Get a Free Glass Marker Board By Buying A Swingline Shredder

The importance of having a paper shredder handy at your desk can't be understated. Privacy laws require certain companies to destroy sensitive information. Even when it isn't a legal issue, the risk of identity theft and corporate espionage means slicing up old credit cards and personal data offers peace of mind. Many offices don't have enough shredders to go around or overwork the shredders that are present. More shredders to accommodate more desks or departments are always a good idea, and now there's a way to get something to else to help the office- a free glass marker board!

Quartet Infinity Glass Board

Acco Brands is running a promotion in September and October where purchases of a qualifying Swingline shredder are eligible for a rebate for a Quartet glass marker board. Shredders that qualify range from small office use to heavy-duty Stack-and-Shred units that can accommodate entire departments, shredding entire reams of paper on their own while you go back to work.

Swingline Stack-and-Shred 750X Shredder

Glass marker boards are some of the trendiest office products around. They're stylish and aren't as susceptible to ghosting the way melamine boards are. Put up marker boards to promote collaboration among employees or replace outdated or worn out boards in your conference room. The better the shredder purchased, the bigger the marker board you'll get!

Free Returns on Swingline Shredders

We've talked about the importance of having an office shredder instead of relying on third-party shredding services. We've also talked about making sure your company has the right shredder. We've also gushed over Swingline's Stack-and-Shred shredders that do the tedious part for you. Now here's an offer that allows you to not only take our word for it, but see for yourself with no risk.

Free Return Shipping on Select Swingline Shredders

This is an opportunity to try one of five Swingline shredders with a free return if you aren't satisfied. Under this program, you won't have to worry about being saddled with shipping costs if a shredder doesn't work for you. We doubt that would happen, as the selected shredders are all designed for heavy office use, including three different Stack-and-Shred models.

Stack-and-Shred 750X Shredder

All of the shredders are cross cut, shredding paper into small confetti-style particles to guarantee your security. For more information on shredding size or to see more shredders, check out our buying guide.

Shredders Simplified

For businesses of any size, shredding is a hassle. Every company has discarded information that needs to remain confidential, but the legal mandates for maintaining privacy are so strict that we grow to resent the need to render documents “unrecognizable or beyond reconstruction.” It leaves us wondering who's rooting through our trash and if our current shredding work is enough to guard against someone with enough free time and plenty of Scotch tape. There's time to spare for such paranoia, as feeding papers into a shredder is far more dull than anything involving loud, destructive machinery has any right to be.

It is, however, a vital part of business and must be given proper consideration. The problem isn't that shredding is necessary. Companies open themselves up to identity theft, lawsuits and corporate espionage when the job isn't done. The problem is that failing to properly address a company's unique shredding needs is a waste of time and money. For example, one popular and easy solution is off-site shredding, where another company picks up your documents and shreds them for you. Not only can that be expensive, how secure can you really feel when something that you are responsible for destroying leaves your offices intact? If anything goes wrong, you're still on the hook for it.

Shredding documents internally offers peace of mind and is more affordable, but only if the shredders you purchase are suited for your needs. An insufficient shredder means that employees will spend far too much time feeding papers, emptying bins and dealing with jams. A low-end model that can be tossed under a desk for an individual to use isn't going to cover an entire department.

Personal vs. Department Shredders

This buying guide helps you find the shredder that offers not only the right level of security for your business, but also the number of sheets that can be shred at a time. For a cross-cut shredder, units that can accept 10 sheets are fine for individual desks and households, 12-14 sheets are recommended for small offices, while larger offices and departments should use shredders that can handle 20-30 sheets at a time. Micro-cut shredders, which create very small particles and may be required for destroying extremely sensitive information, accept fewer sheets per pass.

Swingline Stack and Shred

To really save on labor, consider Swingline's Stack and Shred model, where up to 100 sheets can be inserted into the machine, which will lock them inside and shred them while an employee can go back to work. Other innovative options that may appeal to you are the strong high capacity shredders from Martin Yale's Intimus line, the jam prevention features developed by Fellowes, and the GoEcoLife series of shredders that are both functional and environmentally friendly.

Swingline Stack and Shred

So some promotional materials for the Swingline Stack and Shred just crossed my desk and I'm fairly impressed. If you are like most people, you fall behind on your paper work every once in a while and have been subjected to the horror of shredding a pile of papers in chunks of 8 pages at a time. If that's the case, the Stack and Shred is meant for you. Basically, you just throw a pile of papers in the top, you close it and go about your life while it magically shreds the paper. Okay, so it isn't real magic like Harry Potter, but you close the lid and things happen, so it's like engineering magic and that's good enough for most people.

The Stack and Shred Website Guy

Swingline created a promotional website (StackAndShred.com) for the Stack and Shred that features a guy shredding paper in small chunks and the same guy using the Stack and Shred. The website isn't very exciting, and with the addition of some boring repetitive elevator music, it makes shredding seem as exciting as watching paint dry or watching grass grow. So, commentary aside, the shredder is rated at 60 dB so it is as quiet as any of Swingline's quietest shredders. The specs say the bin can hold 200 shredded sheets so that means you'll only be able to run a full auto feeder twice before you need to empty the bin.

Swingline Stack and Shred

So 100 sheets of paper that feed at 7 fpm (feet per minute) means that it will shred approximately 7 sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 standard office paper in one minute. So, in just a little over 14 minutes you could successfully shred 100 pages of junk mail or confidential paper work. Depending on the paper you attempt to shred, it may or may not shred more than one piece at a time, so it will hopefully finish much faster. Unfortunately, and there is always an unfortunately, according to the shredder spec sheet, it runs on a 10/30 run-time/cool-down schedule, so if your shredding takes longer than 10 minutes, you will have to wait 30 minutes to resume shredding.

Stack and Shred Feeding Mechanism

I got to take a look at one of the shredders in person and it is formidable. The feeder grabs your paper from the middle using some high friction rollers and pulls it into the shredder, so any pieces that won't fold will potentially cause a problem. However, the centralized feeder does mean that almost all paper and paper sizes can shred as long as they make contact with the rollers. In practice I found that the shredder was quiet, but I think "Super Quiet" is probably a slight exaggeration. I didn't have a decibel meter on hand, so I'll assume the 60 dB is correct. If you regularly need to shred large stacks of paper, but don't want the hassle of finding and paying a professional shredding company you should at least give the Swingline Stack and Shred a look.

Stop Paper Shredder Injuries

I've never really been up to date on shredder technologies because I never put much thought into them.  To me shredders were that plastic box that you put sensitive papers into that have all the silly pictographic warnings about not putting paper clips or your tie into it.  Fortunately, one of my co-workers told me that those warnings aren't just a joke, they can cause serious injuries.  It might be funny to watch a business man get his tie caught in a shredder but most business people have good enough reflexes and are strong enough to stop anything except some minor tie damage.

Most major shredder related injuries come from young children or animals who can't really comprehend what the shredder is for or what damage it can do.  It isn't hard to find reports of various shredder injuries when you browse the web and you can find some pretty harrowing photos if you want (I won't spoil your lunch), but there are few places that offer much for a solution.  Everybody says the only way to keep a shredder safely in your home is keep it unplugged when not in use.  You can turn it off, but if there is a finger, tail, or tongue that can get caught in it, those body parts are connected to others that could find a way to turn the shredder on.

One of many SafeSense Shredders

I can't tell you that buying a new shredder will allow you to safely keep your shredder plugged in while children and pets run amok, but I can tell you that the latest shredders from Fellowes have some impressive safety features that might put your mind at ease. The primary safety feature in these shredders is the patent pending SafeSense override that stops shredding when fingers get close to the shredding input port.  We have a Fellowes PS-79Ci Shredder in our office that has the SafeSense feature.  Even thought I wasn't allowed to get out my tools to find out exactly how it worked I was able to do some testing and it seems as if the chrome trim around the shredder input has a capacitive sensor that shuts off the shredder.  The Fellowes advertising tells you it will shut down your shredder if your fingers get to close which sounds like it might have been a proximity sensor, but at least on our shredder you need to make physical contact with a sensor to trigger the SafeSense feature.

A Jam-Proof Commercial Shredder with SafeSense

The capacitive sensor on the shredder we have works well enough to keep an adults finger out of the shredding mechanism, but if a child had small enough fingers they could slip between the sensors.  Something as large and slobbery as a dog's tongue would easily trip the sensor, but a cat's tail may or may not trigger the sensor (I am not going to test it). I can't say for sure that all SafeSense enabled shredders use only capacitive sensors, but looking at a Commercial Grade Shredder with Fellowes SafeSense I can't see anything that sticks out as a capacitive sensor, so it might have a more sensitive system to keep fingers out.

Unfortunately, even though shredder technology is advancing rapidly, the current crop of shredders isn't going to be a fool-proof accident-proof replacement for your current shredder.  You should still unplug them if they are not in use, and at the very least turn off the auto-on feature to avoid accidents.  If problems arise from Shredder of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fame and not a common office paper shredder, I'm sorry, I can't help there.