Formax FD 8500HS High Security Level 6 Paper Shredder

Staff Review

Formax FD 8500HS High Security Level 6 Paper Shredder Review

The Formax FD 8500HS is a high security level 6 shredder that offers organizations a rugged shredder that meets National Security Agency specifications for top secret document destruction. Here is a more in-depth look at some of the strengths and weaknesses of the FD 8500HS.

1. The FD 8500HS offers you document shredding that is NSA-approved Level 6 security which is the highest security available. In other words, government agencies and the military use machines like the FD 8500HS to destroy top secret documents and/or other documents that are crucial to national security. This shredder obliterates documents into tiny particles 1/32" x 3/16" ensuring beyond a shadow of a doubt that the information what is contained on those papers will never be seen again. Although this level of security is probably overkill for most private sector businesses, if you need the kind of security that the NSA demands, the FD 8500HS can provide it for you.

2. The FD 8500HS is an easy machine to take care of. On the control panel, there is an indicator light that will tell you when it's time to oil the cutting heads (and to make that part even easier, you can pick up the optional self oiling system). If a service call is ever required, the FD 8500HS's self diagnosing system can let technicians know how many hours the machine has been used and the volume of paper that it has processed.

3. If there's anything that we can appreciate in an office machine, it's user-friendliness. The FD 8500HS excels in that regard, with its soft-button LED panel that brightly displays operational status at all times, and gives you some nice options. You can choose to let the optical sensors start and stop the machine when they detect paper in the feed opening, or you can choose manual operation (which is especially handy when shredding film or other materials too light for the sensor to pick up). The load indicator gauge warns you of possible overfeeds and the machine will immediately go into reverse mode if it senses a possible paper jam.

4. The safety features of the FD 8500HS are simple but effective. The motor stops itself automatically when the cabinet is open and/or when the waste box is full. There's also a circuit breaker on board to prevent electrical issues.

5. The FD 8500HS is well-powered. The motor is AC-geared and runs the solid steel cutting heads at thirty nine feet per minute.

6. We also liked the FD 8500HS's sixteen inch feed opening which accommodates green bar computer printouts with ease.

Weaknesses:

1. The FD 8500HS is a machine that should be known for high security, and not necessarily for high capacity. Though the shredder's stated capability of 5 sheets per pass is on par with other level 6 machines, you will need to decide if you are going to need to sacrifice security for productivity. There are lots of Formax cross cut shredders (such as the FD 8500CC) that will give you more shredding capacity and still offer a highly secure (and FACTA-compliant) level 3. Your choice will have to depend on what the requirements of your organization are.

2. You will pay a fairly high premium for the level six security offered by this machine. In fact, a similar machine with level three security will cost almost half what this model costs. If you need the high security NSA rating then that won't matter.