After a brief look at the variety of paper shredders available in the market today, one asks "Which is the best paper shredder?" The answer to this is similar to all "best" questions and is inherently unanswerable. The answer actually depends on your personal needs, requirements, purpose of use and your budget.
What should one consider before making an informed decision?
Firstly, you should carefully review your needs and decide the degree of shredding you need. All shredded documents can be put together with sufficient man-hours invested. The question that arises is how many man hours are actually available. The best paper shredders in the market are not necessarily easy and safe to use. They are intended to make you a hard target.
Shredders can primarily be classified into two categories - strip cut and cross cut. Strip cut paper shredders are a lot more economical and are easier to put together. However, they take up a lot more space. On the other hand, the cross cut paper shredders are the best there are although they are more expensive. They require constant maintenance but cross cut shredders are bound to meet any standards that may arise to preserve secrets by shredding paper.
Secondly, you should consider the capacity. This implies that you should estimate the number of sheets you would need to destroy daily. In addition, how many sheets at one time and how much capacity is available for trash should also be considered. These factors will help you to determine if you need a personal shredder or a commercial shredder. A personal shredder can manage anywhere between 100-150 pages per day with 5 pages at a time. These would require a trash bag that would be available in a standard trash can.
Certain other features should also be kept in mind. Some available shredders are meant to fit over standard trash bind while some others have built-in containers. The latter ones are more expensive but are certainly easier to empty and clean. The best paper shredders are those that are capable of destroying more than just paper - they should be able to shred CDs, DVDs, floppy disks, credit cards and staples as well.
If you identify that your needs of a shredder are limited to personal security and identity theft protection, you should go for a cheap and reliable shredder. On the other hand, if your use is concerning proprietary and business information, there are a variety of paper shredders to choose from.
The Fellowes DS-1 Fashion Shredder with Step Can is the best selling shredder on the market. This machine stops shredding when the paper feeder is touched. It is built in this manner to avoid fingers from getting damaged. It is capable of handling paper clips, staples and credit cards and paper up to eleven sheets at a time. This 36-pound cross cut shredder can only be shipped within the US. It reduces documents to 5/32" x 1-3/8" sized bits.
The Fellowes machine comes with a five-year warranty and a four and three quarter's gallon trash bin. The machine is priced at about 0 but used shredders can be found for substantially lesser costs. Sometimes new shredders can also be found for 0 in online stores.
The reviews for this particular model are excellent. This indicates that it is robust system capable of functioning properly. Our research suggests that this is probably the best paper shredder on the market for occasional home use.
The Fellowes Powershred PS-77Cs 12 sheet Confetti Cut Shredder is the highest reviewed shredder on Amazon. This 31-pound cross cut shredder has the SafeSense technology which means that it stops shredding if it senses your touch.
This is a more serious shredder than the DS-1, with a seven-gallon trash bin and the ability to shred credit cards, paper clips, staples as well as CDs and DVDs. The machine comes with a five-year warranty and can shred up to 12 sheets at any one time.
It reduces documents to 5/32" x 1 1/2" higher-security confetti. The shredder was initially designed to shred up to 600 pages a day.
This paper shredder has a clear window which indicates when the trash bin gets full. It is priced at 0 but can be found for as little as 0 on the Internet.
The only complaints lodged about this machine on Amazon.com are about the top heavy arrangement and as such, the customers would prefer to have wheels for portability and more structure for the trash bin. Overall, this is a well-loved and preferred paper shredder model among the numerous shredders available in the market. This will prove to be a wise investment if you have a home business or a small business office.
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Price : $166.30
