Paper Shredder for Small Office
Securely shred confidential documents with these office shredders
Author: Pim Brouwer
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Are you looking for a reliable office shredder for shredding confidential paperwork into small shreds? Which commercial paper shredder is best for small business use and helps you and your colleagues keep confidential information safe and secure?
Our team selected professional paper shredders for desk-side use suited for small teams. Safely shred business documents, sensitive tax and financial documents, client and employee files, and agendas or minutes from business meetings into small shreds. We recommend this Fellowes LX22M Powershred office shredder for most small offices.
Top 10 Office Shredders
Top 10 Office Shredders
What are the best paper shredders for professional use at the office? Our team researched 400+ shredders and selected the best commercial shredders.
Our top-rated selection is based on these requirements:
- Security level P-3 or more – Small shreds instead of strips
- Run-time of 15+ minutes – Shred longer
- Sheet capacity of 10+ sheets per pass – More shredding
- Trusted manufacturers – Sturdy and durable shredders
- High-rated customer reviews – Minimum of 4 stars
Disclosure: This article about ‘Best Paper Shredders for Office‘ is reader-supported. If you click on a product link and make a purchase, we may earn a commission – learn more.
#1 | Fellowes LX22M Powershred – 20-Sheet (P-4)
#1 Best Seller
Premium and professional office shredder that is pleasantly quiet
The Fellowes LX22M Powershred is a beautiful office shredder suitable for 1-3 users. The LX22M is one of the more recent shredders from Fellowes. The LX-series includes the most recent generation of commercial shredders from Fellowes available in two colors, a minimal white edition, and a stylish matt black variant. The LX22M Powershred is a secure and powerful paper shredder that shreds up to 20 sheets per pass and come with all kinds of features that optimize its performance, such as run-time indicators and jam-proof technology.
- Security level: Micro-cut (DIN P-4)
- Run time: 30 minutes
- Sheet capacity: 20 pages
- Bin capacity: 8 gallons
#2 | Aurora AU1210MA – 12-Sheet (P-4)
Best selling shredder with 60 minutes run-time
The Aurora AU1210MA is a professional grade high-security paper shredder with a 60 minutes continuous run-time for long shredding. The P-4 security level ensures shredding confidential office documents into small shreds with a dimension of 5/32 by 15/32 inches. Besides documents, you can also shred CDs, DVDs, and credit cards. The quiet operation and anti-jam technology are very convenient for office use.
- Security level: Micro-cut (P-4)
- Run time: 60 minutes
- Sheet capacity: 12 pages
- Bin capacity: 5 gallons
#3 | Dahle ShredMATIC 35314 – 300-Sheet (P-4)
Automatic office shredder with lockable compartment
The Dahle ShredMATIC 35314 is a sleek looking automatic paper shredder. It shreds 300 sheets of confidential documents fully automatically. Because of its auto-feed functionality, it saves you and your team much time. This shredder is also super-fast, with a speed of 85 sheets per minute. This ‘German engineered’ automatic shredder offers trouble-free operation and requires no maintenance since this shredder is oil-free.
- Security level: Micro-cut (P-4)
- Run time: 50 minutes
- Sheet capacity: 300 pages
- Bin capacity: 21 gallons
#4 | Fellowes Powershred 99Ci – 18-Sheet (P-4)
A classic and solid shredder at a good price
The Fellowes Powershred 99Ci is a powerful and fast all-round small office shredder suitable for 1-3 users. Recently this popular shredder is updated to the Fellowes LX22M. Shred up to 18 sheets of paper per pass without dealing with any paper jams because of the 100% Jam Proof system. Besides documents, you can also shred CDs, DVDs, credit cards, paper clips, and staples. The document shredder is safe to use at your office because of the SafeSense technology.
- Watch our video review
- Security level: Cross-cut (P-4)
- Run time: 30 minutes
- Sheet capacity: 18 pages
- Bin capacity: 9 gallons
#5 | AmazonBasics – 15-Sheet (P-4)
Perfect high capacity shedder for 1 user
This AmazonBasics 15-Sheet shredder is of excellent quality for its price tag. It has a high-security level (P-4) and a user-friendly design. Don’t worry about jams, overloading, or overheating during the 20 minutes running time as the shredders technology prevents this. Use this shredder to destroy CDs, DVDs, and credit cards as well with the helpful guide.
- Security level: Cross-cut (P-4)
- Run time: 20 minutes
- Sheet capacity: 14 pages
- Bin capacity: 6 gallons
#6 | Bonsaii EverShred C149-C – 18-Sheet (P-3)
Impressive little cross-cut shredder
The Bonsaii EverShred C149-C is a compact cross-cut shredder for medium-duty shredding jobs. Besides confidential paper, this shredder shreds credit cards, clips, CDs, DVDs, and staples, because of the solid cutters and professional steel blades. The advanced cooling system lets you use this shredder for up to 60 minutes at once before it needs a 10-minute cooling downtime. The cool down time makes the shredder perfect for high-volume shredding at the office.
- Security level: Cross-cut (P-3)
- Run time: 60 minutes
- Sheet capacity: 18 pages
- Bin capacity: 6 gallons
#7 | Fellowes Powershred 79Ci – 16-Sheet (P-4)
100% Jam proof medium-duty shredder
A feature that makes the Fellowes Powershred 79Ci stand out is that it has Safe Sense technology, which automatically disables the shredder when hands touch the feed opening. This office shredder is pleasantly quiet because of its 54-decibel noise level. Perfect for shared workspaces. The shredder contains four wheels for easy mobility. Just roll the Fellowes 79Ci shredder to your desk and start shredding paper, CDs, DVDs, and credit cards.
- Security level: Cross-cut (P-4)
- Run time: 20 minutes
- Sheet capacity: 16 pages
- Bin capacity: 6 gallons
#8 | WOLVERINE SD9113 – 18-Sheet (P-4)
Great shredder for small professional office
The WOLVERINE SD9113 is a cross-cut paper shredder for shredding a maximum of 18 sheets per pass. It also shreds your CDs and credit cards. Because of its long-running time of 60 minutes, this shredder gets categorized as a heavy-duty office shredder. With its low noise level of 58dB, the shredder operates pleasantly quietly. The low noise makes the WOLVERINE shredder perfect for office use.
- Security level: Cross-cut (P-4)
- Run time: 60 minutes
- Sheet capacity: 18 pages
- Bin capacity: 6 gallons
#9 | Aurora AU1410MA – 14-Sheet (P-4)
Great value for the money
The Aurora AU1410MA offers high security with its P-4 security level. It shreds up to 14 sheets of confidential documents into pieces measuring 5/32 by 15/32 inches. This shredder is excellent for deskside use in the office for one or two users because of its run time of 30 minutes. In addition to shredding confidential paperwork, you can also shred old CDs, DVDs, and credit cards with confidential data on them.
- Security level: Micro-cut (P-4)
- Run time: 30 minutes
- Sheet capacity: 14 pages
- Bin capacity: 5 gallons
#10 | Aurora AU1540MB – 15-Sheet (P-5)
Heavy-duty office shredder
The Aurora AU1540MB is a secure micro-cut shredder that cuts your confidential paper into particles ten times smaller than your average cross-cut shredder. It shreds CDs, DVDs, and credit cards into small pieces and has a 60-minute continuous runtime before it needs to cool down. The Aurora AU1540MB operates quietly and features an anti-jam function, which will let the shredder reverse as soon as the tiniest obstruction is sensed. This shredder is relatively compact with its pullout bin, which makes it great for a small office or even home office use.
- Security level: P-5
- Run time: 60 minutes
- Sheet capacity: 15 sheets
- Bin capacity: 13 gallons
Why trust our recommendations
What are the best paper shredders for safely shredding personal documents, financial information, and other sensitive paperwork? Our team researched hundreds of shredders and selected the best in our top 10. Why you can trust our recommendations? We have years of expertise and experience in certified paper and data destruction for businesses.
Are you looking for high capacity shredding machines? Check our recommendations for heavy-duty paper shredders.
For secure paper shredding we recommend a cross-cut or micro-cut shredder with security level P-3 or higher.Recycling.com
More About Commercial Shredders
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Shred confidential office documents with a secure cross-cut or micro-cut shredder, rather than a less secure strip-cut shredder.
What is an office shredder?
An office shredder is a professional shredding machine that shreds your office documents into strips or particles. For the best shredding results, we recommend opting for a cross-cut or micro-cut shredding machine rather than a strip-cut shredder.
The reason for this is that a strip-cut shredder shreds documents into long strips that might still be readable, which is less secure and thus not recommended to destroy confidential documentation securely. We strongly recommend a secure shredder that provides peace of mind and protects your confidential data for office use.
What color do you want?
Most paper shredders are black. But when this color doesn’t match your office’s interior design, then maybe a white paper shredder is an excellent option for you. We’ve selected a collection of secure white-colored document shredders.
These shredders look stylish and beautiful, but they are also functional, convenient, and safe to use for shredding confidential business documents.
What is the difference between a home shredder and office shredder?
The average home shredder is capable of shredding documents incidentally. This means that the shredder only has enough power and capacity to shred a few copies per session.
In the office environment, the demands for a paper shredder are much higher, which results in more robust and powerful shredder machines that get built for shredding more documents for more extended periods of time.
While one or two persons mostly use a shredder for home use, an office shredder can have multiple users during the day. Therefore it is important to carefully investigate the number of people who will use the shredder regularly, so you know beforehand if the shredder is capable of the daily shredding demands.
Desk-side shredding or centralized shredding?
For office use, you can choose a document shredder that stands next to or under a desk. This shredding is called desk-side shredding.
One operator typically uses small and compact shredders. Still, there are also larger and more powerful desk-side shredders available multiple people in an office department can use.
Please note that these types of shredders are not recommended to use intensively by various people. For high capacity, shredding looks for a heavy-duty shredder.
Centralized paper shredders
On the other hand, you can opt for a centralized paper shredder. These large, high capacity shredders are meant to be placed in centralized areas so multiple employees can use the shredder.
Centralized shredders often get placed in the same location as the centralized multifunction printer. Especially large offices use centralized shredders, also known as heavy-duty shredders, these commercial shredders meet great volume document shredding demands for multiple users.
Security levels, run-time, and capacity
When looking for a commercial shredder, we recommend checking the security level that suits your business’s security needs. Find out more about the security levels of paper shredding machines.
Secondly, check the maximum run-time of the shredder. The run-time indicates how many minutes or hours the shredder can run before the motor needs to cool down.
Home shredders, for instance, can only shred for a couple of minutes. Desk-side office shredders can run for around 15 – 30 minutes, and large centralized office shredders can run for multiple hours or even continuously.
Lastly, find a shredder that offers the right capacity for your needs. Look for the bin capacity and the sheet capacity.
Choose a shredder with a large enough bin capacity, so you don’t need to empty the bin multiple times per day. The sheet capacity tells you the maximum amount of paper you can shred per pass. Mainly for office use, we recommend opting for ten sheets or higher.
More about shredders
When you are choosing your suitable sheet capacity, bin capacity, run-time, and security levels, it can be quite overwhelming when you are browsing for a new paper shredder online.
What do you need to look at for a paper shredder? How do you find the best shredder for your business? To help you on your journey, we’ve made a paper shredder guide.
Shredders for high capacity shredding
Do you want to shred large volumes of documents with multiple users? Then we recommend a heavy-duty shredder. These professional paper shredders are built for shredding non-stop and can shred 15-25 sheets of paper per pass.
We suggest a micro-cut DIN P-5 office shredder for highly sensitive documents because these shredders produce paper particles that are very small and barely readable. Also, look for a document shredder with extended run-time (20 minutes or more) and shred around 10-20 sheets of paper per pass. Multiple colleagues can use these office shredder machines at the office.
Collect your shredded documents in a blue commercial recycling bin with a recycle label. Prior to paper shredding, you can temporarily collect sensitive documents in a shred bin with a locking lid.
We recommend looking for a hard drive shredder, hard drive crusher, or SSD disintegrator when you want to destroy data from hard disk drives or solid-state drives. Read more about hard drive destruction.
Paper shredding companies
When there is a need to shred high volumes of confidential office documents, it might be a better and more efficient idea to hire a paper shredding company to do the shredding for you. These companies collect the documents which need shredding, called ‘paper shredding service.’
We recommend hiring a certified paper shredding company, so you have certainty that your confidential work documents are destroyed carefully, professionally, and thoroughly following strict guidelines.
Read more about paper shredding services.
Maintain your shredder with oil
We recommend oiling your commercial paper shredder with official paper shredder oil. This oil comes in a liquid form or oil-sheets, also known as lubricant sheets. The shredder oil makes sure the cutting blades will run smoothly.
We advise you to oil your office shredding machine after you empty the bin or after intensive usage.
Check your shredder’s manual for more instructions on how to oil your document shredder and what type of oil you need to buy. Learn more about how to oil a paper shredder in our blog below.
By Recycling.com/ 2 August 2023
Looking for very fast heavy-duty Crosscut Shredder. pls reply me with the price. Tq.
Thank you for your question. Take a look at the Fellowes Powershred 425Ci or look at more heavy-duty shredders here: https://www.recycling.com/heavy-duty-paper-shredder/
If you have to shred large amounts of documents on a regular basis, you need something that can run for a while. That something is the Bonsaii EverShred. With up to 30 minutes of continuous shredding, you’ll work through your piles of paperwork in a single sitting.