Best High-End Shredders 2021

If you’ve got sensitive documents lying around then you should be aware of the risk that having them around or disposing of them carelessly entails. Identity theft is a common issue and improper disposal of financial documents and other forms of sensitive information can leave you or your business vulnerable. While this issue is, realistically, most important for businesses to be aware of, it can also affect private individuals too.

To securely dispose of your sensitive documents a shredder is a great investment. Shredders offer different types of cut that offer different levels of security. They also vary in how many sheets they can take at one time, how long they can run for before needing to cool down, and if they can handle things other than paper such as staples, and CDs.

To help you find the best shredders on the market, we’ve drawn up a list of the best high-end shredders in 2021.

The Fellowes Powershred 99Ci is a cross-cut shredder useful for shredding sensitive documents. The cross-cut style means that long strips are cut into shorter chunks making it more secure than a strip-cut shredder while also running faster than a micro-cut shredder. The large capacity bin means it can run for a long time before needing to be emptied. The 99Ci is pretty good at handling large shredding loads as it can handle 18 sheets of paper at a time and can run continuously for up to 30 minutes before needing up to 40 minutes to cool down.

The 99Ci is not only capable of handling up to 18 sheets of paper at once but can also handle staples, CDs, and credit cards, though it is recommended to shred the more difficult items one at a time. for safety, it includes a hand detection feature that pauses shredding if it detects a hand too close to the blades. For a shredder, it runs pretty quietly. It is relatively heavy and large, though the wheels will make it relatively easy to move around. It also advertises itself as 100% jam-proof, though it’s unclear if this is intended to mean that the reverse mechanism will clear any potential jam or if the machine will never jam at all in normal use.

The Fellowes AutoMax 150C offers the ability to cross-cut up to 8 sheets of paper at once when manually fed into it. Its main selling point though is the auto-feeding tray. This allows you to place up to 150 sheets of paper and let the machine feed them in continuously until it’s finished shredding them all, taking any necessary breaks.

One of the downsides of this model is that it can only run for 12 minutes before needing a 25-minute break to cool down, though this is somewhat offset by being able to feed it 150 sheets and walk away. The AutoMax 150C is capable of shredding staples, paperclips, and credit cards, though CDs are not supported. It runs at 60dB but you can often find the motor continuing to whir for a little while after it has finished shredding.

The GBC Style+ styles itself as a super cross-cut shredder as it cuts the page more finely than most cross-cut shredders. It shreds a single piece of letter paper into 656 separate pieces. While it can only take 7 sheets of paper at once, it actually shreds them really fast making this shredder ideal for light use, though it is quite loud while running.

It can run continuously for up to 6 minutes before needing to cool down for 30 minutes. It comes in a stylish glossy black and white design with a lot of smooth curves making it quite visually distinct compared to most shredders. The lack of jam detection or an ability to tell when the paper bin is full can lead to a situation where it’s difficult to remove the shredded paper without causing a mess, so it’s important to check and empty it regularly.

The GBC Stack-and-Shred 300X is a cross-cut shredder capable of taking 8 sheets at a time manually, or up to 300 sheets in the autoloading tray. While it isn’t the fastest shredder it can power through a stack of 300 sheets in just over 11 minutes while completely unattended. You can remotely monitor the shredder through the SmarTech app, though only while you’re within Bluetooth range.

The huge 42-litre bin means you don’t need to empty it often, though if you regularly put in a load of 300 sheets you will still need to do so. It can shred CDs, staples, and paper clips without making too much noise. It also comes with a fantastic limited 2-year warranty while the shredder blades come with a 15-year warranty, so you can trust this will last. If, somehow, the 300-sheet capacity isn’t heavy-duty enough for your use case, a 600 and 700 sheet capacity version is also available, though these come at an even higher cost.

That was our roundup of the best high-end shredders in 2021. Have you recently bought a high-end shredder? What sold you on it and what has your experience been with it so far? Let us know down below.