Do you have stacks of letters that are piling up? Are you getting tired of manually opening letters by using a knife or handheld letter opener? You probably need to upgrade to an electric letter opener. So what should you look for in an automatic letter-opening machine? Obviously your budget will play a big roll, but you certainly want to get the best machine for your dollar.

Electric letter openers come in a variety of sizes, specifications and prices. Initially this may be a little overwhelming, but there are a few questions you can ask yourself that should help weed out the field and move the candidate list down to a few models.

How many envelopes are you opening per day?

• You may have noticed that automatic letter openers tout a wide variety of “envelopes per hour” in their specifications. While basing a purchase off of the motor’s speed may be a good starting point, this doesn’t necessarily mean the machine can handle a large volume of envelopes. You will also want to find out the machine’s duty cycle. The duty cycle is the maximum number of envelopes the machine can handle in a month’s period of time.

How much desk space do you need?

• Electric letter openers vary greatly in size, with some compact enough to be used on a desk, where others may need an entire work area of their own. Be sure to look at the machine’s dimensions and then determine exactly how large the machine will be in your office.

How big and how thick are the envelopes you are opening?

• As with any office machine, letter openers have maximum and minimum specifications. Be sure the letter opener you get can handle the largest and the smallest envelopes you receive. One of the most important specifications to look at is the maximum thickness. Most letter openers handle at a 3/16″ thick envelope, but some handle more and others less.

Do you have a preference between chadless & non-chadless?

• Some electric letter openers simply slit open an envelope, where others cut the entire end off. This is a matter of preference in most situations. Envelope openers that cut the entire end of an envelope off create more of a mess, but some people think contents are easier to remove when an envelope is opened this way. Other people prefer the mess-free chadless openers that simply slit the envelope open. Either way, the contents of the envelope will not be damaged (per design).

What is your budget?

• Ultimately your budget will be the final decision. Finding the right machine to fit your budget can often be the biggest challenge. Our friendly office equipment specialists can help answer some of your most critical questions, especially when it comes to budgets. Our experts will not try to steer you towards the most expensive machine, rather the best fit for your needs. You can reach our experts by calling 1-800-658-788.

Hopefully this guide has helped answer some of your questions. You can find our entire selection of automatic electric letter openers here.

I had a customer ask me recently if electric letter openers sometimes damage the mail they are opening. I can understand the concern. Anytime blades and knives are involved, you would think damage could potentially occur. So, can an automatic electric letter opener damage mail?

The answer to this is yes and no, depending on the letter-opening machine being used. There are two very distinct technologies used. Here is what you will find when looking for a letter opener.

Traditional Letter Opener – Traditional electric letter openers literally cut off the edge of an envelope. This is usually about a 1/8-inch strip. Cutting off this edge allows access to the contents inside. Because cutting is involved, if mail contents are too close to the edge, the potential does exist of the mail being cut as well. The chances of this happening are very slim.

Envelope Slitter / Opener – Envelope slitters use a slightly different approach to opening mail. They slit the outside of the envelope, near the edge, allowing access to the contents inside. The blade is designed to slit the envelope deep enough to open the envelope, but not so deep that it cuts the contents inside. This newer technology is safer for mail and creates very little mess.

The chances of mail being damaged by a letter opener are pretty slim. We have sold many of these machines over the years and I have yet to hear from a customer complaining about their mail being damaged.

We currently offer a great selection of high-speed automatic letter openers that utilize both technologies. The machine you use in your mailroom will depend entirely on how many pieces of mail and letters you will be opening per day.

You can find our entire selection of automatic electric letter openers here.

Opening letters and envelopes can be messy and a hassle. One machine that can really speed things up is an automatic letter opener. If you are in the process of looking for one, a model you should seriously consider is the Formax FD 450 automatic electric envelope opener. This is my review.

To begin with, Formax has been making high-end office equipment for years. They are best known for their paper folder inserters, but they also make a wide range of joggers, bursters, paper shredders and letter openers. The build quality with Formax is excellent. Most Formax products are made in the U.S.A. and the FD 450 is one of them.

The Formax FD 450 is designed for high speed and high volume letter opening. This is all done automatically. You place the letters in the hopper on one end, the FD 450 opens them and they come out the other end opened up. The concept is simple, but there are subtle differences between letter opening machines that you will want to be aware of.

To begin with, the Formax FD 450 uses a slitter to open up mail. This means there are no letter ends cut off or waste paper strips lying around. The FD 450 cuts the mail open, without damaging the contents. The process is quick and best of all it’s very clean. Many other competitors cut off the top of the envelope, leaving waste paper strips behind, which is messy and can potentially damage contents.

The FD 450 is also pretty fast. It operates at a speed of up to 300 envelopes per minute. This is blazing fast. Not only is it fast at opening envelopes, it can open various mixed sizes of envelopes without jamming or causing issues. Envelope sizes can range from 3.5 x 11-inches up to 5.5 x 15.6-inches. This is a nice range and should cover most envelopes sizes used today.

The machine itself only weighs 20 pounds, so it can be used on pretty much any table, workbench or desk. Moving the letter opener should also be fairly easy to do. Overall setup and use is extremely easy and does not require any special training.

You can get the Formax FD 450 with the optional 402 series paper jogger. This will jog envelopes as they leave the machine and keep everything neat and organized.

I consider the Formax FD 450 to be once of the highest quality automatic letter openers available on the market. You will find the FD 450 in mailrooms, schools, churches and businesses. The “American-Made” quality is some of the best I have seen.

You can find the Formax FD 450 automatic letter opener here. You can find our entire selection of automatic letter openers here.