GBC ShredMaster Small Home Office Shredder, PX08-04, Cross-Cut, 8 Sheets

The PX08-04 is the entry point to ACCO's ShredMaster range and the only model in this group rated DIN 66399 P-3 rather than P-4. Eight sheets a pass, a three-minute run time, a four-gallon bin and a 7.7 lb cabinet you can pick up with one hand.

The lower security level is not a defect, it is the design. P-3 permits particles up to 320 mm², and this head produces roughly 176 mm² at 5/32 by 1 3/4 inches — comfortably inside P-3 but outside the 160 mm² P-4 requires. For day-to-day personal paperwork that is a sensible level. For anything with an account number on it, it is one class short of where you want to be.

Key Features

• DIN 66399 P-3 cross-cut at 5/32 x 1 3/4 in (about 4 x 44 mm, roughly 176 mm² per particle).
• Eight sheets per pass on 20 lb paper.
• 8.7-inch throat, so legal and A4 still feed unfolded despite the small cabinet.
• Shreds through staples and paper clips — not universal at this price.
• Recessed blades and a manual reverse for clearing an over-large handful.
• Four-gallon bin in a 13.5 x 12.8 x 9 in cabinet weighing 7.7 lb.
• Slider interface for auto, off and reverse.
• Two-year warranty.

The three-minute run time is the specification to take seriously. It is not a conservative rating with headroom built in; it is what the machine will do before the thermal cut-out stops it, and the cool-down afterwards is considerably longer than three minutes. Anyone planning to clear a drawer will find this frustrating within the first ten minutes. Anyone shredding the day's post will never notice it.

Specifications

Sheet capacity is quoted on 20 lb paper, ACCO's stated basis for the ShredMaster range. ACCO does not publish a motor wattage or a shipping weight for every model, so those rows appear only where the manufacturer states them. ACCO does not publish a noise rating for this model, unlike the rest of the ShredMaster range, so that row is omitted.

What's in the Box

Shredder with 4-gallon bin and power cord. ACCO's 6-8 gallon plastic shredder bag, part 1765016, names the PX08-04 on its compatibility list — the bag is larger than the bin, which is normal for a liner. Shredder oil is part 1760049.

Who Should Buy This — and Who Should Not

Buy the PX08-04 as a household or single-desk shredder for the ordinary run of personal paper: junk mail with your name on it, delivery notes, expired paperwork, old utility bills. It takes staples, it costs little, it weighs less than eight pounds and it is honest about what it is. For that job, P-3 is proportionate and a bigger machine would be a waste.

Do not buy it for business use. P-3 is one class below the P-4 that most commercial destruction policies name, and the PX10-06 or PSX10-06 reach P-4 for a modest step up. Do not buy it if you have a backlog: three minutes of run time and a four-gallon bin will turn an afternoon's clear-out into a week's, and the SX15-06 at 120 minutes is the model that fixes that. And do not buy it if anything you shred carries an account number, a signature or medical detail — at 176 mm² a P-3 particle still leaves readable fragments.