Before you specify
Frequently Asked Questions
Is 1.9 x 13 mm really P-5 and not P-4?
Yes. DIN 66399 sets P-5 at a maximum particle area of 30 mm2. A 1.9 x 13 mm particle is 24.7 mm2, so it qualifies with room to spare, and Kobra publishes the full rating as P-5 T-5 E-4 F-2. Be careful with the imperial conversion some listings use - rounding 1.9 mm up to 3/32 in and 13 mm up to 5/8 in produces 37.8 mm2, which would be P-4. The millimetre figure is the one the standard is measured against.
Why does it only take 7-8 sheets when the +1 CC4 takes 14?
A micro cut makes far more cuts per sheet. The CC4 produces roughly 140 mm2 particles; the CC2 produces 24.7 mm2 particles, which means about six times as many pieces from the same page. On the same 250 W deskside motor, that halves the stack it can pull through. Every micro-cut shredder pays this penalty - it is physics, not a design flaw.
What goes in the second slot, and does it take paper?
The 125 mm slot is for CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray discs, credit cards and chip cards, and it feeds a separate 1.5-litre plastics bin. Do not put paper in it. Kobra rates media destruction here at O-1 T-2 E-2, which is a low optical-media level - discs are broken into coarse pieces, not micro-cut. It is appropriate for routine archive discs, not for classified optical media.
How often will the 1.5-litre plastics bin need emptying?
Far less often than you would expect, because most offices shred a handful of discs and expired badges a month rather than daily. Roughly 25-40 discs will fill it depending on how the fragments settle. The important habit is checking it - the paper bin has a transparent window and will stop the machine when full, but the small plastics bin is easy to forget until fragments start backing up in the slot.
Can it shred stapled documents?
Yes for ordinary staples and paper clips - Kobra specifies carbon-hardened steel knives unaffected by both. Micro-cut heads are less forgiving than strip cutters, though, so heavy-duty staples through a 60-page bundle are worth removing. Laminated sheets, adhesive labels and glossy card also load a micro-cut head much harder than plain paper and will cut into the 7-8 sheet rating.
Is the +2 CC2 approved for classified documents?
No. NSA/CSS Specification 02-01 requires a particle no larger than 1 mm x 5 mm and requires the exact model to appear on the NSA Evaluated Products List. The CC2 cuts 1.9 x 13 mm and is not listed. P-5 is a high commercial level, appropriate for financial, legal and medical records - but for classified US government paper the only machine in this Kobra range on the EPL is the 240 HS-6.
How much does it weigh and can one person move it?
30 lb, on a 15.6 x 12 x 23.6 in footprint. That is the heaviest of the +1/+2/+3 deskside models because of the second bin and the micro-cut head, but it is still a two-hands, one-person lift. It has no castors, so if it needs to move between rooms regularly a 240-series machine on a wheeled cabinet will be easier to live with.