Dahle 20514 Level 3 Cross-Cut Office Paper Shredder Review

The Dahle 20514 is designed to be placed in athose federal regulations. This not only means that you
centralized location in you office and offer Level 3are protecting your information from prying eyes, but
shredding security for your sensitive documents. Weyou are also protecting yourself from any liability that
took a more in depth look at the 20514 and here arewould result from your clients' information falling into the
some of the strengths and weaknesses of thiswrong hands.
machine as we see them.5. As with all of Dahle's paper shredders, the cutting
Strengths:heads of the 20514 are made of the finest German
steel and are guaranteed for the life of the machine.
1. When you are talking about a shredder that is meantAll the rest of the 20514's parts are guaranteed for
to be placed in a centralized location and see be usedtwo years.
by many people throughout the day, you have toWeaknesses:
consider the noise factor. The 20514 addresses this by
placing each cutting cylinder in its own all steel frame1. Confidential data comes in all sorts of forms these
and putting that frame on rubber shock mounts todays, and that includes compact discs. There are an
reduce vibration. The result is that the 20514 producesincreasing number of shredders out there than can
very little noise. This means that the 20514 will nothandle digital media, but the 20514 is not one of them. If
pose the distraction that you see with many otherthat is a capability that you think you might need on a
shredders.regular basis, you may have to take a look some of
2. The with a capacity of up to 15 sheets at a time,the machines in Dalhe's Multi Media line such as the
and 400 to 2,000 sheets per day, the 20514 should30406.
easily accommodate the needs of a fairly busy office.2. The motor of the 20514 is one half HP, which is not
3. The feed width of 10.25 inches is great for the vastas powerful as some of the other machines out there.
majority of shredding jobs you are likely to encounter. ItThat should be fine for the workload for which the
should easily fit letter and legal sized sheets. Larger20514 is intended. Still, you do need to be aware that
sheets can be shredded but will need to be folded first.while this machine is fine for relatively heavy use, it is
4. If you are aware of the FACTA laws, (if you arenot a machine that is rated for continuous use, and you
not, you should be), you know that in order to comply,will have to be aware of its limits to avoid overheating.
your company must shred certain types of confidential3. We thought that the bin size was perhaps a little
information on a machine that provides at least a Levelsmall for a centralized office machine, and you might
3 security rating, which the 20514 does. With a crossfind yourself needing to empty it more often than you
cut pattern of 1/8" by 19/16" the 20514 is compliant withwould like. Not a big deal, just something to consider.