Best Home, Small Office Paper Document Shredders
Desktop, Personal, Business, Cross Cut, Confetti, CD, DVD
The US Federal Trade Commission recommends the shredding of "charge receipts, copies of credit applications, insurance forms, physician statements, checks and bank statements, expired charge cards that you're discarding, and credit offers you get in the mail" to protect against identity theft.
Prices of home and small business office shredders range from $30 to over $200. Popular brands include Fellowes (Powershred), Aurora, GBC, Staples, Destroyit and Rexel.
Warranties can reach 7 years. The cutting head needs frequent oiling for maximum life.
Types of Paper Shredders
Small desktop shredders have 4.5 inch wide cutters. A4 or Letter sheets need to be folded lengthwise into half before shredding.
Bin-less shredders have a 9 inch cutting head (allowing sheets of paper to be fed in without folding) but no paper collection bin. They are small and light, designed to be placed over standard wastepaper baskets.
Most shredders have 9 inch cutters and attached or built-in bins to collect the shredded paper. Bin sizes range from 5 to 10 gallons. Smaller shredders are placed over the bin and are lifted off when emptying the bin.
Larger shredders are too heavy for easy lifting and have slide-out bins. Bits of paper can spill out when the bin is removed, and the inside of the bin holder will need frequent vacuuming. This is a common problem for all slide-out bins.
Strip, Cross Cut, Confetti, Diamond and Micro Cut Shredders
The smaller the shredded pieces of paper, the harder it is to reassemble the document or to have readable fragments (name, address, bank account number).
Simple shredders cut strips up to 1/4 inch wide. They are cheap and may be good enough. They are certainly better than no shredding. One disadvantage is that the cut strips are springy and take up a lot of space.
More secure are cross cut or confetti shredders, which can cut strips as small as 5/32 x 1 1/2 inches. They aren't necessarily expensive, with many costing less than $100.
Diamond cut shredders depend on the diagonal diamond shape of the cut strips to obscure the information. The strips are therefore often (but not always) larger than cross cut strips, for example 5/16 x 2 inches.
Micro cut confetti shredders are the most secure, creating strips as small as 5/64 x 5/16 inches. They are probably only necessary for banks and spy agencies. One disadvantage is that more paper dust might be created.
Paper Shredder Performance and Features
For personal shredders, manufacturers claim that 5 to 17 sheets can be shredded at the same time (depending on the model).
However these specifications are often optimistic. A more realistic figure can be half the manufacturer's numbers. A 12 sheet shredder can effectively be a 6 sheet shredder under normal usage. A 5 sheet desktop 4.5 inch shredder might handle only a thickness of 2 or 3 sheets. Folding a sheet in half to fit into the shredder already creates a 2 sheet thickness. The effective capacity is therefore only 1 sheet.
To shred unopened junk mail, an effective capacity of at least 5 sheets is needed (front and back of envelope, triple folded sheet of paper). Plastic credit cards in the junk mail make them even harder to shred. Mail should be given a quick squeeze or pat down before shredding: some junk mails contain metal keys.
The cutter or feed speed (how quickly the shredder pulls in the paper) will also affect shredder throughput. Speeds range from 7 to 10 feet per minute.
Also affecting throughput is the shredder's continuous use time. Many shredders can be used for only 5 to 15 minutes before needing up to 30 minutes to cool down.
Shredders should be able to handle staples and paper clips, though the smaller shredders might not be able to.
Larger shredders often have a special slot for credit cards and CDs/DVDs. There should ideally be a separate collection container to avoid mixing the cut plastic and paper strips, especially if the paper is to be recycled.
Noise levels (decibels) can be an issue. Unfortunately noise levels aren't always specified by manufacturers. "Try before buy" is the best strategy.
Other Shredder Features
Standard shredder features are:
- Automatic start, switching on the motor only when paper is inserted.
- Reverse, to unjam the cutter.
- Bin full detector, switching off the motor when the collection bin is full.
Useful safety features include:
- Touch safety to protect children, pets. The shredder stops if the metal around the feed slot is touched.
- Overheating protection, automatically shutting off the motor if the temperature is too high.
The Best Paper Document Shredder
The best way to ensure reliable and hassle-free operation is to buy a shredder that is more powerful than needed. A 12 (medium duty) to 17 (heavy duty) sheet shredder is a safe choice for personal and home office use.
Fight Identity Theft with a Paper Shredder
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