Jeff McRitchie

Dahle 20414 Small Office Cross Cut Paper Shredder Review

Designed to present a solution for small businesses that are looking to comply with federal regulations regarding the destruction of confidential information, the Dahle 20414 is intended to be placed centrally in a small office setting for use by multiple people throughout the day. In this article, we take a look at the 20414 and compile a list of what we consider to be its strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths:

1. The 20414 is a Level 3 security shredder, meaning that it is perfect for the smaller office that is looking to become FACTA compliant. FACTA is, of course, the name of the federal regulation that mandates the shredding of the personal and confidential information of any businesses' employees, clients and customers when those documents are being discarded. Intended to help stem the rising tide of consumer fraud and identity theft, non adherence to these regulations can result in hefty fines and liability claims. The 20414 is a great way for a small business to protect itself, and its sensitive information.
2. With its capacity of up to 15 sheets at a time, and 15 feet per minute, the 20414 gives you the ability to shred up to 400 sheets of paper per day. That should be more than enough for the majority of small businesses.
3. Rather than employing a set of stacked cutting knives like a lot of other shredders, the cutting heads of the 20414 are matched and milled from a single bar of the strongest German steel, and can handle staples and paper clips with ease. Dahle seems to have a lot of faith in their cutting power, as they offer a warranty them for the life of the shredder.
4. The 20414 does what it can to cut down on the noise factor in your small office by encasing the cutting heads and placing them on rubber shock mounts. This greatly reduces vibration of the cabinet, making operation of the shredder much less of a noisy distraction. The cabinet is made of solid wood, which also helps to absorb a lot of the sound, and makes for what Dahle calls "whisper quiet" operation.
5. Removing and discarding shredder waste is made into an easy process with the removable shredder bin. The bin holds about 10 gallons, which is a pretty nice capacity for such a small machine. The box can be lined with Dahle's disposable shredder bags, which makes the process that much simpler still.

Weaknesses:

1. The feed opening if 9.5 inches is great for letter and legal sized sheets, but if you are going to be shredding documents that are larger than that on a regular basis, you might want to look at a machine with a wider throat.
2. The capacity of the 20414 is pretty nice for such a machine of its size, but to avoid overheating, it would probably be best used on an as-needed basis and not for huge "once a month" shredding jobs. The motor is thermal protected, however, which means that if you attempt to overuse it, it will shut itself off for a period to cool itself down.

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