How To Clean Your Paper Shredders Optical Auto Start/Stop Sensors

Many people think malfunctioning auto start/stop sensors on your shredder are the cause of an electronic failure, however often they are just dusty.

If you have dusty Auto-Start/Stop sensors you may find your shredder may randomly turn on by itself or not stop after shredding (always best to turn off after use or when leaving the office anyway) or react to how much light is around and may turn on when a light close to where the shredder is located is turned on.

If your sensors are dirty, unplug your shredder from the power supply and use a dry tissue wrapped around a ruler or a cotton bud to clean the eyes by rubbing it over the 2 sensors, usually located opposite each other at the centre of the feed entries. Some shredders have more than one feed entry with feed sensors on each feed entry such as CD/DVD and Credit/ID card entries so cleaning all feed entries is best.

Incorrect application of shredder oil can also be the cause of malfunctioning auto start/stop sensors. Oiling a shredder directly from the bottle into the feed entry can coat the auto start/stop sensors with oil, which attracts paper dust being the cause of unnecessary failure and malfunction.

Instructions on the correct application of shredder oil can be found under our tips & tricks section at the Document Dynamix Australia website.