How to choose the ideal paper shredder

Because there is such a wide variety of paper shredders on the market, choosing the one that is best suited to your needs can be a time-consuming and perplexing process. Knowing your needs in terms of performance, capacities, and features will make shopping for a new paper shredder for your company much easier.

What type of shredder safety do you need?

If the cabinet door is opened or the paper shredder is removed from its bin or cabinet, it will immediately shut down as a safety precaution – if this is a safety feature of your chosen paper shredders for sale. Some models of paper shredders have a pressure- or touch-sensitive paper feed entrance that immediately stops the machine. While most shredders that utilise the sensitive paper feed feature use capacitance to halt operation, this feature can misfire and become annoying in humid environments.

What security level do you require?

The most common type of paper shredders for sale are a cross-cut model with a security level of P4, which is what most modern workplaces require for sensitive information on document destruction. High security shredders, also known as Micro Cut or Super Micro Cut paper shredders, are the only option for government agencies, military branches, and government contractors handling security classified material like top secret information. The most common security levels for these paper shredders are P5, P6, and P7.

What type of entry width do you need?

Whether you require an A4, A3, or wider paper format feed entry shredder is usually a straightforward question to answer once you have established what paper sizes you need to shred. In most cases, a larger paper feed entrance means a larger waste capacity due to the larger size of the cabinet. In general, the price of a shredder is more than that of an A4-capacity model with the same cutting capability. 500 sheets per week, of which only 20 are A3, suggests an A4 shredder is adequate. If you want to reduce the amount of time spent folding and shredding A3 documents, all you have to do is fold them in half.

Do want a manual or automatic feed?

These days, consumers can select from a wide variety of paper shredding machines, including both manual and automatic models. One important  factor to think about while shopping for an auto feeder document shredder is the auto feeder’s capacity.

You will find that the bin capacity increases proportionally with the size of the auto feeder as you learn more about them. Rubber paper feed tyres are commonly used in auto feed shredders to feed paper into the machine.

There is a limited selection of auto feed paper shredders that utilise direct feed technology and do not have any rubber paper feed tyres to wear out over time. Offices of the future will have direct auto feed paper shredders. Auto feed paper shredders are typically much slower than their manually fed counterparts. A hand-fed paper shredder can be up to 30 times faster and typically has a larger bin size for the same price.

With the guidelines provided above, you are in a good position to buy the right paper shredder.

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