Paper Shredders Castors - Are They Helpful?

To Have or Not to Have Castors, that is the question!

Paper shredders intended for home use often don’t include castors, being lighter, easier to lift and more easily portable. Paper shredders intended for use at the workplace are almost always heavier machines and more difficult to lift and for this reason are almost always supplied with castors for easier mobility of these larger sized office machines. Including castors with any heavy machinery certainly helps to prevent workplace injury caused by manual handling.

There are times when small paper shredders supplied with castors could be hazard when positioning on a bench top is the preferred location. Even for shredders supplied with locking castors, this can still be a safety risk when located on a bench top should the wheel locking mechanism somehow release.

If you intend to place a shredder on a bench top, ideally the castors should be removed before positioning the machine. By removing the castors, this is the safest, most stable way of positioning your shredder above floor level.

Some shredders bins sit flush to the floor when the castors are removed and can catch when trying to remove the bin, especially on carpeted floors. Some shredder models incorporate a slightly elevated base which the bottom of the bin sits on top of. The latter base design makes removal of the bin without castors easy on both hard or carpeted surfaces.

Hard floors are easier to wheel shredders with castors over, while carpeted floors are more difficult to wheels shredders over especially those brands supplied with smaller diameter castors.

Some smaller sized professional office shredders are supplied with castors which can be fitted if preferred, simply by pressing into the base of the cabinet. Often shredders front castors are the swivel type and include locking levers.

Larger diameter castors make moving heavy machines a lot easier especially over various surface types, like all terrain tyres.

The Rexel Optimum AutoFeed+ 50X, 100X, 100M, 150X and 150M models are not supplied with castors, however appear to have provision to fit them into the base of the cabinet. That said, where to source suitable castors from would be a matter of trial and error.

Something to be mindful of when wheeling shredders along especially taller ones is they are often top heavy and without practicing some patience, can tip over in a split second, potentially damaging the machine.