School Pro Classroom Electric Pencil Sharpener, Blue, 1 Count

This review is for the X-Acto School Pro I ordered this electric pencil sharpener five years ago to use during homeschool. My two son's had to do a lot of writing for the curriculum they were doing through a college-prep home-cooperative that was very heavy in writing, penmanship, and worksheets. I read tons of reviews on different pencil sharpeners and even ordered several others that broke or quit working within the first year. Bottom line: -This pencil sharpener has worked perfectly - no problems! -The suction feet still work five years later. They do not suction so strongly that it can't be moved, but they provide resistance and keep it from sliding around. -It has survived a few small falls, but I try to place it where it won't get knocked off of surfaces and isn't too high up. -We have sharpened colored pencils in it but for the most part we try to use it only for pencils - we usually use manual sharpeners for colored pencils. It does work great for colored pencils, but I read those can lessen the life of a sharpener. -We tried to avoid lots of cheap/coated pencils in this sharpener. We have used those, but again, read that the decorated pencils with lots of plastic and coated surfaces can lessen the life of the sharpener, so we use them, but not as often as normal pencils. -When my sons were really young - Kindergarten/1st grade, I did not let them use this (I've seen kids put metal and all kinds of things in a sharpener). They started using it the last several years. -We only had one point in the last five years where I thought we might be losing power or getting to the end of this sharpener's life, but it was just dirty. I let the collection bin get too full and it temporarily clogged the machine - just had to empty it and blow some of the debris clear and it worked perfectly again - no extra cleaning or digging anything out. -At the time, I thought $30 for this sharpener was a lot, but after reading teacher's reviews I invested in it and after five years, it has more than earned its price - especially in ending frustration from poorly operating electric sharpeners, manual sharpeners that lose sharpness, problems with sharpeners not functioning correctly or breaking, and badly sharpened pencils that come out chunky, blunt, broken, and lose tips constantly. These come out very nice every time! - I love that the sharpener **stops sharpening after the pencil is sharp!! My sons don't whittle their pencils down to nothing or get distracted and run the sharpener endlessly (the motor still goes, but the sharpener releases).

I don't even know where to begin as I tell you about this fantastic sharpener. I wasn't expecting too terribly much, as the price is substantially lower than many other sharpeners that claim to be heavy duty. But I read the reviews which seemed overwhelmingly positive and took a chance. Oh my! It's really incredible! I use it for my favorite graphite pencil, the Dixon Ticonderoga, a variety of colored pencils including Crayola, Prismacolor, Irojiten and Hero, and some specialty things like Faber-Castell Art Grip Aquarelle and Derwent Inktense. Each one of these pencils sharpened beautifully to a long, sharp point. I read some reviews that complained about this- but there is a fix for that. As you can see, there is a dial for different sized pencil barrels. I like the standard one- there is a faint circle on the dial to show you which that is, and I get a fairly long point. But if you use the setting to the left, a bit smaller, the point will be slightly shorter. The fit seems a little tight, but in this sharpener, you don't twirl or turn the pencil. You just slide it in and the sharpeners do all the work. There are some suction cups on the bottom but they don't stick to my laminate shelf, so I just make sure there's something behind the sharpener to keep it from moving and all I have to do is insert the pencil and wait for it to stop. The sharpener knows when to stop, and won't oversharpen! I have sharpened over 150 pencils with no trouble, no breakage. The worse that has happened is that a tiny bit of the sharp tip might break off on the first use, but that is the worst and once that happens there has been no more trouble. And I almost forgot to tell you the other amazing thing- even when sharpening a brand-new pencil, you lose only a speck of length. That's right. No more will you lose a quarter to half-inch every time you sharpen your pencil. I'm not sure how it works but it seems that it knows just where the tip is and sharpens to that point, if that makes any sense. Oh, one small tip (no pun intended), if you sharpen a lot of colored pencils, especially oil-based ones, you are going to want to sharpen some graphite pencils in between to keep the blades clean. Anyway, I hope you love this sharpener as much as I do. I'm tempted to buy another just to tuck away, but my last electric sharpener lasted over 25 years, and I'm no spring chicken, if you get my point.

This pencil sharpener works very well and has been quite reliable. So far, every pencil we have put through it has been sharpened quickly and consistently, with nearly zero splintering or broken lead. We have both the Teacher Pro and the School Pro; for home use, we prefer the School Pro. The Teacher Pro seems better for general classroom environments. They are both great sharpeners, but operate differently. The School Pro has a fly-away cutter so when the pencil is sharp the motor keeps running but it stops cutting. The Teacher Pro stops the motor and has an indicator light that sharpening is done. This feature has been good for younger kids and for noisy environments. Both sharpeners are reasonably quiet. Both sharpeners are obvious to use and our kids can use both just fine. The Teacher Pro is considerably larger than the School Pro. That may be part of the reason we like the School Pro better for home use. We are using the Teacher Pro in a school environment. The Teacher Pro is "rated" for heavier usage than the School Pro, but both have worked without problem for a couple months now and seem to sharpen at the same speed.

Great pencil sharpener. Had this for about two years and it’s still going strong. Very happy with it. I’ve had others and this one works better than any. I’m an artist so a good pencil sharpener is a must.

My daughter is in 1st grade and I've asked her teacher how I can help make her life easier, and she requested that I sharpen some pencils for her, as its time consuming and she hates doing it. I happily agreed, and was shocked when the first gallon sized zip lock bag of 100 pencils came home. My electric pencil sharpener couldn't cut it, so I borrowed one from a friend who is a former teacher. A few weeks later, another bag of pencils came home with my daughter. I bought an electric pencil sharpener at Target. It was garbage... didn't even make it through the first 20. I knew I wanted something that plugged in rather than took batteries, and I needed it to have a very large holder for the shavings, so I wasn't dumping constantly. I asked around, looked at reviews, and chose this one - and I am so glad I did! It sharpens each pencil perfectly, and virgin pencils only take a few seconds. The blades retract and stop sharpening once the pencil is sharp, so you're not wasting pencils or having to remove it to see if its done. The bin is plenty large enough to do very large batches at a time, and so far I've had no issues with overheating, which was a concern. The different sized pencil holes came in handy as I was sharpening normal sized pencils as well as a few of the thicker beginner ticonderoga pencils. A nice added bonus that I didn't realize until I was ready to move it - is that it was stuck to my kitchen counter! It has several suction cups on the bottom of it so it will stay wherever you put it rather than sliding all around, which I thought was a nice touch. This may be overkill if you only sharpen pencils occasionally -- but for me, doing 100 or more in one sitting every few weeks -- this is a dream!

After looking for a decent quality pencil sharpener, I gave this one a try. If it had been any more expensive, I wouldn't have bothered trying it, but I'm so glad I did. This sharpener is great! The only reason I knocked off a star is because it doesn't come in black. Blue just doesn't blend with every environment, and I find it a bit of an eye sore. Even dark grey would have been better. Aside from that this is a quality sharpener. The pencils sharpen well, to a good point, quickly, and it releases the blades when it's sharpened. If you want to be sure the pencil is sharpened closer to center, you can turn the pencil and the gears will reengage, then disengage. It even has a slot for the triangular pencils my daughter used to use in school. As soon as my daughter saw it, she said, "That's the same sharpener we use in our classroom at school." That was in a Montessori school. It is a bit larger than most, so you might want to take a look at the dimensions listed. But it's great, and you can go a fair while without having to empty it. Highly recommended! To the company: Please make this in black or dark grey. And thank you for a great sharpener at a good price!

I’ve recently started using colored pencils a lot more than I used to. Back when it was just casual sketching here and there, a little handheld sharpener did the job. But now that I’m creating more regularly, that just wasn’t cutting it anymore—literally. After some research and reading reviews, I chose the X-Acto® School Pro Electric Pencil Sharpener, and it’s been better than I expected. The multiple pencil size options are a huge plus, especially for artists or anyone who burns through different types of pencils. It plugs into the wall, so there’s no worry about batteries dying mid-project. The suction cup feet keep it firmly in place, which is a great touch for stability. And yes, it makes some noise—but that’s expected with an electric motor, and it’s actually quieter than I anticipated. Would I buy it again? No hesitation—absolutely.

Sturdy, works great!