What is Shredder ?

Shredders can cut everything from tissue paper, computer printouts, floppy disks, cd???s, plastics, wood planks, and even some metals. Since each shredder is user-specific, make sure ahead of time that the shredder meets your needs.

There are many different types of shredders and each shredder is designed to fill a specific need. There are personal and desk side shredders that are smaller models perfect for the home or small business.

Tabletop shredders fit snugly on a desk to cut down on office space. Some shredders come with additional bins to hold office waste that does not need to be shredded, while coming equipped with racks to feed paper in to the machine without being guided by a user.

What are shredders used for ?

Shredders are usually used as a means of protecting one???s livelihood. What you might not know is that they are also used for recycling purposes, waste reduction, creating packing material and are even core parts of new businesses designed to reduce other companies??? waste.

Do I need a shredder ?

Recent events have made shredding confidential information a necessity. Documents found in the trash are not legally protected so they're fair game to individuals looking to find out more information about you or your business. This explains the rapid increase in Identity Theft and Industrial Espionage. New security laws require that confidential medical information and consumer credit information must properly destroyed before the information is discarded. What's the best way to destroy this information? Shred it with a paper shredder.

Do I have to oil my paper shredder? If so, how do I oil it

Simply put, paper shredders need oil. Paper dust builds up inside the cutting assembly and packs together like cement. Oil softens packed dust, which allows the movement of the cutting head to push it out. The finer the cut the shredder makes, the more oil it needs.

Generally, to oil the cutting blades, you must squeeze the recommended lubricant across the full width of the blades from the top of the shredder. Specific instructions vary by brand and model.

What do most people overlook when they purchase a shredder

Most people forget to think about the anticipated growth of their company. Will the proposed shredder be sufficient to handle your demand in five or ten years? You should always keep that in mind. If you buy a shredder that you can grow in to, you'll wind up saving a lot of wear and tear on your shredder in the long run.

How to choose a Shredder?

A good tip for anyone buying a shredder, or any office device, is to take a minute, sit down, and write out what you will want your machine to do and what kinds of things are important to you. Here are some questions that might be helpful to get you started. Consider:

How many sheets per day you need to shred?
Each shredder is designed to handle a set amount of sheets to destroy at a time. Deskside shredders generally destroy up to 16 sheets of paper at a time, with an exception or two. If you have higher volumes of material that you need to shred, you may want to look in to the tabletop models designed for heavy-duty operation; just make sure that the tabletop model is not too large to fit comfortably in your home. Standard models are designed to handle up to 30 sheets at a time for moderate loads.

What type of material are you going to shred?
Shredders can handle all types of material from individualized sheets of paper to large stacks. There are specialized machines designed with a rack to shred continuous computer printouts (*important for financial institutions, accounting firms, banks, etc). CD & Floppy disk shredders are designed to cut old credit cards or customer credit cards, compact disks, floppy disks and more.

How fast would you like the machine to shred?
The bigger the horsepower, the faster the machine; since each machine handles different amounts of material, check to see how fast the machine operates in feet per minute, to ensure that it can handle the volume you need to shred.

How big are the materials you are shredding?
Different size throat or feed openings are manufactured to shred different widths of material. Home shredders are, for the most part, designed first and foremost to shred paper. Some models come with the capability to shred credit cards, compact disks, floppy disks and more. There are machines that exclusively handle 8-1/2" by 11" 20# bond paper only and others that can cut 11" by 17" and higher.

Do you have the time to remove paper clips and staples, or do you want your machine to shred the paper with clips and staples?
Most shredders are designed to handle paper clips and staples, which means that you do not need to remove them before placing sheets in to the shredder. As always, there are exceptions, so make sure that the cutting system is designed to accept staples and paper clips before you try and put them into the shredder you buy.

How much time do you have in between shredding to remove the waste bag? Do you want to remove the waste bag? Do you want your machine to do that for you?
There are different methods for containing waste. On the low end of the spectrum, shredders simply come equipped with trash bags that can be attached beneath, in the front or back of the machine to catch the material. The next step up is a machine with a waste receptacle manufactured as part of the machine. This type of machine cannot be removed or dumped during shredding operation. The machine must be stopped and the bin either pulls out to remove waste or needs to be turned over and dumped out of the machine. Some machines come with an enclosed cabinet to hide the shredded material inside. Console models have a door that swings out and inside there may be a separate receptacle that can be picked up and dumped out periodically, dependent upon its waste capacity. Other shredders dispense material from the rear of the machine and require separate receptacles to be purchased to work with the machine. If time is an important factor, you want to make sure that the method of waste disposal is simple, fast and easy.

Does the machine specifically shred the material you are shredding? Does it come with additional safety guards (especially important if you have young children)? Is there a cover that forms over the machine?
Shredders are designed with the utmost user safety in mind. The largest safety concern when buying a shredder for the home is making sure that it is designed for the applications you intend to use it. If you are shredding cd???s, one thing you definitely don???t want is pieces shooting out of the top because you wanted to save money and buy a paper shredder to shred cd???s, instead of a specially designed cd shredder. Some machines come with added shields or guards to ensure optimum safety. If you have young children in the home you???ll want to make sure that the machine you buy comes with guards and covers to avoid accidents before they happen. The cutting mechanism is usually enclosed within the machine, but hand guards add another level of protection; so you can stop accidents before they happen.

How much space do you have for the machine?
If you live in an apartment or home, you want to make sure that the machine you???re buying will fit in through the door structure, elevator or other entry way. You need to know the size of the machine and its weight to make sure that it accommodates your home. If you have to carry it up 10 flights of stairs, you want to make sure it can easily be carried.

Are you buying a shredder to protect your financial documents and account statements?
Each machine has a different shred size for separate levels of security. The smaller the shred size, the more secure the document; an important decision when your identity and livelihood are encased within the material you want to shred. Do you have recycling requirements that you need to meet? Do you want to make sure your company or home is meeting environmental requirements for paper destruction?

Were you always health conscious and want to make sure shredded material is re-used as packing material or to line animal cages?
Shredded material can be re-used to line animal cages, be used as packing material and more. Once the material has been shredded, remove it from the bin and place it in boxes, crates and more to protect dishes and other household objects for storage. Best yet, you won???t feel guilty about throwing out high volumes of material if you find use for it once it has been destroyed

Types of Shredders

Strip Cut Shredders Cross Cut Shredders

Another important thing: Feed Opening

The Feed Opening is the part of the paper shredder where the paper enters. The width varies and increases as model numbers increase which ranges from 8 inches to 18 inches. There are several reasons why this is important. You must choose the shredder width based on the size of the documents you will be shredding. (The standard paper size 8 1/2 x 11, easily fits in any Fellowes shredder.)

If you plan to shred continuous form documents wider than 12 inches, it is best to focus on our Production Shredders that offer a 16" feed opening which will allow you to shred continuously without constant watch. (Office Shredders offers feed openings ranging from 9.25" to15".) Continuous forms will constantly jam if you have a smaller feed opening. The output is measured in pounds per hour and is an indication of the speed and power of the shredder. You need to know what kind of power you want to work with. Many times purchasing a bigger more powerful shredder pays off depending on your volume. If you are doing very little shredding the low models will be sufficient.

Keyword and Specification

Shred Size:	The size of the shredded pieces after the document has been shredded.
Sheet Capacity:	The maximum sheets of paper the shredder can handle at a time.
Speed (ft./min.):	The speed at which the shredder shreds measured in feet per minute.  (measure of power)
Output (lbs./hr.):	The weight of the shredded pieces measured in pounds per hour.   (measure of power)
Feed Opening:	The width of the mouth (entry point) of the shredder.
Electrical (V AC):	The electrical power the shredder needs to operate.
Ship Weight (lbs.):	The shredder weight along with the packaging.
Personal Shredder:	Smaller, lighter shredder made for low volume shredding.
Mid-Size Shredder:	Mid-size shredder ideal for a small office, medium volume shredding.
High Volume Shredder:	Bigger more powerful shredder that can even handle CD's and file folders and high volume paper shredding.  Ideal for a bigger office in a centralized position with higher volume shredding
High Capacity Shredder:	Safer and more convenient than using an outside shredding service that can shred bound ledgers, ring binders, stacks of printouts, storage media such as tapes and CD's- even entire wastebasket contents can be fed into these powerful Industrial sized Destroyit shredders.
Cutting Heads:	The physical blades that cut the paper into pieces.   Destroyit models offer 5-year warranty on this part.