Dahle 20822 Ec Departmental Paper Shredder Review
The Dahle 20822 EC is one of the manufacturer's departmental paper shredders
, designed for heavy use by multiple users. It shreds documents at a security level of 4. Here is a review of the 20822 EC including a list of what we consider to be its strengths and weaknesses.
Strengths:
1.) One of the first things we noticed about the 20822 EC is that it has a nice and wide sixteen inch feed opening. This is great for feeding letter and legal sized papers through without having to fold or cut the sheets first. Sixteen inches is also wide enough to accommodate computer paper which is very handy, as a lot of confidential information comes in that form. All in all, we could see how the wider feed opening could really increase productivity, when you are talking about a machine meant to see a lot of use from a number of different users in an average day.
2.) The 20822 EC shreds documents at a security level of 4. That is an excellent level of security that will easily meet or exceed the needs of the vast majority of businesses out there. It is rare to find a shredder that can be used at the kind of volumes this machine is intended for which also gives the user this high a level of security.
3.) The waste bin of the 20822 EC fits 35 gallons of shredded waste, is well designed, and is of an impressively high capacity for this level of machine. With the small shred size that the 20822 shredder produces, this shred bin should take quite a while to fill.
4.) The 20822 EC's cutting mechanism features a gear and chain system that is designed to prevent any sort of slippage of the cutting heads. In our testing, we found this to be an extremely reliable system that stood up to some very heavy use. This system, along with the cutting shafts that are made of German steel, enable the 20822 EC to easily power through paper clips and staples, which can be a genuine time saver when you have a big stack of papers to shred.
5.) A lot of times, as the security level goes up, the sheet capacity decreases. We found the 20822 EC's ability to destroy 10 to 15 sheets at a time (depending on the weight of the paper we were processing) to be on the higher end of the scale, likely due to the powerful 2HP motor. There are other machines that can shred more pages at a time, but we're not sure there are many level 4 shredders that can.
Weaknesses:
1.) Strangely enough, it is not common knowledge that a very important part of shredder maintenance is keeping the cutting heads oiled. A lot of manufacturers have addressed this issue by including oiling mechanisms with their machines. The 20822 EC falls somewhere in between. The machine doesn't come with an oiling system out of the box, and it will be perfectly fine without one, as long as you stay on top of maintenance and oil the heads at regular intervals. Dahle, however, does sell a separate auto oiling system that can be attached to the 20822 EC. It is not an especially inexpensive addition, but it will help you immensely with maintenance. When it's all said and done, we would like to see Dahle include the oiling system with the original purchase.
2.) At 180 lbs., this is not the most portable paper shredder around. In fact, you will need to make sure that you are prepared to receive and move this shredder into your office when it arrives. This item will be shipped on a pallet via truck and will require a small crew to unpack and set up inside your office.
by: Jeffrey McRitchie
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