Does your office have a paper shredder? Are you considering purchasing one? Now days, almost every office has a shredding machine (or should have one). 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 and capacity to fit the needs of your office. This article will help you understand some of the things that you should consider when deciding on the size of shredder that will best suit your needs.
Many offices end up buying a machine that is too small for their needs. When the shredding machine 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.
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 machine which can be costly.
3. The waste 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.
If you don't want these three things to happen, it is important to choose a shredder that is adequate to meet the needs of your office. In order to be sure that you get a machine that will do the job there are a few things that you will need to consider.
1. First, you will want to decide what type of machine that you need. Strip cut models are generally faster and cheaper than cross cut ones. However, if you decide you want a strip cut or straight cut model 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 device. If the machine is for an individual then you probably need a deskside wastebasket model. If it is for a small department with just a few people you will need a larger wastebasket shredder or an introductory office duty model should suffice. However, if the shredding machine is going to be shared by more than five people you will probably want to consider getting a larger office duty commercial model 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 model with a continuous duty motor. These shredders can shred continuously for long periods of time without overheating or needing to cool down. Many smaller units 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 unit 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.
If you remember to consider these four things when you are purchasing your shredder you will most likely not buy a model that is too small for your application. Just remember that as long as you have the space, you can't really have too big a unit. Sometimes it is better to go a little bit overboard than to discover later that you didn't get a model that will meet your needs.
