Best Paper Shredders

Pricier shredders perform best, and Fellowes is tops

Home and small-office paper shredders can cost anywhere from $30 to upwards of $300. We found the best reviews all around for the Fellowes Intellishred PS-79Ci (*Est. $200), which gets consistently good reviews from experts and users. As of this update, however, the PS-79Ci is unavailable due to the production problems at Fellowes's primary manufacturing site in China. Fellowes expects the matter to be resolved by the second half of 2011. That puts the excellent PS-79Ci shredder out of contention for this update of our report. Once it's back in production, we'll re-evaluate whether to recommend this paper shredder, since it's unclear if the manufacturing problems will result in a change in build quality.

The Fellowes Powershred W-11C (*Est. $65) isn't affected by the production shortages. Overall, it doesn't get the same glowing reviews as the more expensive Intellishred PS-79Ci, but the W-11C shredder still gets better reviews than other shredders in its price and size class.

We found hundreds of user reviews for this Fellowes home paper shredder; most owners say it delivers good quality and performance. More than 200 Amazon.com users praise the Fellowes W-11C for its ability to shred unopened junk mail and its high build quality. This Fellowes paper shredder is rated for 11 pages per pass, but many users report that it begins to struggle with far less than that. In general, you should not feed any more than half of the stated capacity through any paper shredder, regardless of brand.

A Level 3 cross-cut shredder, the Fellowes W-11C offers a degree of information security that most experts say is sufficient for home and small-office use. The W-11C also shreds credit cards and handles staples. While the majority of consumer reviewers posted to Amazon.com and the Fellowes website indicate a high level of owner satisfaction with the W-11C's overall performance, we also found about a dozen reports from owners saying that the Fellowes W-11C died within days, weeks or months of purchase after only moderate or occasional use. Owners are split on how loud the W-11C is; some complain it's noisy, while others say it's no louder than other paper shredders. One owner says it's difficult to properly mount the shredder on top of the bin after emptying, and other users say that you're asking for paper jams if you let the bin fill too high.

A higher-capacity (and higher-priced) shredder, the Staples 22-Sheet Cross-Cut Shredder (*Est. $200), also gets good reviews. Over 200 consumers posting opinions at Staples.com give this 22-sheet paper shredder an average overall rating of 4.2 out of 5. Most owners are satisfied with this shredder's ability to power through multiple sheets of paper, as well as credit cards and DVDs. A lot of griping is directed at the shredder's waste bin, which some owners say cannot accommodate liners. (We also found reports of users successfully adapting liners to fit the bin.) Regardless, reviewer consensus suggests that the collection bin is undersized and needs frequent emptying. While many reviewers comment that the Staples 22-Sheet shredder operates quietly, some complain it's noisy, and a few report instances of the shredder shutting down and not restarting.

Home office users and businesses willing to spend a little more for added security might want to consider the Staples 15-Sheet Micro-Cut Shredder (*Est. $250). More than 30 consumers post reviews on Staples.com, giving the 15-Sheet Micro-Cut an average overall rating of 4.3 out of 5. Reviewers call this paper shredder a "workhorse" and "gutsy worker," saying it chews through multiple pages quickly and relatively quietly. Its large waste bin, combined with the tiny shred size, does not need frequent emptying. We read very few complaints overall; the ones we did find seem to involve defective parts, including a door that won't close and possibly a bad sensor. Many customers note that it is important to run a lubricator sheet through the paper shredder periodically to keep it running at peak performance.

The Staples 15-Sheet Cross-Cut Shredder (*Est. $160), ranks as one of the top 10 sellers on Staples.com, and earns an average overall rating of 4.1 out of 5 in over 1,000 posted reviews. Users say the Staples 15-Sheet Cross-Cut shreds quickly and is effective on everything from paper to credit cards to DVDs. Its 15-sheet capacity may be overrated, though; some reviewers say 10 sheets is the true maximum. Noisiness and difficulty emptying shreds are the two main complaints we found. Some owners of this Staples paper shredder recommend using standard trash bags in the waste compartment for easier cleanup. They say this solution works well as long as the bags aren't filled to capacity.

Light-duty shredders work fine if you baby them

There are many paper shredders in the $30 to $50 range, but complaints about jams are prevalent in reviews. Overheating is another issue. While many cheap shredders are touted as being able to accept eight to 10 pages at a time, owners say that's just not realistic. You'll need to feed paper slowly if you buy one of these shredders -- a real pain if you've got a stack of old tax returns to shred, but not a big deal if your shredding amounts to a few pages a day.

In this price range, we found decent reviews for the OfficeMax 8-Sheet Micro-Cut Shredder (*Est. $50), but note that when we checked, there were fewer than 20 opinions posted on OfficeMax.com. While the OfficeMax 8-Sheet Micro-Cut Shredder is not designed for heavy office use, consumers say it is a good value that handles its advertised capacity. They also like the tiny shreds produced, which are more secure than cross-cut shreds. The two negative reviews we found say that the shredder broke down after a short amount of time.

Cheap paper shredders are usually best for light duty and are fine as long as you don't overload them. Whatever you do, be sure to buy a cross-cut or micro-cut shredder. While you can find some $20 and $30 shredders in stores, most are strip-cut shredders and offer less information security.