- Wood splitters are among the simplest commonly available hydraulic devices. They use a small gasoline engine to provide the power for a hydraulic pump, which moves the splitter. Each time you pull the handle, hydraulic oil moves from the tool's cylinder, through a valve and into its tank, forcing a piston forward to split a log. These splitters can be very powerful and are capable of dealing with green and very knotty wood.
- Hydraulic wood splitters are available in two orientations: horizontal and vertical. Horizontal splitters can deal with irregular pieces of wood better, while vertical splitters require all pieces to be squarely cut on one end. Vertical splitters provide the advantage of splitting heavy logs without the operator lifting them into a hopper, and they can handle very dense wood. Some high-end splitters actually can switch from vertical to horizontal.
- The primary benefit of a hydraulic wood splitter is its speed. These powerful machines can split larger logs than a person can deal with by hand, and they can do it very quickly. Hydraulic splitters apply force along the grain of the wood, splitting even sizable pieces with a single thrust. This can greatly reduce the labor required to split large quantities of firewood for sale or for winter heating.
- Hydraulic wood splitters have some downsides. Using a motorized splitter is more dangerous than splitting wood by hand because it cannot be stopped easily if a problem arises. Hydraulic wood splitters are also much more costly than a wedge and hammer needed to split wood manually. Splitters may not be economically viable for homeowners who cut and split only small amounts of wood as a backup winter heat source or for use in a small home.
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