I have that splitter, have had it for about 5 years. I've split about 10 cord with it up till now. Although they say "it will split up to 10" round", I have used it to split 25"+ oak rounds, 18" long. You might have to rotate a big one a few times to get it to crack, basically you just found a weak spot in it. But once it's halved, the rest is easy, just pick away at it. The smaller stuff splits very easy without problems. Over 5 years, I've only had 2 or 3 really bad knotty chunks that it just could not get thru. Ive noodeled a few of those, and then worked on it. And one ws just so ugly, I dragged it back into the woods 3 years ago. It's still sitting there stairing at me.
Now, did it take me probably twice as long to split all that wood than if I had a bigger, stonger, and faster splitter? Sure. Has that ever really bothered me, not really. I would spend maybe 2 days a year gathering wood, and splitting it. Something I enjoy, get outdoors, get some manly work in, exercise... But I used to not burn much wood, I had a fireplace. Now that I have stove, and am feeding it significantly more wood (a full cord up to today since Dec 21st), I'm sure I'll be spending a bit more time in the woods and splitting....
All that said, I'm currently looking to buy a new, larger splitter. (search for thread "Norther Tools splitters any good" or something like that). So am I and was I happy with the investment of the little 5 ton? Yes. Do I want a bigger better one? Yes.
The pro's of the 5 ton are; when I wanted to travel with it, I picked it up and threw in the back of my truck. When stored, I stand it up on end and it takes up a space of about 12" by 12" b 3' tall., no maintenance, and of course it cost me $300 but has producred how many 1000's of dollars of fuel?
The cons are; you will work a bit harder to split wood, turning big peices around to get them to split. You will be bending over alot since it's so low to ground. It likely takes longer to split wood with, since your workin some peices where big boy would crack it and done, and they are generally faster.
On the other hand, the pro's for a big splitter are the obvious ones, faster, split bigger rounds, can get one that is Horiz and verticle, less work... The cons might be SIZE/STORAGE, maintanance of the engine (assuming a gas unit), noise (gas powered are much louder), COST $$, and top travel, you will need to drag it (assuming you get one that has high speed wheels...).
Anyway, come to LI and you can have mine for $150.
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