Before you specify
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does this P-5 machine take more sheets than the P-5 Pure 740 max?
Motor power. The Pure 830 runs a 1,920 W motor against the 740 max's 700 W, which is what lets it push 19 to 21 sheets through a 1.9 x 15 mm head instead of 14 to 15. The 740 max wins on bin size - 240 litres against 150 - so the choice is throughput versus how often somebody changes a bag.
Will a 1,920 W shredder trip my office circuit?
It can, and this is worth checking before you buy. At 120 V, 1,920 W is 16 A at full draw, which exceeds a standard 15 A branch circuit and sits at the limit of a 20 A one. Put it on a dedicated circuit, and do not run it from a power strip shared with printers or heaters. If the site electrical situation is constrained, the 700 W Pure 740 max is the P-5 alternative.
Can it destroy CDs, DVDs and hard drives?
Discs and magnetic carriers, yes - the classification is O-4 for optical media and T-5 for magnetic data carriers, both high for a document shredder. Hard drives, no. A drive is a rigid metal assembly and no document shredder in this class is built for it; use a dedicated hard drive destroyer. Feed discs and cards one at a time.
Is P-5 required for medical or financial records?
Not by name. HIPAA and the financial privacy rules require destruction appropriate to the sensitivity of the information rather than a specific DIN class. In practice, most organisational policies land on P-4 for routine personal data and reserve P-5 for special-category material - detailed clinical records, payroll, security information. If your policy says P-5, this machine meets it; if it says P-4, you are paying for headroom.
How noisy is it really?
Approximately 60 dB(A) at idle, against 55 to 56 dB(A) for the Pure 530, 630 and 740. Under load it is louder still. Five decibels is a bigger difference in a quiet room than it looks on paper, so plan for a print room, copy area or corridor position rather than an open-plan desk bank.
Does it have an automatic oiler?
No. The Pure 830 is not offered with an external automatic oiler, so lubrication is a manual task - and on a micro-cut head it is the task that most affects long-term performance. If automatic oiling is a requirement for you, the Pure 740 max 1.9 x 15 mm is the P-5 machine that has it fitted as standard, at the cost of sheet capacity and disc handling.
How often will the bin need changing?
About 1,900 shredded sheets fill the 150 litre bin, which is HSM's published collection figure for this micro-cut head. A department destroying 300 pages a day will be changing it roughly weekly. The full-bin sensor stops the machine, so you get a clear signal rather than an overflow. Micro-cut waste is fine and dense, which is why this bin holds more sheets than the same 150 litre bin behind the strip-cut Pure 830, where the figure is about 1,395.