#Staples mailmate shredder maintenance full#

Most of the micro-cut shredders in our target price range could handle six to 12 sheets at a time. Page capacity: Having a shredder with a higher page capacity means you can shred more paper at once, including several folded sheets.More-expensive shredders are designed for offices where whole teams need to shred stacks of documents throughout the day they’re overkill for a typical one- or two-person home office.

Price: We looked for paper shredders listed under $200 from major manufacturers, with a strong preference for those priced closer to or under $100.

After all, a cheaper, more frustrating shredder isn’t worth the savings if you never use it and just chuck your crumpled bank statements into your recycling bin. Though this model is slightly bigger than eight-sheet shredders with lift-up tops, it still fits under most desks, and we think the pullout bin and wheels are conveniences that make it easier to keep up a shredding habit. It can handle old plastic credit cards, as well, and it has a separate slot for data DVDs, which is helpful for reducing wear and tear on the main shredder gears. Like other micro-cut shredders, this Amazon Basics shredder chomps documents into tiny shreds measuring around 5/32 by 15/32 inches, making any sensitive paperwork all but impossible to reassemble. Whereas some other tested shredders jammed or emitted a burning smell after a few minutes, the eight-sheet Amazon Basics ran trouble-free well past its five-minute run time as we continuously fed it batches of paper-it tore through about 360 pages (or 90 four-page credit card statements) before the bin was full. The extra $80 gets you a no-jam guarantee (the machine will sense an impending jam and reverse gears), enough power to shred 13 sheets at once, the same omnivorous appetite (for credit cards, CDs, etc.) and a touch-sensitive feed slot that stops the motor when it senses an approaching finger, no matter how small.The Amazon Basics 8-Sheet High-Security Micro-Cut Shredder with Pullout Basket typically costs more ($5 to $25 higher at this writing) than competing eight-sheet micro-cut shredders, but it’s worth the investment. If you want something a little more robust, you can spend twice as much on the Fellowes PS-79Ci, right, another Level 3 shredder that runs around $160. Small enough to sit on a desktop but strong enough to turn credit cards, staples, paper clips and CDs into Level 3 confetti, it is perfect for the light-duty shredding of the reasonably paranoid.

And as far as the quality of a budget machine’s shredding is concerned, sleep with one eye open - those strips of paper fettuccine could be easily reassembled by an otherwise-distracted spider monkey.ĭig a little deeper in your pocket, and you can walk away with the Staples M5 Mailmate shredder, left, which costs $80 and claims to shred 12 pages at once. Unlike, say, potholders or college degrees, where differences in price mean little when it comes to quality, a low-budget shredder will excel only at jamming, overheating and destroying your sanity. The thing about cheap shredders? They’re cheap.

#Staples mailmate shredder maintenance full#

You can also take your top-secret documents and drop them in a basket full of kittens.

You can buy a shredder for less than $30.