Before you specify
Frequently Asked Questions
Can it shred staples and paper clips?
Yes. Kobra states that the carbon-hardened steel cutting knives are unaffected by staples and clips, so you can feed stapled sets straight from a file. Large binder clips, ring binders and metal fasteners are a different matter and should be removed first — they are not paper fasteners and can damage the cutting shafts. If you shred heavily stapled material every day, expect to clean the knives more often.
How many sheets will it actually take?
Kobra rates it at up to 40 sheets of A4 70 g/m² paper. On the heavier 80 g/m² stock common in US and European offices the figure drops to 33–35 sheets. Manufacturer capacity ratings are measured on fresh, flat, unstapled paper; stapled sets, glossy stock and creased paper all reduce it. In practice, feeding 25–30 sheets at a time gives you the throughput without pushing the motor into reverse.
Is a P-2 strip cut good enough for customer records?
Generally, no. P-2 output is 5.8 mm strips, which can be reassembled given time and motivation. Most privacy programmes written around HIPAA, GLBA or FACTA expect cross-cut particles or finer. Use the 300.2 S5 for internal, non-regulated paper and move to a P-4 machine such as the KOBRA 390 C4, or a P-5 machine such as the KOBRA 400 C2, for anything containing personal or financial data.
Will legal or tabloid paper fit?
Legal size fits comfortably fed short-edge first — the throat is 12.2 inches and US legal paper is 8.5 inches wide. Tabloid (11 × 17 in.) will also pass fed 11-inch edge first. Wide continuous-form and EDP printouts wider than 12.2 inches will not, and folding them defeats the sheet-capacity rating. For genuinely wide stock, look at the 16-inch throat on the KOBRA 390 or 400 chassis.
How often will the bin need emptying?
The bin holds 40 gallons. Strip cut is the least space-efficient output there is — the strips stay springy and do not settle — so a 300.2 S5 running at volume fills its bag noticeably faster than a cross-cut machine collecting the same weight of paper. A department shredding a few reams a week will typically change the bag weekly; a purge will fill it in an afternoon.
What bags does it take?
Kobra lists art. SB-35 plastic waste bags, supplied 50 to a box, as the consumable for this model. Generic 40-gallon liners will physically fit the frame, but they are usually thinner and tear on strip-cut waste, which is sharp-edged and heavy once compacted. If you use a generic, choose a heavy-gauge contractor-grade liner.
Does it have an automatic oiler?
No. The 300.2 S5 has no integrated oiling system. Strip-cut knives are far less oil-dependent than micro-cut knives, so this is not the omission it would be on a high-security machine, but occasional manual oiling of the cutting head is still good practice if you run it hard. The auto-oiler models in this range are the 390 C4, 400 C2 and the HS-6 high-security units.