Dull pencils are the bane of my household, but my last electric pencil sharpener overheated and expired after one particularly rigorous round of sharpening. The Hunt HD has thoroughly impressed me with its powerful motor and razor-sharp blades. The sharpener works its magic in seconds and pencils emerge with a long, finely honed point. You can tell that it's sharpened when the sound of the motor changes and the resistance lightens. Although the sharpener has an auto-off feature to prevent overheating, I've yet to need this as it has easily sharpened my whole backlog of dull pencils. The capacity is more than sufficient for our busy pencil-breaking home. The suction-cup feet hold it securely in place on my countertop, ready for action, and the discard container for pencil shavings has plenty of capacity and is easy to access when you do need to empty the contents. You wouldn't think that sharp pencils could make such a difference, but now I'm almost happy to find a dull lead , so that I can I can use this smooth-operating sharpener.