It seems well made and it's a very sleek and stylish design I would be proud to display in my office. You will not be disappointed. It has a sheet to call for help if you need it.

I am doing a review on the Fellowes Venus 2 125 Laminator. It looks really professional and expensive. It looks to be made very solid and sturdy. It needs a lot of space. It is really large. It is 21.3" Depth x 8.2" Width x 5.1" Height. This would look good in a doctor's office. When you turn it on it takes it just 30 to 60 seconds to warm up. It comes with 10 3ml pouches. It will accept pouches thickness up to 10ml. I am very impressed with the 3ml which I used. I can't imagine what a 10ml would look like. I am going to have to get some. You can buy those online. The opening where you put the laminating pouches is 12.5" wide. It will accept smaller widths than that too just not more than that. I wanted to see how it worked so I made some of my own bookmarks and ran them through the pouches into the machine and they were great. I did not expect it to be that easy and turn out that well. Once you run it through it will come out of the back on top of a tray. You must immediately remove it and place on flat surface or it will curl. I also laminated a coloring page that my daughter drew and want to save it forever. I do believe it will with this laminator.

Easy set up right out of the box, I plug the machine into outlet and put the exit tray to the rear of the machine. The instructions are easy to follow. The pouches that come with machine are letter size, make sure you place items properly inside the sealed edge of pouch even if the item you are trying to laminate is smaller than pouch make sure you insert it snug against the seal edge, you can cut the excess off later, I laminated a front/back copy of my lists of foods rich in the 13 Essential Vitamins and the portion plate on back, I had to run it through the machine twice and it gave me a perfect lamination. I laminate some photos too it came out perfect in just one try. I am enjoying this Laminator! Spring is in the air, I have started to search for back ground pictures to print and laminate my very own patio place mats and coasters for drinks. Get your creative juices flowing, ready set go it laminating time, need a mouse pad for my desk and a picture to put in my bathroom. You can do so many creative things. This machine is heavy and should be place on a stable surface.

The laminator arrived packed well in a sturdy carton. It was easy to set up in preparation for use. It came with a package of 10 laminating pouches that are 9” x 11.5”. I like that these are plenty big to cover an 8.5”x 11” standard size sheet of paper. If you are laminating something smaller, you will need to trim the pouch so it doesn't protrude more than about ¼ “ on all sides of the item. This will mean some waste if you are using the large pouches and have to trim them down to fit a small item. You have to be sure to push the item to be laminated up against the sealed edge of the pouch, which is the edge you feed into the machine first. Otherwise you will no doubt jam the machine and have a mess. It does, however, have a reverse function just in case of a jam. It takes a little getting used to the way the machine cycles while it is warming up and learning when to push the “standby” button. The machine does beep when it is ready for 3 mil material. It has additional lights that come on one at a time as it heats up to receive thicker material. It can laminate up to 10 mil thick pouches. It automatically senses the thickness of the pouch. There are markings on the front of the machine to aid in guiding your pouch into the feeding slot. There is a little arrow marking the center and then guidelines to the right and left of center for different sized items. You have to be careful to feed the pouch in straight. There is nothing to butt the pouch up against to keep it straight, so you have to slowly and gently slide it into the machine while holding it straight. The machine does a very nice smooth lamination. I have used it on regular paper and on card stock so far with good results. This laminator has 6 rollers and will accept up to a 12.5 inch wide item. It heats up very fast, 30 to 60 seconds, and it feeds the pouch through faster than most lesser-priced laminators. Fellowes offers different sized pouches and also a combination pack of 5 different sizes so you can laminate smaller items without a lot of waste. It is recommended that you use Fellowes brand pouches in this machine.

This Fellowes Venus2 is absolutely amazing! The only other laminator I've used in the past took a real long time to heat up. The venus2 heats up so fast the time you turn it on and get your project ready in a laminating pouch it's all heated up and ready to go (30 sec!) It can laminate 3m,4m,5m,7m and 10mil. It runs REALLY quiet too and it's not hot to the touch at all. It's so easy to use that I'm trying to find reasons to use it. It has a reverse function that I would assume for some reason something gets stuck. But yet to have to use it. I think the 6 rollers REALLY help with the smoothness and keeps things from getting snagged. It has a fairly nice large entry at 12.5" which is super nice for large photos, which is what I've done so far. The venus2 is also fairly pleasing to the eye in my opinion with a cool smooth face with no push buttons to break! It came with a pack of 3mil Fellowes pouches. I've had no bubbling or heating issues what so ever. Everything comes out super smooth and crisp every time. It's nice not to have to worry if your important document or photo will be ruined.The Fellowes Venus2 is must have for a small office or the home. We're laminating kids project, photos and a few documents we want to keep safe. This thing is a must have for sure.

In an effort to more fully equip my home office, I thought a laminator would be an excellent addition. Being unsure of brands and models, I did some quick research on the items I saw most recently offered. I finally decided on the Fellowes Venus2 125. The speed of warm up and processing was described extremely favorably. I had no real anticipation of size, but focused more on the expected functionality. When the box came, it seemed a little heavier than anticipated and somewhat larger than casually thought. I took it to my office, to unpack and place it. I was immediately surprised and thoroughly impressed by the size of the actual unit. It was extremely professional looking. My immediate reaction was that this was way too serious and probably too complicated for a “home office”. The directions are very clear and understandable. I simply followed the steps, and it was very quickly operational. The unit functioned exactly as described in the accompanying paperwork. After identifying a document that I wanted to preserve, I followed the steps and produced a laminated sheet that came out absolutely perfectly. The instructions said to run a test product before doing something important. This unit worked perfectly, without any test runs. I did, however, run the ‘cleaner sheet' first. The addition of this unit gives my home office a feeling of being upgraded to a more professional status. I recommend this item to anyone who wants a functionally well rounded home office environment.

The laminater is quite a bit wider then I thought it would be. It is about twenty one inches across and about seven and a half inches deep without the exit tray. With the exit tray in place it measures around fifteen inches. Considering the size of the laminater you would need a large area to accommodate the machine. I had to make sure there was enough space behind the machine to clear anything laminated longer then just the length of the exit tray. The laminater has six rollers to my surprise. Definitely a great feature for the laminating pouches to feed through faster. Another great feature is the reverse button. A plus for times when you're laminating something and it went in crooked or whatever the reason you don't want it to go through. I worked for the school district for almost 25 years prepping materials for the classes. I wished many times the laminater had a reverse button it would have been a great help. A packet of ten laminating sheets was included to test the machine. It will laminate 3,4,5 and 10 mil pouches. It took appoximately one minute to heat up. There is an indicator that lights the roll of numbers showing what thickness (mil) the machine is ready for. I used one of the punches that came with the machine which is 3 mil to laminate one of my grandsons drawing. A grain of dried rice got laminated by accident. I don't know how it got on the laminating pouch but it went through the machine with no problem. According to the brochure from the packet that came with the machine you can purchase the various thicknesses of pouches. It shows a picture of the packages each sold seperately. I don't see a variety pack. I have a roll of 12 inch laminating film so I decided to laminate some 12X12 scrapbook paper. This is not card stock quality but the thinner sheets more like bond paper. I forgt to mention that the opening to feed the pouches is a nice 13 inches wide. It took only about 23 seconds for the scrapbook paper to feed through. It was super fast thanks to the machines six rollers. I then tested the reverse button to see if there were going to be any problems. The instructions say to press down and hold on the button. I had to try it three times, maybe I didn't press directly in the center of the button. It finally did work and worked very well. This laminater works really well does a great job laminately and relatively quiet. The only thing I would like is that it wasn't so wide. Space would be a problem. It's a great machine. Pros: Quick warm up, super fast, great job laminating, relatively quiet. Cons: Would be nice if the machine wasn't so wide.

I am a Spark Reviewer for Walmart and was sent a free Fellowes VENUS 2 (125) Office Laminator to review. I have always wanted a laminator to preserve paper items and now was my chance. The laminator came and I was surprised at how large and heavy it is. This laminator can be used for home, schools, offices, and any businesses. It is very sturdy. I took it out of the box and placed it on a stable surface. This is very important because it is heavy and needs to be sitting flat in order for it to work properly. The first thing I did was pull out the directions. The directions show how to set up the laminator which is not difficult. That only took 5 minutes. The directions state how the machine operates, but they don't really say how to use the machine. I looked up the company on the computer and was able to find a short video on their website. I had never used a laminator before so this was very helpful. I then noticed that when you turn on the laminator it runs through about 15 seconds of getting itself ready. In the video it showed a blue light on the top that after flashing becomes a steady light. On my laminator it kept flashing. I just thought maybe it was because it flashed until I put a pouch with a paper in it to laminate. So I did just that. The first run through it did not do anything so I put it through again. This time it did laminate the paper, but it was not hot as the video said it would be, but I have to say that the paper I sent through came out perfect. There were not any crinkles, it was sealed perfectly and looked professionally done. I then noticed an odor coming from the laminator. I wasn't sure what to do so I shut off the laminator. I then called the Customer Service number for Fellowes that was on the instruction booklet and talked to a very nice gentleman. I explained that I had never used a laminator before and wanted him to go through it step by step with me. He then told me what to do. When I turned the machine back on, it did the same thing with the flashing light and I told him. He told me that was not correct and first had me make sure the plug was firmly plugged into both the machine and my outlet. Then I told him about the odor. He said that a slight odor was normal upon using it the first time because of the heating elements. Then he asked me to turn off the machine and turn it upside down to get the serial number located on the bottom. I did and was surprised at how hot it was. I told him that the laminator was really hot to the touch. He took the serial number from me and told me that it sounded like there was something wrong with the mother board on the laminator. He asked for my name, address, etc. and then he advised me to keep it unplugged. He then stated that he will send out a new machine to me and return postage for the laminator that I have. He said that they want to see what was wrong with the mother board and that I will be keeping the new one that comes. I was really surprised at how customer oriented Fellowes is and have to say that any product can come with a problem as we all know, but usually when you call a company they just give you a hard time. Fellowes stands behind their products, and the laminated paper I did get done came out perfectly. I am looking forward to receiving my replacement Fellowes VENUS 2 (215) Laminator, and am confident in Fellowes products and service.

I recieved this through the spark reviewer program to try and to give an honest opinion. When I purchase an item I figure beside the item itself you are actually also purchasing support for that Item and I have to say this company has gone above and beyond. I recieved the Item from Walmart and it was dead on arrival (a first for me from Walmart). I called the number given on the instructions and in less then 10 minuets with their support had anouther on the way without them needing the return up front. A few days later I recieved the replacement and was anxious to try it out and tried to laminate something and it didnt work. When I pulled out the sheet glass came out on it, something had been broken in shipping and here I sat with close to $900 worth of laminators thinking no way they would send in anouther replacement without receiving at least one. I was wrong, 10 minutes later anouther was on the way! When it got here I plugged it in and it worked perfectly. Outstanding. On to my opinion about the Item itself. I hadn't laminated any thing for a very long time, the last time I did you had to put the sleeve between cardboard to send it through and almost always got bubbles or the edges would over heat and you would have to go through several tries to get it right plus it would take forever to heat up. Not with this beauty. It takes next to no time to heat up, under a minute, and you send through the laminating packet and your done, no bubbles and a professional laminated item. With the 6 roller system it runs it through evenly and fast. Unlike the older and cheaper models the heat is all internal so no standing there and sweating while you send Items through. Being an office type laminator it takes up to 10 mil sheets and there is no adjustment needed, its all automatic. When you put the sheet in it checks the size and the light shows you how thick the laminate is while already laminating your Item. It also comes with a standard computer cable for power which is a major plus for me, less things to break:) Now for the cons as I see them, if they are cons at all. It is much larger then I expected and heavier so Its kind of a space hog. Also it only uses the packets so no strait laminating paper and the cost is intimidating. I gave it 4 stars because for a small business or a family Its not practical but understand that this is a large buisiness laminator and thats what its built for, durability and ease of use. In that role with the outstanding support its a definite 5 star machine.