Which shredder should i buy

Every product is independently selected by obsessive editors. Things you buy through our links may earn us a commission. What lame-o is looking forward to buying a paper shredder. However, the advertised shred volume for this machine is six sheets and the reviewers warn not to push it. This less-expensive compact desktop shredder wins praise from many fans with personal shredding needs.

This I can hide away and bring out when I need it. This compact shredder can be used with any size trash can — including extra-large options — thanks to its no-basket design. Hours of entertainment for under a buck! Though strip-cut shredders are generally considered less secure than cross-cut or micro-cut shredders, certain shoppers prefer strips because they can be used for other purposes, such as animal bedding.

Not me! The mechanism is very sturdy … This has been a 5-star product for me. The shredding unit is very solid. When I tested it for the first time I was very impressed in the surprising lack of effort it took to shred multiple pages.

The noise level and speed were about the same for a single sheet as for three or four. Of course, you want to shred confidential paper documents. But some shredders also shred other items, such as:. A basic shredder can shred documents with here and there a small staple. But if you want to shred CDs and credit cards, you need to look for shredders that can do this.

More advanced shredders can shred CDs, paperclips, and plastic cards, such as credit cards or loyalty cards. These shredders can have a dedicated slot to shred these cards with.

But other types of shredders just let you shred the cards in the same space you feed your confidential papers in. It is crucial for recycling to find out if the shredder comes with a separate container to hold the plastic parts. Otherwise, the plastic particles are getting mixed up with the paper shreds, which contaminates the paper. The shredder can have a dedicated CD slot to shred the optical media.

Or the paper shredder lets you shred it in the main paper shredding feed. Do you want to shred cardboard waste? Be careful because not every paper shredder machine can handle this rigid material. Only heavy-duty or industrial paper shredders are powerful enough to slice through sheets of corrugated cardboard. But keep in mind that a document shredder is made for shredding paper and not for shredding high volumes of cardboard.

When you have high quantities of cardboard waste, such as boxes and other packaging material, we recommend investing in a dedicated cardboard shredder. These types of shredders are manufactured for shredding or perforating corrugated cardboard and paperboard. These cardboard shredders are used for recycling your cardboard waste. The shredded cardboard can be used as packaging material, or you can bale the material, which you can sell to a recycling facility. Check cardboard shredders.

Just like the name implies, a manual feed shredder needs to be fed by hand. Depending on the sheet capacity, you grab a few sheets of paper and shred them.

You grab another pile of paper and shred it, and so on. Manual shredding is fine for shredding a small pile of documents, but if you need to shred thousands of documents, this might not be convenient and efficient.

To save time and speed up the paper shredding process, then we recommend an automatic paper shredder. This shredder has an auto-feed functionality, which means it shreds a large pile of paper all on its own.

So, how does it work? An auto-feed paper shredder has an input tray similar to that of an office printer or copier. You fill up the tray with your documents and press start. The shredder takes care of the rest. The amount of paper you can shred per session depends on the shredder.

Check Auto-Feed shredders. Always unplug the shredder when not using it and place it out of sight in a secure and safe place. For your safety and others, you might consider a paper shredder that comes with special safety features that prevent possible injuries.

These safety features are recommended for personal home users and professional office users. What to do now? Some shredders let you solve the problem yourself.

But more expensive shredders can clear the paper jam for you by reversing the motor automatically. There are also shredding machines with sensors that detect when you want to shred too much paper the shredder can handle, so the shredder refuses to shred in the first place. How do you solve a paper jam? Stop the shredder and press the reverse button, the cutting blades will turn in the opposite direction so the paper gets rolled out of the shredder.

Straighten the documents a bit and retry to shred it. These shredders are equipped with an extra powerful engine that pulls the paper through during a paper jam. The jam-proof shredders also prevent a paper jam with a sensor that detects when you want to shred too many sheets of paper at once.

Fix my jammed shredder. On average, paper shredders produce around 65 decibels while shredding. The decibel count is comparable with the sound of a washing machine. Especially in office environments, a noisy and loud paper shredder around 75 dB can be a nuisance for your colleagues. So it is advised to look for a paper shredder that shreds silently and quietly.

Some shredders are specially manufactured to produce as little noise as possible. The more professional office shredders can be a bit loud, but they lack the high pitched noise that we find quite annoying and unpleasant to listen to while shredding documents. Of course, if you want to pick up a personal paper shredder for home use, it is up to you how much noise you can withstand. This is better for your safety and that of others, but it also reduces energy costs.

But if you are shredding multiple times a day, it cannot be enjoyable to turn on and off the shredder every time. Take a look at our Best Buy Shredders , to discover the models that Which? Only Which? But there are other specifications you can check in the shop before buying your shredder.

Our interactive tool will walk you through the key features and buying decisions to consider. You may not be aware that the type of shredder you purchase will have an impact on the overall security of your document shredding. Shredders traditionally were strip-cut, also known as ribbon-cut, models that shredded the paper into thin strips. Although it would require patience, it would be possible to reconstruct the strips into a legible document.

More secure are cross-cut models, sometimes known as diamond-cut, as they shred the paper into small pieces a bit like wedding confetti. It would be much harder for someone to reassemble them. The most secure type is micro-cut, as these models slice paper into such tiny pieces that a criminal would find it extremely difficult, near impossible, to put them back together.

We'd advise you to go for either a cross-cut or micro-cut shredder to maximise your security. Find your perfect model in our Best Buy shredders. In fact, you may want to choose a model that will squeeze into a cupboard when not in use. Pros: As well as being easier to store away, small home shredders are easy to move around. Pros: The bigger the shredder, the more space inside its bin. Cons: Avoid these shredders if you want something you can easily pop away in the cupboard after use.