Electric Paper Shredder - Once You Go Electric You Dont Go Back

Where multi-sheared scissors are the poor man's tool for shredding confidential information contained in various storage media like paper and compact discs, the electric paper shredder is its better version.  So, when you are made to choose among these two choices, we suggest going for the latter for many reasons.

For one thing, the modern paper shredder makes for faster accomplishment of the task of turning whole binders of paper or discs into smithereens, never to be used by others against your organization or person.  You only need a few minutes at most to shred documents the thickness of a telephone book.  Now, contrast that with the manual operation of scissors and you get the idea.

For another thing, the electric paper shredder makes a very thorough job of, well, shredding the paper and discs into bits and pieces.  You will have to spend days and days just to piece back together these shredded paper into intelligible documents especially when the cross-cut shredder is used.  Again contrast that with scissors where you will eventually get tired and, hence, stop cutting up the paper into smaller pieces.  You might as well hand the identity thieves and industrial spies the information that they need and on a silver platter, at that.

For the consumer market, there are two types of the electronic paper shredder classified according to the manner by which the blades cut the paper of the disc.  Each one has its pros and cons in terms of price, efficiency in cutting and other features.

First, the strip-cut shredders utilize rotating knives that cut narrow strips on the paper without shortening its original length.  As such, you will find that it offers the least amount of protection against information thieves especially when patience is applied in piecing back together the strips into its almost-original form.

But its lower price tag works in its favor.  So, if you have less-than-confidential information contained in the paper or disc, the strip-cut paper shredder will do the job just as well as other more expensive types.

Second, the cross-cut shredders cut the paper into many shapes such as rectangular, parallelogram and lozenge shreds through 2 contra-rotating drums.  As a result, the shredded paper is truly in bits and pieces by the time it reaches the recycle bin.  Even the most determined of information thieves will have a very hard time piecing it back together.

Expectedly, this is more expensive than the strip-cut type especially when its other features are taken into consideration.  Still, for the higher price you pay, you are also assured of a higher level of security for your information.

The electric paper shredders are also classified according to their size and capacity, of which there are six types - desktop, standard office, departmental, multimedia and high security.  While the desk-side paper shredder is the smallest in size and capacity, the high security shredder is the most expensive, most secure and largest of all types.

No matter which type of electronic paper shredder you eventually choose, the most important thing is that it should sufficiently serve your needs for protection against identity thieves and industrial spies. All other considerations like price come in second albeit a very close second.