Canadian Tire Electric Wood Splitters? Good deal or garbage?

[SuperJ]

Anyone have any experience with Canadian Tire wood splitters.
I read in another thread that apparently some electric splitters work pretty well. I had dismissed them without ever trying one. They have a couple on sale right now, 5ton for $275 6ton $350 and 9ton for $499. Would appreciate some feedback if anyone has used one.

http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/outdo.../log-splitters-chippers-shredders.html?page=2

 

[Diabel]

I never used one. But have been told that they are slow and heat up quite fast. Will only take straight grain and small wood. Such wood my fiskars will eat in 1/4 of the time. If you have room get a gas splitter, if not the a well sized fiskars.

 

[tdot_steve]

I have the Canadian Tire 5 ton. Got it on sale last month for $229 or something like that.

I previously have used my neighbours gas 10 ton for years until it broke and he gave up on fixing it. After that I bought the Harbor Freight 5 ton electric (I bought in the US) that I used for 2 years. I really liked that one even though it wasn't as fast as the gas one. I only had about 2 logs that I flat out couldn't split with it (large 1 year old oak rounds). The HF 5 ton died after I badly abused it with poorly storing it and using it with undersized extension cords that likely caused premature failure in the motor.

The CT 5 ton has been a decent splitter for me. It's noticeably a little less powerful than the 5 ton HF one but it's still been ok for splitting everything that I've put through it. I've done 2 face cords with it of mostly hard maple. There are 3 minor annoyances though compared to the HF one.

1 - The hydraulic arm doesn't extend as far as I want it to causing some logs to not fully split. Some people rectify this by putting a small piece of 4x4 up to the push plate. This is really only a problem with twisted grain logs. Had some knotty pine where this was an issue.

2 - There's a little hump/ledge right before the wedge that makes logs go off their path at times. Gets a little annoying. I might grind mine down a little.

3 - The "safety feature" that forces you to push the lever and a button at the same time is stupid. My HF splitter allowed one hand operation so that I had a free hand available to help safely feed the log. With the CT splitter, when splitting alone with both hands tied up, you're at times forced to use your body or legs to help guide a misshapen log to the wedge. When splitting with 2 people this safety feature is pointless anyways.

Overall, I would still recommend it but if given the choice I would drive to Niagara Falls, NY and get the HF one even if it was $100 more.

 

[maple1]

I have the 4 ton. Had it for years still goes as ever. Not a whole lot of use, it stays in the basement.

You can turn it into one handed operation by adding a bungee cord.

 

[tdot_steve]

You can turn it into one handed operation by adding a bungee cord.

Do you just wedge the bungy end in, or do you have it with tension to keep the button engaged?

 

[maple1]

Do you just wedge the bungy end in, or do you have it with tension to keep the button engaged?

Maybe there's difference between units, but one of my controls is a lever on the end opposite the wedge. I think it is held down to split & released up to retract? I just have a bungee wrapped around it to hold it down for splitting, then when the split stroke is done I reach over & lift the lever up to retract - I just have to push the button to split. I think some have rigged up a foot pedal to step on to split & release to retract - I might try to rig that up if I was using it a lot. As it is I am usually only using the splitter occasionally to make enough kindling & small stuff to start a fire with if I can't find any stuff close at hand that would split easy with the Fiskars. I think I will be using it more this winter - I seem to have a lack of clear softwood stuff for starting fires with this time around.

 

[SuperJ]

I think I'm going to get the Costco 5 ton one. It has a 2hp instead of the cdn tire 1 3/4hp, and looks to maybe be a bit better built. The Cdn Tire regular prices are inflated to make the sale prices look better. Reg price at costco is $315 versus $500 at cdn tire.

(broken link removed)

 

[DaveInPhilly]

I have a very similar model from WEN that I picked up on clearance on Amazon to help me clean up a fallen pine in my front yard. I thought it was going to be a single use throwaway, but I was pretty impressed with it. Its remarkably capable for what it cost. I ran a bunch of Ash through with with no problems at all. I got a lot more out of it than I expected and its still going strong.