Environment

Shredders tend to fall into two main categories home or office and typically used by most retailers as the main criteria to influence which one you buy. We use this to filter out the extremes. Typically a home user would not be interested in large commercial shredders nor would an office user be interested in very small shredders.

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Typical Usage

This is a very important consideration when choosing the right shredder. If you are looking to shred the odd bank statement then you will only need a light duty shredder. If you tend to shred large volumes at a time you will need a more substantial shredder with a heavy duty motor. All too often shredder motors are burnt out through over use.

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Security Level (DIN)

This basically describes how many fragments a piece of paper is broken up into. The higher the DIN level the better the protection. DIN levels range from 1 to 6. Level 1 caters for day to day general documents whereas levels 5 and 6 are for Government and Ministry of Defence top secret documentation. If you are looking to shred financial information you should be looking for a shredder with a DIN level of around level 3.

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Cut Type

Paper shredders can be either strip cut or cross cut (sometimes referred to as confetti cut.) Strip cut shredders break the document into long thin strips with a preset width. The most basic strip cut shredder will cut an A4 sheet of paper into 30 vertical strips. Cross cut shredders have specially milled cutting cylinders that achieve a dual cutting action, dramatically reducing the length of the strips. Cross cut also means that due to the smaller particle size you will have to empty the bin less often!

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Waste Bin Capacity (Sheets)

Basically how often do you want to empty the bin? If you are bulk shredding the bigger the bin the better! Most shredders these days will cope with at least half a ream of A4 paper before they need emptying. The smaller the particle size the more that can fit in the bin so the cross cut shredders tend to have a greater capacity.

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Sheet Feed Capacity

This determines how many sheets you can feed into the shredder at any one time. This is commonly abused and trying to shred too many sheets at once can jam the shredding mechanism and overwork the cutting motor. The newer model office shredders tend to have anti jamming mechanisms that will disable the motor if overfeeding is even attempted. The sheet capacity value is based on a typical sheet of A4 paper so if you are using thicker material you will have to compensate accordingly.

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Also Shreds

Most paper shredders can cope with the odd staple on a document going through the cutting mechanism, anything larger can cause problems if the machine doesn’t cater for it. There are several shredders on the market these days that cater for shredding credit cards, CD’s, DVD’s and even paperclips. Please note that excessive use of these features can invalidate the warranty as they are really designed for shredding paper! Some models have a separate slot to cater for such requirements.

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Price

Whilst price is an important consideration it should not be the overruling factor in the choice you make. If you try to purchase a shredder to fit a pre-determined budget you may find that your choice does not perform as well as expected and you are back in the market for another sooner rather than later.