Aluminum can crusher is a useful tool for can crushing and aluminum can recycling. Can crusher will help you to crush empty soda, beer or any other type of aluminum cans with ease. This will also save up a lot of space in your house, as compressed aluminum cans are more than 4 times smaller in size than uncompressed cans, and you can fit much more crushed aluminum cans in a garbage or a recycling bag. Just below we have put together a list of best can crushers for different size aluminum can crushing.

Image	Crusher	Material	Orientation	Can size	Price and Other reviews
	Pacific Precision THE CRUSHER	Steel	Vertical	16 oz
	Basic Industries Int. Multi Crush	Steel	Vertical	12 oz
	MasterCrush Recycler	Steel	Vertical	From 12 to 32 oz
	Pacific Fabrication Easy Crusher	Steel	Vertical	12 oz
	Easy Pull Can Crushing System	Tough Plastic and Steel	Vertical	12 oz
	Can Pactor Multi Position Crusher	Tough Plastic	Multi	12 oz
	Can Ram	Tough Plastic	Vertical	16 and 12 oz
	BuffaloTools Can Crusher	Steel	Vertical	12 oz
	16 oz Can Crusher	Steel	Vertical	16 oz
	EZ Can Crusher	Tough Plastic	Multi	12 oz
	Can Pactor with Can Storage	Tough Plastic	Horizontal	12 oz
	Kitchen Craft Foot Can Crusher	Steel	Horizontal	Multi

Best Aluminum Can Crushers

Used aluminum cans are clumsy and use up a lot of space in your trash can and if you want to recycle them you usually need to compact them in one way or other. This process can become messy if you try to crush cans with your feet and can ruin your floor as well as your footwear. But because recycling is great for the environment and can even be profitable for you , businesses have invented a device that can easily crush these empty aluminum cans in a matter of seconds and are usually hand operated. These devices usually are fairly cheap and can he mounted on a wall or tabletop and can be used extensively in offices or in homes where residents use a lot of beverages that are filled in these aluminum cans. It may sound ridiculous to even think about a can crushing device as you can easily stamp on these cans with your shoe and they easily crumble but when you need to do this constantly will you want to crouch for every single can and won’t all that leftover beverage ruin your floor and be a real mess to clean up? In this buying guide I will try to review all the aspects of these crushing devices and I hope after reading this article you will change your mind and be convinced that these crushers are really helpful!

Here you can see how can crushers works – http://www.ehow.com/how-does_5602923_can-crusher-works.html

Manufacturing material

As I mentioned in the can crusher types article there are mainly two manufacturing materials used in making these crushers and they are:

Metal – metal can crushers are sturdy, rigid and will work for years but they are a bit more pricier and need constant hinge lubrication.

Plastic – plastic crushers are cheaper, lighter and are more popular, but they tend to break more easily and they just can’t match metal crusher strength and durability.

Type

Can crushers are largely categorized in three groups but can be placed in even more detailed types, but in this buying guide I will only share the three main categories:

Manual – fully manually operated can crushers are the easiest and cheapest can crusher types as they tend to crush only one can at a time and you need to manually take out that crushed aluminum and insert new can for crushing. These manual crushers usually are very cheap and small because they don’t need any can dispenser mechanisms or other sophisticated technology to feed those cans in the crushing area. Manually operated aluminum can crushers are usually used for places where you need to crush only a few cans a day or only after parties, because they are not as efficient as those other two types.

Semi-automatic – this can crusher type is the middle of the road and basically is the same manual crusher with some added technology that allows you to automatically feed cans in the crushing mechanism and also automatically throw those cans out of the device. Both the manual and semi-automatic crushers are hand operated but this second type uses the force of gravity to load and throw out those cans. Semi automatic crushers are good for several dozen can crushing each day and can even crush hundreds of cans every day because they are much faster and don’t need manual action to load and unload every single can. You can use this semi-automatic type in office, bar or other food-related business places and after a party it will only take a couple of minutes to recycle every single used beverage can.

Automatic – fully automatic crushers are rare and they usually cost a small fortune because they can crush hundreds and thousands of cans in a matter of minutes and they are meant for large scale recycling facilities. These Automatic can crushers are huge and they usually need a lot of power to run and you just insert a bunch of cans in one end and get recycled aluminum at the other side. These devices are great but because they can cost up to 8000 $ I won’t go into details about them in this buying guide!

Interesting article about how to make can crusher with air pressure

Positioning

Can crusher positioning is important because every model is different and you need to position it in the right manner to get the best out of its design. There are mainly two position types and they both have their advantages and disadvantages:

Vertically on the wall

Vertical crushers usually use gravity to disperse those crushed cans or to help you pull the lever but they need a solid wall that can hold them. These vertical crushers usually need at least a wooden beam where you need to attach it but it would be even better to attach your crusher to a metal surface because the downward force when you crush those cans can be too great for weak wall materials and your crushing device can easily rip out those screws from the wall and ruin wallpapers or a great paint-job. These vertical crushers are the most common positioning crushers and they just work great!

Horizontally on a desk

Horizontal can  crushers are not so popular but they have the advantage of being mobile because you can put your crusher anywhere and get the same crushing abilities as from that wall mounted device. Horizontal crushers are not designed to automatically disperse that crushed aluminum can but they can be handy in situations where you need to compact only a few cans after a party of other social gathering or a larger meal.

Price

Can crusher prices can vary from a few bucks to thousands of dollars and they all depend on the type of crusher you want but in general the manual and semi-automatic crushers are cheap and affordable but the automatic ones are made for industrial use and are really expensive. Price is also a very important metric you need to measure before buying your new can crusher because it will determine the build quality and materials that your crusher is made of. Usually these aluminum can crushers that are manual or semi-automatic are cheap and don’t get over 50$ and the more cheaper ones can be bought for less than 20$ so I think they can be a great investment!

Can collector containers

Crusher devices are great but they have one big problem as you usually need a place to store these crushed can leftovers and if it can become increasingly unpleasant to manually take every crushed can and throw it into a separate recycling trash container. Because of this problem some crusher manufacturers have created original trash-containers compatible with their crushers that can collect those crushed cans without much hassle. But of course not every crusher has this advantage and sometimes you need to find a trash can that could act as a can collector tray but you need to take into consideration the size, shape, capacity, positioning and some other factor that are involved in catching your crushed beverage cans. A good collector container should be able to catch cans by itself and should also take care of that leftover fluid inside those empty cans. Basically you have two choices when buying a collector try:

Regular trash can – the simplest and most affordable option for collecting these crushed items are to by any regular trash can and put it right under your crusher but because not every trash can is compatible with these crushers they can be annoying and you can have a hard time getting those cans inside that container. Because of this you need to match your crusher with that trash can and for example if you have a vertical wall mount crusher you can have a wall mount trash collector right under it or a ground mounted container that sits right under your crusher.

Specifically designed crushed can collector – these can collector trays are specially designed for this purpose and have the exact shape and form for the most efficient can collecting and also to collect all that leftover beverage fluids from those crushed cans. Because these devices are specially designed to work together with only one crusher they can exploit everything that device can give and you usually get a great package that works perfectly together.

Overall these are the main things you need to consider and know when buying or searching for the best can crusher and I hope I managed to inform you about all the details you need to consider before buying.