Electric Woodsplitters in a Peak Oil World

[Mushroom Man]

If you thought peak oil was a reality and that oil was going to start a price rise, would you consider an electric log splitter? Are they toys and unsuitable for serious work (i.e for people who heat with wood and rely exclusively or almost exclusively on that wood heat?)

 

[stee6043]

I personally put "peak oil" theories on the same back shelf as "climate change". Nonetheless, I think you'll find reviews in the "gear" forum here on electric splitters. I've never used one but I can say that I love my fossil fuel burning 27 ton unit. I pour a little gas on the ground everytime I refill it just to keep the gas gods happy.

 

[churchillrow]

I personally put “peak oil” theories on the same back shelf as “climate change”.

If you believe Oil supplies are finite (I hope that is a safe assumption) than peak oil is a given. After that we're just talking timelines.

More to the point, an electric wood splitter will only take you as far as your electricity supply. In a world where the minimal amount of gas required to run a splitter is unavailable the power grid might have crumbled along with a lot of other stuff.

My two cents

 

[kabbott]

I see no reason why an electric splitter would be any less effective then gasoline. I have no idea what is available as far as electric but one could
easily replace a gas engine with an electric motor. Actually an electric motor could in theory be of less horsepower because an electric motor
can produce more than rated power for short periods of time, internal combustion engine can not.

If I did most of my splitting in one place I would seriously consider it for the noise reduction and lower maintenance.

 

[Mid Michigan]

You can see in my Avatar what kind of wood splitter I am running. Not only am I gassing up the engine for the splitter but the 3HP running the elevator needs a drink now and then too. My theory, the less times you touch the wood the better. Don't forget I am a wood hog at 30 cords a year. That's why I am looking for a major re-due next summer. (All my other post so far looking for advise.)

Maybe I can switch it to hydrogen. Or better yet go with a steam boiler and put a steam engine on spliter. Steam for heat, power, and wood splitter. Darn, now it sound like I just went to 60 cords a year....LOL

I am with Churchillrow, I can't afford 2 gallons of gas there is probably way bigger problems to worry about.

 

[Singed Eyebrows]

My little Ryobi electric splits probably 90 percent of what I want it to. Where it runs into a brick wall is larger elm. I don't know if you meant electrics of this size or larger ones like the electric Super Split etc. I don't think I've read one bad review of the Ryobi sized units, Randy

 

[NHFarmer]

Mid-Michigan Do you have any more pics of your rig It is hard to see it in the Avitar. Looks like quite a setup.

 

[Mid Michigan]

NHFarmer
I enjoy welding and fabricating so one day I decides to combined my splitter (built 15 yrs. ago) with an old hay elevator.
It works well. I wish I could have kept the elevator longer. I can only pile wood about 7' high. It turned into a weight and balance issue. As heavy as my splitter is, and with the tube filled with concrete to add weight, it still only has about 25 lbs. tongue weight. Any longer and I couldn't keep the front of splitter on ground. Don't forget the wood going up the elevator adds weight too.

Now if I could just figure out out to get it to automatically stack....

 

[Mid Michigan]

One more pic of gas wood splitter.

 

[sdrobertson]

Very nice setup. Well thought out, I like the tray to hold the wood that still needs to be split down farther and then off they go up the elevator. That little 3 hp engine can't take that much gas and makes it allot easier.

Edit: Sorry I hit send before I was finished. I wrote in a prior post that I had purchased a small (7 ton if I remember right) electric splitter off Ebay last year so that I could re-split my to wetter wood in my wood shed. It works well for what I bought it for but you can't beat a gas model for the really nasty stuff.

 

[SolarAndWood]

I run a 16 gpm pump and 4.5 inch cylinder with a 5 hp electric. Works great and all of my scrounged rounds get dumped easily within 50 ft of my shed anyway.

 

[lexybird]

i was skeptical but now im very glad i took the plunge ,been a month now and my 299$ home depot homelite 5 ton electric splitteer will do most any round i set on it , some well over 20 inches in diamaeter .. I have no interest in buying a 1500 dollar gas unit when this blows through fresh cut red oak with no problem ,so far i have split over a cord of oak and maple and maybe only a couple logs that had twisty internal knots and crouches gave it trouble, there is a technique that works well for these and once you use them a while you figure out how to best bust up the tough ones.obviously theres a limitation to the size and whatnot but personaly i havent found it for the cutting i do. no fumes no gas no loud noise wailing in my ear no giant space robbing footprint and it can brought inside the house and ran for a pile of easy kindling splits in under a minute,biggest problem i have is everyone wants to borrow it now since i showed it to them !

 

[Duetech]

I think electric is an ideal way to go to split wood. There are a lot of units out there that could turn rounds into btu piles very fast. I like the one in this link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSCBPj3jTMA but they don't seem to have a dealer close by.

 

[Dune]

I see no reason why an electric splitter would be any less effective then gasoline. I have no idea what is available as far as electric but one could
easily replace a gas engine with an electric motor. Actually an electric motor could in theory be of less horsepower because an electric motor
can produce more than rated power for short periods of time, internal combustion engine can not.

If I did most of my splitting in one place I would seriously consider it for the noise reduction and lower maintenance.

Yeah, thats pretty much what I did. 5hp electric motor, 6" ram, not the worlds fastest splitter, but it will go through anything.

 

[Mushroom Man]

In the 3.47 minutes that guy with the Posch SplitMaster 9t Holzspalter log splitter (Youtube video referenced above) split more wood to the right size than I would in an hour with a conventional splitter. He contained it too. I am impressed. Now instead of the box we add the elevator idea that puts the wood where you want it and you would have a pretty impressive system even if it is only 9 tons of splitting force.

One nice thing about that splitter is the ability to split into 6 pieces different sized logs. I say they are not just toys, although some may still argue that. I had a few man-sized trees whose lengths were very hard to get to the splitting tray; but I bet that Posch SplitMaster 9t Holzspalter log splitter would have handled them.

I'd be willing to leave behind the ones that couldn't be split by that rig. Why take the chance of breaking your rig just to conquer a major log. Makes no sense.

The peak oil argument referenced in the question was likely an unnecessary qualifier. Sorry about that. The question had the potential to derail the real important stuff...whether electric is a toy. I think most will agree that there are some that are not.

 

[Duetech]

Mushroom Man... For grins and giggles I went to the Posch web site and was just plain amazed at the flexibility of the 9t. There is an adjustment that allows you to control the length of the detent return allowing a person to custom split with the least amount of time wasted waiting for the ram to recover splitting length. I contacted Posch and they said they would look for a dealer in my area. It doesn't appear there is one in the US. That soesn't mean that one couldn't be built on the concept though. The size of the ram was not as big as one would think it would need to be either. I did notice there weren't any real knots being split but it's a nice splitter anyhow.

 

[Gooserider]

Good thread, wrong place, moving it to the Gear section where the other splitter threads are...

For my money, I like my gas splitter, I don't think it's realistic to see not being able to get the gas to run it, and still expect to have electric power available...

Gooserider

 

[wendell]

I have a friend with a 20 ton electric splitter and will not part with it. Runs nice and quiet and gets the work done quick.