Dahle 30406 Multi-Media Shredder Review

A shredder that is designed to destroy compact discs as well as paper documents, the 30406 is a strip cut machine that is meant for heavy, if not continuous, use in a busy office setting. Here are a few of this machine's strengths and weaknesses as we see them.

Strengths:

1. These days, confidential information comes in many different forms. There are a lot of shredders out there that will do a good enough job destroying paper, but what really sets the 30406 apart is its ability to shred CDs and DVDs and even floppy discs (if you still have any floppies around, maybe it's time you safely got rid of them). The ability to destroy this kind of digital media is a feature that is being incorporated to more and more shredders as time goes on, and rightly so.
2. The 30406 has a very impressive capacity of up to 35 sheets at a time and runs at a pretty nice clip of 30 feet per minute. What this all adds up to is the ability to shred somewhere between 2,000 and 8,000 sheets per day, which should be enough for even the largest and busiest offices.
3. The 30406 features a chain and gear system that makes absolutely sure that there is never any slippage when it is delivering power to the cutting mechanism. The 1-1/4 HP motor that allows this machine to grind through the toughest jobs.
4. The cutting heads of the 30406 are constructed from a single bar of the highest quality German steel. That means that they are perfectly matched cutting machines. Dahle obviously has a lot of faith in these cutting heads as well, seeing as how they offer a warranty on them that extends to the life of the machine.
5. The width of the paper feed is a nice wide 12 inches, meaning that it can handle the vast majority of paper sizes such as letter and legal. You can even fit letter size in lengthwise if you choose. That allows you to increase shredding productivity by almost thirty percent when compared to a shredder with a throat less than eleven inches.
6. The 30406 is a well-designed machine both inside and out. The overall look is a rather contemporary and "euro" style. It is not very often that we can say this, but this is a rather attractive office machine. The bin size of 35 gallons is rather impressive as well, and the wood construction of the cabinet really does help to cut down on the noise factor.
7. The 30406 is easy to use, and we especially liked the feature that lets you know with beeps and lights when the shred bag is full and needs to be emptied.

Weaknesses:

1. Though the ability of the 30406 is a great feature, you still need to be aware that as far as paper shredding goes, because it is a strip-cut machine, the 30406 only offers a security level of 2. If you will need a higher level of security than that, you may have to step up to the 30414 which gives you the same ability to destroy compact discs, but also offers cross cut level 3 security for paper documents.
2. The 30406 is not meant for continuous use, which means that you will have to be careful to learn its limitations to avoid overheating. If the machine does overheat after a long period of shredding you will have to wait until the motor cools down before you can continue shredding.

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