Paper Shredder Reviews

All private, confidential, and sensitive documents need to be destroyed before disposing of them, to help prevent identity theft, corporate espionage, and other crimes.

This applies to your documents as well as all business, non profit, and government agency documents.

Just imagine if your tax documents, credit account bills, bank statements, brokerage statements, and other sensitive documents were found by criminals. They could be used for identity theft - to steal your identity, or to commit fraud.

Paper Shredders are a very convenient way to destroy documents, turning them into undecipherable bits of paper scraps - basically useless waste. I actually own three paper shredders: one in the office, one in the home office, and one by the desk where my wife and I pay bills and do other paperwork.

The two paper shredders at home are relatively light duty shredders, while the one in the office is a heavy duty shredder as I deal with a lot more confidential documents there. It can both shred thicker documents and is much more durable. It also shreds CDs and DVDs with ease, and doesn't mind staples or the odd paperclip that might accidentally slip through.

Common types of shredders include:

Strip cut paper shredders cut paper into narrow strips as long as the original paper using rotating knives. These are the least secure as the strips can be reassembled by a determined and patient person.
Crosscut paper shredders, also called confetti shredders, use two rotating drums to cut documents into small pieces of paper similar to confetti.
Particle-cut paper shredders, sometimes called micro-cut or high security shredders, cut documents into even smaller pieces than crosscut shredders, and are the most secure.

Paper shredding is far from foolproof however!

For example, when Iranians took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979, they were able to reconstruct shredded documents.

Also, my friends in the FBI and other US law enforcement and spy agencies ensure me that they can reconstruct any shredded documents fairly quickly.

Do you think the US shreds classified documents for example? The answer is quite simply no, despite a bunch of contrary nonsense you'll find on the Internet.

If your life or national defense depends on it, paper shredders aren't secure enough, however for well over 99% of all private, confidential, and sensitive documents, a paper shredder is ideal. Everyone should own one and use it regularly!

Shredders range in price from approximately $20 for a light duty unit designed for personal use, to thousands of dollars for commercial shredders.

Beware that most cheap shredders break easily. They really are designed for very light and occasional duty. I've broken gears, melted CDs into the cutting mechanisms and destroyed them, and burnt out motors in paper shredders.

I'll be adding reviews slowly to this site of brands and models that are reliable, but any paper shredder can be destroyed or damaged if it's misused!

To see a lot of reviews and many models of paper shredders, click here.