The 12 best office shredders

*Review of the best according to the editors. About the selection criteria. This material is subjective, it is not an advertisement and does not serve as a guide to purchase. Before buying it you need to consult with an expert.

Office shredders have long been an integral part of any office. Their variety can confuse any buyer, so when choosing is very important to be guided by the work tasks, leaving aside personal preferences.

In the course of market research, the Expertology team selected 12 best office shredders that will fit perfectly in any work environment. The following aspects acted as criteria for the selection of goods in the rating:

1. the destruction performance of the destroyers;
2. reliability level;
3. automation parameters;
4. Feedback from users and experts;
5. price index.

How to choose a good office shredder

Office shredders have a lot of design nuances and parameters of work, which should be taken into account in the process of selection. Much depends on what kind of company you work in: how much confidential information passes through your office and what kind of pages must be disposed of. In this regard, the experts of our magazine recommend paying attention to the following characteristics:

1. Privacy Level.The value shows the possibility to recover the information on the paper media after recycling. For example, if you work with ordinary documents, then you will fit the shredder P-1 level of secrecy, which cuts the sheets into 10-mm strips. If you have very important documents in circulation, it is better to use P-6 or P-7 level machines, which shred the paper into fragments of up to 0,8×1 millimeter, for shredding them.
2. Performance.Pay attention to the power and speed of paper shredding. If the device consumes low power (up to 200 W), but works fast (cutting speed of 60 mm/sec), then its reliability level is very low. Use this ratio as a guide to help you choose the right option for you.
3. Type of cutting.There are machines on the market that cut paper into parallel or longitudinal strips. Their design is very simple, which multiplies the speed of work. However, the probability of data recovery after these shredders remains high. That is why the optimal choice for any office will be a shredder with crosscutting, after which the chance to make a “jigsaw puzzle” out of the document decreases many times.
4. Mobility.Please pay attention to dimensions and weight. If you are going to carry it from place to place, shredders weighing up to 10-12 kilograms are the best choice.
5. Basket.Secondary parameter, which depends on the shredder size and power. Higher power input, higher garbage can capacity.
6. Noise level.We recommend to pay attention to the models with noise level less than 60 dB, in order not to clog up your environment.

Rating of the best office shredders

Fellowes AutoMax 550C

Rating: 4.9

The most expensive and productive shredder in our rating. It is suitable for large offices with a high level of privacy. Secrecy class P-4, shreds documents into 4 x 38 mm segments. Slicing speed is 56 millimeters per second. But that is not the main point.

Fellowes AutoMax 550C has an automatic sheet feeding system with 550 pieces. It’s hard to imagine what kind of hectic workplace you have to be in in order to use all the shredder’s available features. Besides, the daily resource for loading 3000 sheets, which means that the system has a huge margin of safety and relatively short breaks between work cycles. Such a device quite understandably consumes 770 W of power and weighs about 34 kg. A real office machine!.

Advantages

• 3000 page daily cut tolerance;
• Feeding capacity of the tray is 550 pages;
• Acceptable cutting speed;
• high degree of reliability.

Disadvantages

• very high price;
• 770 Watt power consumption.

Heleos UP21-7

Rating: 4.8

The second place in the rating goes to UP21-7 shredder from Russian Helios company. It was designed specially for offices that work with highly confidential documents, providing them with a level of secrecy P-7 with slicing 0.8×2 millimeter. But unlike other shredders, the machine can shred not only paper of different weight, but also CDs.

Heleos UP21-7 can simultaneously destroy 7 sheets at a speed of 43 millimeters per second. The noise level will not exceed the optimum of 58 dB – this is the standard that the Russian manufacturer holds out. The inner chamber of the machine can hold up to 23 liters of waste paper. That’s basically all you need to know about the model.

Advantages

• low noise;
• Not a bad volume of the paper hopper;
• cutting to the smallest fragments to P-7 tolerance;
• Despite thin blades, can cut discs.

Disadvantages

• high price.

Fellowes 79Ci

Rating: 4.7

Very effective office shredder from Fellowes, which has the average performance, but uses several design innovations. The question is about Jam Proof system, which protects the device from interferences due to power failure or paper fragments clogging in the elements. In addition, it is equipped with Safe Sense technology and additional guide rollers for smooth paper flow.

I had to sacrifice the level of secrecy and amount of power consumption for all this. When operating at 56 millimeters per second and cross-cutting paper into 4×38 millimeter pieces, the Fellowes 79Ci consumes 480 watts of power. It is the second index in our rating, which in this particular case can be marked with a “minus” sign.

Advantages

• Safe Sense and Jam Proof system;
• High reliability;
• availability of guide rollers;
• acceptable paper cutting speed.

Disadvantages

• High power consumption with low productivity.

Rexel Auto+ 130X

Rating: 4.7

Another Rexel with automatic feeding and shredding up to 130 sheets of papers per work cycle. It provides level 4 confidentiality of destroyed papers and maintains a steady cutting speed of 30 millimeters per second.

The main advantage of the Rexel Auto+ 130X is the reduced waiting time between work cycles. The ratio of “10 minutes of work to 30 minutes of interruption” is the best within our rating. Noise level of 60dB, which is optimal. The device is capable of processing not only paper, but also disks, staples, paper clips, thick cardboard, and plastic cards. Capacity of its container is 26 liters, and the design includes a relay that stops the flow of paper when the “hopper” is filled to overflowing.

Advantages

• basket capacity;
• Best ratio of run time to pause time;
• Capable of shredding up to 130 sheets per work interval.

Disadvantages

• high price;
• quite bulky design (13.7 kilograms).

New United ST-4HS

Rating: 4.6

The New United ST-4HS is an expensive office shredder that pays for every penny spent. It is the best solution for those companies that work with documents of high level of confidentiality, because it provides destruction of sheets at level 7 of secrecy. In essence, cross cutting allows you to cut the tiniest 1 x 2 millimeter pieces. It is very difficult to reconstruct such a device.

The power of the device is 280 watts and the cutting speed is 50 millimeters per second. At the same time, the blades can pull only 5 sheets of paper with a density of 70 grams per square meter at a time. Cutting anything else New United ST-4HS is not taught, and it’s worth taking into account. The capacity of the built-in bin is 26 liters. Noise level is less than 58 dB.

Advantages

• The highest secrecy class;
• Average power consumption;
• reasonable working speed;
• reduced noise.

Disadvantages

• 15 kilograms in weight;
• Cannot destroy discs, plastic cards and metal staples – too delicate knives for thin slicing.

Office Kit S 215

Rating: 4.5

A solid shredder in a gray-and-black plastic case that claims to be one of the best in its class. Yes, its weight is as much as 10 kilograms, which you can not say, looking at the size. But serviceability is on the level above average: loading 20 sheets at a time, the cross-cutting speed of 54 millimeters per second, 58 dB of noise.

Behind all this, however, there are a couple of nuances. First of all, the secrecy level corresponds to P-3 (4×40 millimeters slices), which makes the device much weaker than analogues with a finer slicing. Secondly, the power is 370 W without having an energy-saving mode. But there are indicators for motor overheating and fullness of the 28-liter garbage can on the cabinet. Controversy abounds, but the Office Kit S 215 is very popular in the office environment.

Advantages

• large container;
• low noise level;
• High load of the receiver (up to 20 sheets at a time);
• reasonable speed.

Disadvantages

• low level of secrecy;
• higher power consumption.

Fellowes PowerShred 8CD

Rating: 4.5

Fellowes PowerShred 8CD is very popular among small offices and companies, but in fact it does not surpass Heleos UM22-5 in performance. With 250 watts of power, it can shred 8 sheets of paper at a time at speeds of up to 50 millimeters per second. At the same time the segments will have a size of 4×35 millimeters.

The noise level of Fellowes PowerShred 8CD is 65 dB. The volume of the garbage can does not exceed 14 liters, but this is the cost of the pursuit of compactness. By the way, in this component Fellowes shredder is very happy: its small size allowed reducing the weight to 4 kilograms. Note also the easily removable cutting block, the auto-stop system when removing the container and the auto-start system when ready to work.

Advantages

• 4 kg weight;
• easily removable knife block;
• automatic shutdown system when removing the basket;
• Pretty fast speed.

Disadvantages

• higher noise level.

Heleos UM22-5

Rating: 4.4

The purchase of a personal shredder Heleos UM22-5 will certainly be a profitable investment. Its advantage is in the acceptable working capacity with 130 W of power. Cross cut paper shredding speed of up to 75 millimeters per second, and the tray allows you to load up to 10 sheets at once. The size of the particles after recycling is no more than 2×8 millimeters.

Because of its small size, the internal volume of the Heleos UM22-5 garbage can has been reduced to 15 liters. However, even this did not go without special features: the body of the device has a fullness indicator, and for the convenient removal of the container the design features a sliding mechanism. This shredder is omnivorous, because it accepts not only paper but also plastic cards, staples, optical disks, etc.d. Oh yes, we almost forgot: The noise level does not exceed 58 dB during operation.

Advantages

• compact and lightweight (only 5 kg);
• low noise level;
• Low power consumption (130 W) and high speed;
• cross-cutting the documents into the smallest pieces.

Disadvantages

• Even with moderate amounts of daily work, it quickly uses up its resources.

Rexel Auto+ 60X

Rating: 4.3

Rexel Auto+ 60X is strikingly different in performance from Gladwork iShred and
auberg S12. The machine cuts up to 60 sheets of paper at a time, about 5 times as many as the aforementioned models. The cycle of its work is 8 minutes with a need for a break of 40 minutes. The security level corresponds to P-3 approval, because the fragments have a size of 4×45 millimeters.

The Rexel Auto+ 60X has an average paper shredding speed of 1.5 meters per minute. At the same time the noise level does not exceed 59 dB, which is also an advantage of the model. To attract customers to their product, the Chinese manufacturer gave a 2-year warranty on the shredder itself, as well as a 5-year warranty on the blades. However, users note that when frequently loading sheets with staples and paper clips the blades blunt. This means that their warranty recovery is very popular.

Advantages

• Low noise level;
• The increased warranty on the serviceability of the cutting unit and the device itself;
• The ability to simultaneously cut 60 sheets of paper;
• 8 minute duty cycle.

Disadvantages

• Knives are subject to accelerated wear and tear.

Gladwork iShred 16CD Effect

Rating: 4.2

High capacity, capable of shredding up to 16 sheets at a time. Despite the fact that the cut fragments are 4 x 35 millimeters, the security level falls under the 4th point. The destruction speed of A4 sheets is 37 millimeters per second. At the same time you should consider the fact that the device has a short duty cycle of only 3 minutes, after which it needs a break for 40 minutes.

Gladwork iShred 16CD Effect uses cross cut type. In addition to staples and paper clips, it can also destroy plastic cards and optical disks. Its garbage can capacity is 26 liters and motor power is 380 watts. It makes up to 68 dB of noise, which is quite a bad result for a document shredder.

Advantages

• high capacity of the document feeder;
• acceptable shredding speed;
• The ability to destroy optical discs;
• reliability.

Disadvantages

• Short work cycle;
• high power consumption;
• higher noise level.

The auberg S12

Rating: 4.1

Compact shredder with enough space for up to 6 sheets at once. Popular in small offices for its reliability and failure-free operation. It implements a cross-cutting method to ensure the level of secrecy of lost information P-4. The internal garbage can has a capacity of 13 liters and can be tracked through a special transparent window.

CACTUS CS-SH-6-13-4X12 works with normal paper as well as plastic cards, metal staples and paper clips. Size of shredded paper fragments does not exceed 4×12 millimeters – it will be virtually impossible to restore lost data with it. For normal operation, the device consumes up to 300 W of power from the network.

Advantages

• austere, attractive design
• Difficulty in recovering data even though the method of cutting is transverse;
• compact and lightweight;
• extremely low price.

Disadvantages

• High power consumption for a machine of this size.