Electric splitters in the frozen north

Getting ready to buy a 4-ton electric splitter (Northline has great deal on them right now), but just read on another site that you can't run them in temps under about 40 degrees, I assume because the fluid stiffens up.

Can somebody tell me what that really means in practical terms? Does that mean it cannot be used at all in anything under 40? If you store it in a fairly warm space, like the hallway of your house, can you then take it outside and use it because the heat of the motor keeps the fluid warm enough to keep operating?

I have to buy my firewood c/d/s, but because my stove is so tiny, I need to split most pieces down some more from what I get from my supplier to make the stove happy. Once I get the splitter, I plan to re-split the larger stuff I get before stacking, but man, I sure would like to be able to use it for the rest of this winter on the too-big pieces I'm having to split down by hand every day.

Am I just out of luck on this unless I use the splitter in the living room (!), or are there ways to finesse this?

pdhowell said:

I have a electric motor on a fairly conventional splitter, pump, cylinder, valve, and do not have any problems with the cold weather. In western Maryland, up in the mountains, "cold" is maybe zero to the rare ten below. I just flick the switch, or off we go.

I use automatic transmission fluid in the splitter which does not thicken much at cold temps. I did find the need to use some sort of slow blow, or higher amperage breaker as electric motors draw a huge starting amperage when cold and dragging the hydraulic pump. (In my case, I switched the motor over to 220 volts, to lesson the start up amp draw.)

I would think that you should take your indicated amperage and probably triple it to get the electrical wiring you need. I am guessing that you might need a thirty amp breaker, but that would normally be way to large (an unsafe) unless you were using ten gauge electrical wire.

But your splitter should work well. My electric splitter's operation is not affected by the cold, much better than me.

Hope this helps

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Heh. Well, if I have a functional splitter, I will have no need at all to be running it in weather that cold since I can do a week's worth or more at a time. Whereas if I have to hand split, I have to be out there pretty much every day. Which I wouldn't even mind so much if there was such a thing as gloves that were flexible enough to get a good grip on the maul whjile still keeping my fingers from freezing after a half hour or so.

This splitter is supposed to work on ordinary household current (it ain't that powerful, only a 4-ton). I can certainly keep it in indoor temperatures without too much hassle. Do you really think I need to have a 30-amp circuit for it?

’bert said:

I would think that if you started with the splitter warm, it should be able to keep it's hydro fluid at a working temp. I start my tractor that sits outside in temps way colder then what you will have. Some people have also replaced the standard hydro fluid with transmission fluid (I think - get confirmation before attempting this). The idea being that it will flow better when cold. If you find that the splitter fluid gets to cold you could also attach a magnetic fluid heater like the one used for vehicles. Similar to this.

http://www.princessauto.com/trailer/truck/winter/heating/4270099-200w-2a-magnetic-heater

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Great suggestion. Thanks very much. Dumb question, I know, but how would I know the fluid is getting too cold? I assume at some point, it would just seize up, but what should I be looking for as signs that it's heading in that direction? Does it slow down? Lose force?

pdhowell said:

I guess I am missing the obvious point made by others, why not keep your splitter in a warm place? It should be fairly portable.

I will note that electric splitters may "run" on household current. Getting them started when they are very cold is when they have a high amp draw. It is not usually electrical code anywhere, but a larger breaker on the outlet where you plug your splitter in may be a solution, hence the "30 amp" suggestion. Most electrical codes requires that 30 amp breakers be connected to ten gauge wire.

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Well, yes, keeping it in a warm place is what I was asking about. But then taking it outside and running it is what I'm looking for info on. I'm not crazy about having it hanging around indoors alll winter, but I can live with that if it will run for more than a few minutes when I then take it outside to do some work. So that was my question about whether the heat from the engine would keep it warm enough to work right-- if it started out indoors-warm to begin with.

Gotcha on the high amp draw and the 30 amp suggestion. I will for sure keep that in mind. Thank you. That's something that would never have occurred to me.

But what I'm hoping to have confirmed by you guys who know what you're talking about is whether or not that's an issue if the splitter spends its "down time" indoors.

shamelessLEE said:

IMO an electric splitter stored in warm temp will work outside in cold temps for a short time. An electric motor won't produce the heat a gas engine will.

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Ah. Gotcha. Of course. By "short time," do you mean a minute or two or a half hour or so? 40-degree days are pretty rare here in the winter months, but mid to high 20s are frequent.

I'm going to get the durn thing and I'll find out then, but I'm just trying to think ahead about what I can reasonably count on being able to do and not do with it this winter.

Very much appreciate everybody's help on this.

shamelessLEE said:

Don't sweat it. You'll have no problem.
I thought you were talking about running it in temps like 0F and below.

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Ahhh! Just the answer I was hoping to hear. Sorry, I should have mentioned up front the temps I was talking about. There's cold, and then there's really cold. I'm only talking cold.

thinkxingu said:

I'm not sure why y'all are hedging your bets here: if the splitter's kept inside and taken outside for use, it should be able to run for hours without issue. In 30* weather, it would take a couple hours for a bucket of room temperature water to freeze, hydraulic oil gets warm with use, and takes longer to cool than water.

Falcon, it's light enough to scoot around, so leave it in the house and take it out when necessary. Assuming your temps are like ours (20* average), you'll have no problem.

S

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Yesss! Thanks VERY much.

Thanks very much, everybody.

I'll come back and let you all know how it works after I've gotten the hang of it and used it for a while.

The little brother of that splitter, the 4-ton one, is what I'm getting. Just ordered it from Northline, in fact, and with the sale, the 10 percent email coupon discount and the free shipping, it comes to a grand total of $224, which is a ridiculously low price for even a small splitter.

I looked carefully at the 7-ton one, but for my pretty limited purposes (ie, spltting down splits from 14-inch logs), it didn't look worth the extra $$. I have a neighbor with a big gasoline splitter who's happy to let me bring over any pieces I can't manage and do them there. (Came in extra handy when an ancient and twisted apple tree on my property came down in a storm, I can tell you. Simply not possible to split by hand since the pieces are all so twisted.)

Just came in from a couple hours bashing away at some very large, very tough beech chunks, and I CAN'T WAIT till this thing gets here.