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"  You may think that identity theft is unlikely to happen to you, but according to the United States Census Bureau, over 250,000 people reported having their identities stolen in 2010 alone. A surefire defense is to shred anything you don&amp;#039;t need that contains personal information. To find out which shredders will not only make mincemeat out of documents, bills, and credit cards but are also easy for you to use, shred quickly, don&amp;#039;t make a racket, and won&amp;#039;t need to be replaced before you know it, we evaluated 25 of the newest models. Some of our testing procedures were quite creative and show you just how far we&amp;#039;ll go to help you make a smart purchasing decision. Problem: Awkward to use, bin is difficult to empty, or makes a huge mess by leaving paper shreds all over.  Tests: We shredded thousands of pages through the machines to make sure they held up to repetitive use. When all was said and done, we shredded at least 300 sheets, and as many as 1500 sheets through each machine (depending upon its capabilities). With this much shredding we felt confident that we knew which were the easiest and least awkward to use. A good takeaway: If you&amp;#039;re not a fan of cleaning up messes or heavy lifting (and who is?), select a shredder with a side-loading bin that&amp;#039;s easy to remove when it&amp;#039;s time to empty the shreds. Problem: The shredder bin fills up too quickly or the shredder stops accepting documents because it&amp;#039;s overheated from too much use. Tests: To test for bin capacity, we shredded single sheets of paper until the shredder could physically handle no more -- either because a bin full sensor shut the machine off or it just couldn&amp;#039;t fit any more sheets in the bin. In another test, we sent stacks of papers through until the device stopped, verifying it was due to overheating, not a full bin l or the paper being too close to the blades. (If necessary we&amp;#039;d dump the bin and continue shredding).  What you should do: To prevent your shredder from overheating, shred fewer pieces of paper at once than the manufacturer recommends. We found that by doing this you can prolong a session. Another tip: Look for a shredder with a bin bull sensor to indicate when you should stop. This will prevent messy buildups that can jam the machine. Problem: Constant paper jams.  Test: To see just how much each shredder could handle, we shredded lots of stacks of papers. We&amp;#039;d start at the maximum number of sheets recommended and add one additional sheet each time, until the shredder jammed. For example on a 10-sheet shredder we would start at 10, then go to 11, then 12, and so on, until it finally stopped working.  What we found: Don&amp;#039;t worry about the shredder not being able to take the claimed number of sheets in a single feed - because the good news is that all were able to at least hold the claimed amount and most a few sheets more! To find out which shredders we recommend, check out our recent review. Also be sure to see our complete list of buying tips if you&amp;#039;re on the hunt for a new one!  And &amp;quot;Want to be a product tester for a day in the Good Housekeeping Research Institute? Enter our video contest and explain why you&amp;#039;re the perfect person to work with our lab scientists In New York City to comprehensively and creatively evaluate everything from mascaras to microwaves. Please note: contest entries are due by September 1. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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