Dahle 20453 Level P-3 Cross Cut High Capacity Paper Shredder

Staff Review

Dahle 20453 Level 3 Cross Cut High Capacity Paper Shredder Review

With the threat of identity theft on everyone's minds, more and more businesses are looking to shred their documents in-house, rather than outsourcing the job. One machine that can help you with that is the Dahle 20453 high-capacity paper shredder. Read on to discover the pros and cons of this machine.

The Pros:

• When Dahle calls this machine a high-capacity shredder, they really mean it. The 20453 is a paper shredder than can shred up to 85 sheets of paper at one time - up to two tons of paper per day - which is really an incredible amount. This shredder can destroy paper at the rate of 42 feet per minute and then store the waste in a huge 50-gallon wastebasket. The 20403 machine has the largest shredding capacity of any shredder Dahle manufactures, which means you'll be able to shred a lot of your private documents in a very short amount of time, thus reducing the risk of identity theft. Indeed, the 20453 is a very impressive machine that has a 4-HP motor for maximum shredding power.
• The 20453 offers a great deal of security and offers a Level Three security rating. This machine produces shreds that measure 1/8" x 3 1/8", so identity thieves and other miscreants will not be able to piece your shredded documents back together. The machine has no problem destroying paper fasteners, so there's no need to take apart your documents before you shred them. This shredder can also destroy credit cards.
• This paper shredder has a feed width of 17 inches, which means it can handle a wide variety of paper sizes, including legal-sized paper.
• The 20453 is easy to use thanks to the user-friendly control buttons on the right side of the machine. This shredder is also incredibly quiet, which is surprising given the rather intimidating look of the machine. The machine has three shelves on the front of it so you have a place to store your documents before they're shredded.
• Oiling your machine is an important part of shredder maintenance. With the 20453, you can either oil the shredder yourself or you can attach a Dahle automatic oiler to the machine to take care of this task for you, giving you one less thing to do.
• Dahle offers a lifetime warranty on the 20453's cutting mechanism, making this machine a wise investment if you need a high-capacity, heavy-duty shredder.

The Cons:

• One of this machine's drawbacks is the lack of automatic features. The machine lacks an automatic on/off switch. Curiously, there's no reverse function either. The only automatic feature the 20453 has the ability to let you know when the wastebasket is full.
• The 20453 may have an impressive shredding capacity, but this is definitely not the machine to get if you need to destroy electronic media, such as CD's. If you need to do that, you will need a multimedia shredder such as the Dahle 30406.
• This is a bulky machine and will take up a fair amount of room. Also, it lacks casters, so moving it around could be challenging.
• The price of this machine will simply be too much for many companies because it retails for a rather staggering $12,995.00.

Overall, the Dahle 20453 is a high-performance shredder that is ideal for companies that need a machine with an astronomical shredding capacity. While it would be nice if the machine had more automatic features, as well as the ability to destroy electronic media, the 20453 is a good choice if you need a high-capacity paper shredder.