How To Choose A Paper Shredder For Home Office?
How To Choose A Paper Shredder For Home Office?
The importance of a good shredder should not be underestimated weather at home or office. Documents containing your signature, account number, or other confidential information should be disposed of using a paper shredder.
This is how you protect yourself from personal data accidentally falling into the wrong hands.
But how do you find the best document shredder for your needs? The vast selection makes it difficult to find a suitable device. So that you can still make an informed decision, we have put together a helpful purchase advisor and a document shredder test for you.
What do I need a paper shredder for?
If confidential data is made available to unauthorized persons, this can have severe consequences under certain circumstances.
This is especially true for businesses, from customer data to employee salaries — criminals can use that information to cause harm.
Therefore, these documents must be made irrevocably illegible before they are finally disposed of in the waste paper.
But even at home, bank statements, bills, personal letters, and other confidential correspondence with lawyers or doctors should be shredded using a paper shredder before disposal because nobody is safe from data theft.
The basic rule should be: If your name is mentioned in a document, it belongs in the paper shredder.
Where Will The Shredder Be Used?
Shredders can be used in all work and home environments; you need to think about the number of people using the shredder and how much paper they need to shred at once.
The run time of a shredder refers to how long it can keep shredding without needing to cool down. Multiple users may need to trash one after another in more extensive office situations. Shredding may be less frequent at home or the home office, so the shredder just has to operate for a few minutes.
The number of sheets of paper you can shred at once is known as sheet capacity; the bigger the sheet capacity, the faster you can shred enormous heaps of paper.
Which is the best paper shredder for my needs?
From compact shredders for the home to high-performance document shredders — you can lose track of the many different devices on the market. Speed, capacity, cost, and security are essential factors to consider when purchasing a new device. Document shredders are divided into different security levels.
We clarify how these differ from each other and which level is the right one for your requirements.
The best document shredder for the home and the home office
A small document shredder is often sufficient for the self-employed or families. If more is to be shredded after a while, the collecting basket must be emptied regularly. If you can already predict the volume of documents shredded, it will be much easier to make the right choice.
Compact shredder: The small devices can easily be stowed away when not in use. In addition, the acquisition costs are lower. Often the lid can be removed so that emptying is easy.
Desk shredder: Shred up to 10 pages at a time. These paper shredders have a functional flap to empty the basket.
The best paper shredders for businesses
A business that shreds large amounts of paper every day needs a bigger machine than a home office. So that you don’t have to read endless reviews, we did our paper shredder test. These devices take care of all the work that arises in small and large businesses.
Smaller shredders: They are perfect for small companies with up to six employees. The paper shredder should be able to shred between 10 and 20 pages at a time. Some models of this type also dispose of CDs, DVDs, paper clips, and bank cards.
Medium-sized shredder: Paper shredders of this size can easily shred up to 20 pages at a time. They are particularly suitable for busy offices.
Big shredder: The best paper shredders for large businesses can easily shred up to 1,000 pages per day. That’s two packages of copy paper. Up to 30 pages are destroyed, and CDs and floppy disks are also no problem for these devices in one go.
Department shredder: This shredder is ideal for companies of up to 50 employees. It destroys 50 pages at once or even entire paper files (even if they are made of sturdy cardboard). Large-format papers such as A3 also fit into these devices.
Special shredder: These shredders designed were especially to destroy CDs, DVDs, and floppy disks safely. Some shredders can shred cardboard or digital shredders that erase the contents of hard drives.
Industrial shredders: In some large office buildings, documents that are to be shredded are collected centrally and then destroyed by high-performance shredders. These can shred between 100 and 2,100 kg per hour (paper or other media).
Before you decide on a paper shredder, you should make sure that the wastebasket is large enough. At first, this may not seem so important, but if you have a large collecting basket, you have to empty the device significantly less often.
This not only saves time but also avoids annoying paper jams. It can also be an advantage if the basket is transparent, as this allows you to see precisely when it is time to empty it. To minimize the number of paper jams, this also helps.
The four most common cuts of a paper shredder
Speed and capacity are essential factors to consider when choosing a suitable shredder. But the importance of the cut should not be underestimated either because some patterns offer more security than others. Here are the different shredder models in comparison:
Strip-cut paper shredders: These shredders cut documents into strips. Since many would like more security, these shredders are not likely to be found in offices; they are sufficient to destroy simple documents at home.
Cross-cut paper shredders: These paper shredders are ideal for home or office use. They cut documents vertically and horizontally, making it very difficult for unauthorized persons to make them legible again.
When buying such a shredder, pay attention to the security level of the model. A higher security level means that the paper is cut into even smaller pieces.
Micro-cut paper shredders: The micro-cut document shredder is very similar to the cross-cut document shredder, but documents are cut even finer.
As the name suggests, these devices cut paper into tiny pieces that look like confetti. These shredders are a bit more expensive, but if you want to destroy very confidential documents, you should invest.
Crypto-Cut paper shredders: These shredders are suitable for destroying top-secret documents as they cut them into tiny particles. These devices offer such a high level of security that governments and the military even use them.
Different manufacturers in comparison
Which shredder is best for safely shredding paper documents? We took a closer look at some respected manufacturers in the document shredder test.
Fellowes
The best Fellowes paper shredders for your home
The best cross-cut paper shredders offer a medium level of security. They cut documents into small pieces and put them in a practical container. Credit cards, paper clips, and thumbtacks cannot harm these devices either.
The Fellowes Powershred M-8C particle cut shredder can take care of all of these tasks. It has security level P-3 and can reliably destroy both staples and paper. It is ideal for moderate use at home or in the office.
The best Fellowes office shredders
The Fellowes Powershred® 99Ci particle cut document shredder is an excellent addition to smaller offices with three to five employees. The device was designed especially for heavy use, and it shreds up to 17 pages at a time. There are no paper jams during use, and it is particularly quiet.
Staples
The best Staples shredders for your home
Perfect for small quantities that need to be shredded quickly and safely — the Staples document shredder SPL-DXC8E offers security level P-4 and can shred up to 8 sheets at once. This device also reliably destroys paper clips, CDs, and DVDs. It is quiet and thanks to its elegant design, it is good in the home office.
The best Staples office shredders
Staples offer high-speed paper shredders such as the TXC-16HSE. This document shredder with built-in V-Track ™ Advance Blade technology and automatic reversing can shred up to 16 sheets in one pass. CDs and DVDs are also safely shredded by this shredder in no time at all. The collecting container has a volume of 28 liters and can be easily pulled out and emptied.
Rexel
The best Rexel shredders for your home or home office
Compact, elegant, and easy to use — the Rexel Prostyle + 12 particle cut document shredder offers security level P-4 and can shred up to 12 pages with a grammage of 80 g / m² in one pass. The waste container has a practical viewing window so that you always know precisely when it needs to be emptied
The best Rexel office shredders
The device is very quiet in operation, and it indicates when the collecting container needs to be emptied.
It has both manual and automatic rewind functions, and it automatically retires after two minutes of inactivity so that no power is wasted unnecessarily.
It would be best if you oiled this shredder at regular intervals to avoid paper jams. We offer high-quality document shredder oil for these cases.
If you are looking for the right paper shredder, you will find numerous paper shredders from renowned brands and manufacturers at the best prices in our online shop.
If the security of your data is important to you, a paper shredder is an absolute must. Almost every day, both at home and in the office, we receive letters and letters that contain confidential information. It is better to make them unrecognizable before disposal. Today’s shredders offer excellent security so that unauthorized persons can no longer read important documents.
What security features should my shredder have?
A shredder should offer excellent security in all aspects of its use. It should destroy documents irrevocably and without presenting a risk of injury to the user. When buying, you should therefore pay attention to some essential security functions.
Auto-Start / Stop: With this function, the paper shredder shreds a page as soon as it is pushed into the slot. The auto-stop ensures that the shredder immediately stops drawing in the paper if it detects a paper jam.
Reverse function: This function is handy when you are trying to clear a paper jam.
Waste container safety flap: When the waste container is full, this flap ensures that nothing is shredded
Collection container lock: With this lock, the shredder can only shred if the collection container is securely attached.
Overheating warning: You will receive a notification if the shredder overheats.
PIN lock: You have to enter a code to remove the waste container. This point means that unauthorized persons cannot access your snippets.
Once you know how much and what to shred, it is much easier to make an informed purchase decision. In our online shop, you will find numerous high-quality document shredders and helpful accessories such as oil for document shredders and bags for the waste container.
Conclusion
The last vital criteria to consider when choosing a shredder are what materials and paper may need shredding regularly. Shredders can shred additional materials such as staples, paper clips, credit cards, and CDs.
Originally published in HomeOffice4Us