Did you know that until the mid-1980s paper shredders were not common in non-governmental organizations or offices, though it was invented way back in 1935? In the latter half 1980s, there was a large number of US citizens concerned with the privacy of their documents as anti-burning laws had increased. They were concerned about identity theft, and thus the US Federal Trade Commission recommended people to shred their financial documents before disposal.
Since then, there are many different types of paper shredders manufactured with the evolution of technology. Some shredders are small and less expensive, which are designed for a certain number of documents. Also, there are paper shredders large units and commercially used, which shred millions of documents per hour. A paper shredder is a machine that cuts the documents into small pieces so that it will no longer be readable. Three main types of shredders are Strip-Cut (Cuts papers into strips), Cross-Cut (Cuts paper into little bits) and Micro-cut (turns paper into confetti).
Also, while you are buying a shredder, you may be having difficulties with why you should be buying it or is it really necessary? You are sitting on the fence on whether to buy it or not. Some factors which may help you decide are, it may be a law that you have to use a paper shredder or you will be fined. You have to protect your customer’s information or protect your employee’s information; they should be shredded when no longer needed. Sometimes it is convenient because shredded papers are compact and easy to transport or discard. Shredding sensitive data saves money and that helps in information management. Some companies like a financial firm may require shred a lot of sensitive documents but some other companies may not require shred lot of documents as they might have gone almost paperless.
We have analyzed paper shredders depending on the reviews provided by the end users\companies and their experience with the product. Some users\companies may have had a good experience with a particular product but the other user\company might not have had such good experience with the same product. Hence we have minutely checked the reviews and came out with a list which we will be helpful for new end-users\companies to decide on the best product.
We would like to list out some of the best paper shredders you can find so that it would be easier for you to decide by comparing your requirements and the characteristics of the products that we have listed:
Table of Contents
AmazonBasics 8-Sheet Home Office Shredder
Amazon basics are a great way to buy branded products, mostly electronics and office used products. Here we present to you “AmazonBasics 8-Sheet Cross-Cut Paper and Credit Card Home Office Shredder” which is a quality product and had great reviews overall and with fewer cons.
This shredder is a good combination of price and performance and perfect use for small offices. It can run three minutes continuously and when it’s overheated, it takes around 30 minutes to cool down. It also has an overheat LED indicator. It can cut 8 sheet paper at a time and also shred one credit card at a time. It shreds paper into strips measuring 3/16″x 1-27/32″ and meets the P3 standards for security. The bin for the machine is around 4 gallons, and it has a see-through window where you can easily view the inside of the bin to determine whether the bin is full or not. The noise levels for this shredder are very low as low 70DB’s. Hence it can be used in small offices, with shared workspaces.
Pros:
- It’s perfect for hard and heavy use in small offices.
- Using the Amazon basics helps as they are great quality products.
- It’s a good combination of price and performance.
- It has a very easy operation as its sensor detects paper easily.
- Perfect use for small office space.
Cons:
- You need to be careful about using it for more than 3 minutes as it may overheat quickly after 3 minutes.
- If you feed the documents in a vertical portrait way rather than a horizontal landscape way, the shredded papers may contain data that might be visible easily and misused.
Bonsaii EverShred Heavy-Duty Cross-Cut Paper/CD/Credit Card Shredder
This product is recommended by Amazon as it is a high-quality product. The main characteristic of this product is it can run up to 60 minutes without shutting down as it has a very advances cooling system, and the cutting method used by this machine is patented. The noise produced by this product is very low at around 62 decibels. The cooling downtime is only 10 minutes for this product.
It can cut up to 18 sheets at a time and shreds paper into tiny particles measuring 1/5 x 1-50/87 inches (5 x 40mm). It has auto-start and auto-reverse functionality, which helps during paper jams. The bin basket is around 6 gallons, and the transparent window helps us to know when the bin is full. So it is helpful as it runs up to 60 minutes and can get full if you are continuously using the shredder.
This machine performs the task of shredding papers, CDs\DVDs, Credit Cards, and Staples, with the help of medium-duty motor that can shred around 5.3 feet in a minute. The entry slot of the machine is 8.7 inches which facilitate letter and legal-size documents to be shredded. The sound produced by the motor not too much and hence can be easily used in office spaces.
Pros:
- It can shred about 100 sheets of paper before you need a lubricant sheet.
- 60-minute run time.
- It is fast and can take a large chunk of paper with no problems.
- It’s a good investment for the heavy use of shredding papers.
- The shredder is sturdy.
- It has casters for easy mobility.
Cons:
- The only drawback for this machine is it sometimes might not run for 60mins as intended.
- Sometimes it may get overheated due to heavy paper load.
Boxis AutoShred Paper Shredder
At 11 feet per minute, this shedder sheds around 80 pages at once and can run for 10 minutes continuously. It helps in shredding manually and instantly. It has a separate throat that shreds up to 8 sheets instantly at 6.9 feet per minute with a 5-minute continuous runtime. It reduces a letter-size sheet into over 1500 unreadable particles. The machine weighs around 16 pounds and has dimensions of 12.9 x 8.9 x 18.3 inches.
This machine is shredder is light and compact. The technology used is innovative, where you have an auto paper feeder mechanism that grabs documents one at a time and shreds them into unreadable micro-cut particles.
The machine also has casters for stability and easy mobility. The auto-feed variation for this product ranges from 80Sheet feed to 700Sheet feed. It is sturdy and well-built for office spaces.
Pros:
- 80 sheet auto-feed is helpful in large offices.
- It shreds credit cards and CD\DVS’s.
- Easy operation as the sensor detects papers easily and recommended by users.
- The resulting pieces are virtually unreadable and hence really helpful for stressing confidential documents.
- The compact micro-cut waste maximizes bin capacity, which means you empty less often.
- Also, it has casters so that we can move around the machine easily when required.
Cons:
- You need to be careful while using a large number of sheets as it may cause jamming sometimes.
- The life of this shredder is not that good as compared to the other shredders in this price range as per the reviews of the product.
Bonsaii DocShred 8-Sheet High-Security Micro-Cut Shredder
This is a micro-cut shredder with 8 sheets shredding capacity and 5/32 by 2/5 inches (4x10mm) shredding size. This can be considered as a heavy-duty shredder for home use and is perfect for keeping your confidential information safe. It can destroy credit card/CD/DVD and clips, staples as well.
It has a large 5.5 gallons wastebasket, which can help in less frequent emptying and the transparent window makes it convenient to know when the wastebasket is full. Auto start and manual reverse help to deal with paper jams. The machine has 4-minute run time and 40-minute cooling downtime. It also comes with a thermal protection system.
The machine is very smart and efficient and is very easy to operate. When it runs continuously for 3-5 minutes, it may become overheated and it will shut-off automatically for cooling for around 30-40 minutes.
Pros:
- Hassle-free and easy operation.
- The overheating protection system helps in maintaining the life of the motor and provides good shredding results.
- Perfect for home-offices, which also shred CD\DVDs, credit cards apart from papers.
- It comes at a very reasonable price as compared to other shredders, which do the same workload.
- Auto start and manual reverse to clear paper jams easily.
Cons:
- We need to keep an eye for overheating as it may get heated within 5 minutes.
Aurora AU1230XA Anti-Jam 12-Sheet Crosscut Paper and Credit Card Shredder
This is a cross-cut shredder with the capacity of shredding 12sheets at once, it has a 5.2-gallon wastebasket bin, which also has LED indicator lights for standby and overheat. It also shreds papers, credit cards into pieces (3/16 by 1-9/16 inches). This shredder maintains a security level of P3 standard.
It has overload and thermal protection. Comes with 4 mode switch such as auto, off, reverse and forward. Continuously it can run for around 5 mins and has anti-jam and auto-reverse to clear paper jams. It makes a good choice, as it is recommended by Amazon.
The product dimensions are 13.3 x 8.5 x 15.9 inches. It has a safety feature, which is safety angled feed which prevents accidents. It weighs around 13 pounds which is relatively less as compared to the shredder which performs the same function.
Pros:
- Angled feed entry is a great safety feature that prevents accidents.
- It has overload auto-reverse to prevent paper jams.
- Ideal for small and home offices.
- The price is reasonable.
Cons:
- You need to be careful about using it for more than 5 minutes as it may overheat quickly after 5 minutes.
- Sometimes you may have issues with paper jamming, which may occur frequently.
Fellowes Powershred 79Ci 100% Jam Proof Criss Cut Shredder
This is one of the paper shredders recommended by Amazon as it has good features as compared to another shredder that performs similar functions. This shredder is a cross-cut type of shredder and the model number for this is 3227901 of Fellowes brand. It can pass up to 16 sheets in one go and it shreds them to 5/32″ x 1-1/2″ cross-cut particles. The security level for this shredder is P-4 standard.
It is 100% jam-proof and is an ultra-quiet shredder which helps to give optimum usage in crowded workspaces. It has something called an energy-saving system that provides maximum efficiency of 100%. The shredder weighs around 28 pounds and has a dimension of 10.4 x 15.4 x 21.3 inches.
The basket bin capacity is 6 gallons and it has a pull-out bin. This machine can be used for a wide variety of shredding, like shredding documents, CDs\DVDs and credit cards. It has a capacity of shredding for up to 20 mins before it stops automatically and cools down for around 30mins before it can start shredding again.
Pros:
- It’s a perfect household shredder, which is child and pet safe, as it stops when hands touch the paper opening.
- It shreds a wide range of materials like paper, CDs\DVDs and credit cards.
- Its 100% jam-proof and has 100% energy efficiency of time in use and out of use.
- The shredder is quiet and hence can be used is shared workspaces.
Cons:
- The wastebasket capacity is small as compared to the functions it provides.
EZBASICS 5-Sheet Cross-Cut Paper and Credit Card Shredder
Another great product which provides maximum efficiency and has advanced technology with the functions it provides. This shredder is the perfect use for small offices. It weighs around 15.4 pounds and Shreds paper measures 3/19″x 1-3/16″ which meets the P4 security level. It is a cross-cut shredder that allows 5 sheets per shred.
It shreds a variety of materials like documents, Credit Cards, Clips, and Staples. This shredder is unique as it doesn’t need lubricant and has very low noise around 58 decibels. The noise output helps to maintain a quiet office/indoor environment. To clear paper jams, it has auto-start and manual-reverse function, which works swiftly.
The main advantage of this product is it is very compact, with a basket capacity of 3.1 gallons. Adding to the compactness the machine is quiet smart in detecting overheating and overload. The machine simply stops shredding when you remove the wastebasket.
Pros:
- It can run continuously for 5 mins and needs 30 min cool downtime.
- It can shred 5 sheets at a time and 1 credit card at a time.
- Whenever the wastebasket is full it indicates so that we can empty the bin.
- Perfect for light use in a small business or home office.
- The built is stylish and seems to go with your decor.
Cons:
- It could be a problem if you have a large number of documents to shred.
- This machine doesn’t recommend shred sealed envelopes.
- The waste bin capacity is small, and hence you need to keep emptying the bin more frequently.
Conclusion:
Burning paper is not good for the environment and hence we as good citizens should refrain from burning paper and other material that can be easily shredded so that the shredded materials could be recycled. This helps to maintain the environment.
While we are buying a shredder, if we go for a lower price the duration of the shredding could be less and the size of the bin could be small. If we go for a higher price, then we can have a larger bin and the technology used will be more advanced, like safety issues will be taken care of, like child and pet safety, some shredders stop when hands touch the paper opening. We need to analyze our requirements and budget before we decide on which one exactly, we need to buy. We can opt for a security level of 3 or 4 as they help in shredding the documents into very small pieces. Large organizations or shredding services sometimes use mobile shredding trucks that have a shredder and large space for storage. Some companies also outsource shredding to shredding services. There are shredders which are so strong that it can shred even metals.
As mentioned, before we have managed to bring you the best shredders depending on the user requirement and user reviews, go through them and hope the article helps you get your dream shredder.
