How do I choose the right shredder?

Nowadays, almost every office has a paper shredder. And if they don’t, they definitely should have a paper shredder. If your office is one of the few that doesn’t have one or if you need to upgrade, then you are going to need to pick the right size shredder for your office. This article will help you understand some of the things that you should consider when deciding on the size of shredder for your office.
Many offices end up buying a paper shredder that is too small for their needs. When the paper shredder is too small for your needs, three things usually happen.

1. Employees get frustrated and end up just throwing their documents into the trash instead of shredding them. Obviously this defeats the whole purpose of having a paper shredder.
2. People try to overload the paper shredder with too many sheets or too much material and burn up the motor or strip the gears. In this case the company usually needs to replace the shredder.
3. The shredder bag ends up being full all the time. This usually results in users throwing their sensitive documents in the trash or in the office shredding piling up next to the shredder.

1. First, you will want to decide what type of shredder that you want. Strip cut shredders are generally faster and cheaper than cross cut shredders. However, if you decide you want a strip-cut shredder you will need to make sure that you have a larger capacity storage bin since the shredded material will pile up far quicker than with a confetti cut model. I usually recommend a cross-cut, micro-cut or confetti-cut shredder for most offices since they are more secure and require far fewer bag changes.
2. You will need to consider how many users will be sharing the shredder. If the shredder is for an individual then you probably need a deskside wastebasket shredder. If it is for a small department with just a few people you will need a larger wastebasket shredder or an introductory office duty shredder. However, if the shredder is going to be shared by more than five people you will probably want to consider getting a larger office duty commercial shredder that is designed for a multi user office environment.
3. For larger offices where shredding volume may occasionally be heavy, you will want to consider getting a shredder with a continuous duty motor. These shredders can shred continuously for long periods of time without overheating or needing to cool down. Many smaller shredders will require a substantial cool down period if you shred continuously with them for more than a few minutes.
4. If your office uses CD’s and DVD’s with confidential information on them you might also need to consider a shredder that is capable of shredding these. Most shredding machines are able to handle documents with staples and paper clips. However, you will need to check to see if the shredder you have will shred disks and credit cards.