I am enjoying this site, many great threads! Somewhere I saw a thread about these splitters. Haven't been able to find it, again. A few years ago, my brother in law had the 10 ton Harbor Freight version. When I first saw it, thought it was a joke. Then I tried it, they work! We were using it to bust some nasty knotty chunks and some crotches. These make short work of pieces that would be a bear with a sledge and wedge or maul. The left handle is the "high" speed pump and the right is the power pump. Initially, I use both handles simultaneously to get the ram to the log. Then only the power lever will work (if one tries to use the left lever the whole splitter will slide forward). It can take number of strokes to get the wood to POP, but they always do! Sometimes the log will let go violently, do not let any one stand near the wedge end. For those of you looking for sub-10 second cycle times, this is pokey. I timed a few pieces and it averages 60 seconds. However for those rounds that will suck in 2-3 wedges and still not want to come apart this thing will open them up. The instructions say the max log size is 8". I was given a bunch of green Black Birch, most between 16" & 18" in diameter. The 8lb maul would bounce & the fastest way to start the Wood Grenade was to drill a pilot hole. The quickest way to bust up these rounds proved to be to split them down the middle with a few wedges then quarter them with the splitter. From there the maul worked unless the piece had knots. The Bad: Bilt Hard is a terrible company! When I first received this splitter, the ram would not retract. I had to beat it back with a sledge hammer. When I tried to return it Bilt Hard gave me a limited return authorization if I paid the shipping and maybe they would issue a refund once they inspected the unit. Since this thing weighs 90+ lbs, I'd need to build a crate so there was no point in attempting to get a refund. I had 30+ pieces of firewood that would not fit in our stove and I hate rip cutting with the power saw. I decided to endure with this thing. After a dozen pieces, the ram started to retract on its own if I opened the release valve very quickly. Now it works as it should. The bottom line is if one can find a well made rendition (Harbor Freight?) of these splitters they are a good addition to the arsenal. Especially for those of us who like the exercise of hand splitting.
It sounds like it works great if a person only needs to bust a few tuff customers. I never had the time for one because we burn wood as a sole heat source, and those lever-pumpers are just way too slow and it takes too much work to use 'em.
Thanks for the review! I could see that being handy for the stubborn stuff that you can’t split by hand.
