Log splitter recommendations (home use)

[d000hg]

We've had 3 large trees felled and some big branches removed from others... Lots of firewood but it's been left in rounds. I want to get it prepped and stored, the guy recommended investing in an electric hydraulic splitter as it's a lot of ax work and we'll have more trees to fell.

He recommended this: http://www.mowdirect.co.uk/al-ko-khs5200-log-splitter.html

In that price bracket... Up to £300, what would people recommend and would this tool be your choice or something else?

 

[scbk]

You'll find it's very slow, might be better to hire in a bigger machine, if you have a decent amount to do?

 

[Robotmannick]

There are many machines that look similar to this. I suspect that build quality is all similar. I bought one once but sent it back as the on/off switch broke so I couldn't turn it off other than at the plug (which was a long way away from where I'd generally use it). To be honest, I wasn't that impressed anyway - it wasn't particularly quick and it struggled with anything wet or even slightly gnarly. I also seem to remember that it required a 15A supply. The final point to consider is that if your rounds are too big to chop manually, then they're probably going to be heavy and you'll need to be able to lift them up to waist height for a machine like this - I found that removing the legs of the machine helped as rounds could then almost be rolled onto the splitter (but then you have to bend over to operate it).

I probably get through maybe 20 tonnes of firewood a year. I am fortunate enough to have quite a tolerance of what sizes I can burn so I minimise splitting wherever possible. You see a lot of Youtube videos where people turn their firewood into matchsticks before they burn it and I just can't see the point. If I have to split wood, I store it long enough for it to dry out, then I go at it with a maul, and for the really humongous ones, I'll use the chainsaw to rip cut the logs into manageable sizes for splitting - sorry it that's not what you wanted to hear though!