Office Equipment

A paper shredder is one of those things you don’t need until you do. Then you have a stack of bank statements, old tax returns, and junk mail with your address on it, and you either shred it or risk someone going through your trash. But not all shredders are the same. Some handle 6 sheets at a time and overheat after 2 minutes. Others chew through 16 sheets continuously for half an hour. We tested 6 paper shredders for home offices, from basic cross-cut models to high-security micro-cut machines, and evaluated shred quality, speed, noise, and reliability. ...

I have a theory about printers: the worst part isn’t the purchase, it’s what comes after. You buy a printer for $70, and six months later you’ve spent $120 on ink cartridges the printer refuses to recognize because the chip says they’re low, even though there’s clearly ink left. The right printer is the one where the running costs don’t silently drain your budget. The home office printer market splits cleanly into two camps. Traditional inkjets are cheap upfront but expensive per page — best for people who print photos or print infrequently (ink dries out if unused for weeks). Laser printers cost more upfront but print for pennies per page, so they’re the better choice for anyone printing more than 50 pages per month. We tested 7 all-in-one printer-scanner-copier units across both technologies to find the ones worth the desk space. ...