Budget Paper Shredders

For light duty, a cheaper shredder might be fine

If you don't want to spend upwards of $100 on a shredder, reviewers at Amazon post good ratings for the Fellowes Powershred P-57Cs (*Est. $60), a lighter-duty home paper shredder. The Fellowes P-57Cs comes with a built-in safety sensor, and users say it can shred five or six pages at once. We found few complaints for this model, which shreds paper and credit cards, but not CDs and DVDs. At Slate.com, Laura Moser finds that this shredder is unusually loud; she compares it to "an arsenal of power tools all in operation simultaneously." Moser likes that this machine can credit cards in the same slot used for paper. However, she rates the P-57Cs last out of the six shredders tested, primarily because of the noise. However, on Amazon.com, nearly 300 reviewers give the P-57Cs pretty good scores considering the price. Like most models, the P-57Cs must rest for a few minutes after a shredding session, which in this case is about 10 to 15 pages. Several reviewers complain that the size of the shredded paper pieces, at 5/32 of an inch by 2 inches, is large enough to be reassembled pretty easily. The P-57Cs comes with a five-gallon wastebasket.

In testing at Slate.com, the Staples Mailmate M3 (*Est. $70) receives the top score among six shredders. Writer Laura Moser is impressed by its shredding capacity, rated at 12 pages. It also shreds CDs and DVDs, credit cards, staples and small paper clips. Moser appreciates this shredder's small size, and notes that it is "delightfully easy to empty, with a plastic handle that allows you to slide out the bin without moving any furniture." She does find two drawbacks: paper must be fed in horizontally instead of vertically, which requires a bit more time than vertical models, and the noise level is high. The handful of reviews for this shredder on Staples.com are less positive. Two reviewers say it stopped working. A newer model, the Staples Mailmate M5 (*Est. $90) looks like it will replace the M3. We have not seen any reviews for it, however.

In general, cheap shredders really just don't get good reviews, but they might be okay for light duty as long as you're careful not to overload them.

Reviews really do not recommend strip-cut paper shredders (also called ribbon-cut shredders) at all, since they don't chop paper into the smallest pieces. The long strips can be more easily reassembled. Strip-cut shredders aren't necessarily any cheaper than cross-cutters, so there's really no need to skimp, according to reviews.

Although you can find paper shredders for as little at $30 or $40, not even users recommend shredders this cheap, finding that they can jam and overheat even with two pages.