Kinetic Wood Splitters, have they come of age?

[TomSeller]

I am seeing the Woods, Oregon and Speeco triplets advertising kinetic splitters more and more, sometimes before the hydraulic models. Other brands as well. The speed intrigues me. Have they come of age and would they be worth the investment? Prices seem to be dropping a little. Woodmax seems to be a price leader.

Edit. On Woods' official site via Blount (parent) link they only have the Kinetic splitter

 

[tungularafishcamp]

A neighbor has a DR and its impressive. If you need small splits I think it would be well worth the investment simply for the time savings. I split quite a bit of fir and some spruce and it never failed to split although some of the bigger spruce pieces needed to get hit w couple times.

 

[CalG]

Wood max is a China import, so should be ahead in price. Considering...

I like inertia splitters in concept when the wood to be split is without defect.

I would love to run one against my Timber Wolf any time. Whenever the Hydro stalls in the split, I wonder how the inertia units would fare.

 

[tungularafishcamp]

Had a few pieces kinda jump but not much.
It just stops the split and you roll the piece a bit then hit it again.
Although impressed I wouldn't buy one, I like my augers,

 

[oosik]

I split firewood for about fifteen years and then went to pellets and finally electric. Only used hydraulic - but at the time(1982 - 1998) I don't think kinetic was around. I'm sure kinetic would handle the smaller and knot-free Ponderosa pine I have here. The fact-of-the-matter is - - about 50% of the pine I split was huge, stringy and full of knots. This often presented problems to the 28 ton Didier splitter I used - SOOOOO..... have no idea how a kinetic would have fared.

 

[motownbrowne]

I think there's a few brands worth owning, Super Split and Split Second being two of them. The rest seem like a total gamble. The reason there's so many on the market is that the patent on the Super Split ran out, allowing copy cats. So, in a sense yes, they've come of age, in that Super Split is still making basically the same splitter they have been for decades, and people are lining up to make copies.

I would love to own a kinetic job someday, specially an electric SSHD. How nice to split that fast and just listen to the gears and popping of wood. I've read several of the threads on the copies over at arboristsite and personally I'm gonna wait until I can afford the original rather than roll the dice on a copy. That said, I split a pretty large amount of wood, and if a guy just wanted to do a cord or five every year and had decent logs, the knock offs might be a perfect option.

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

If I were going to buy one, I'd buy from the guy that invented it.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

If I were going to buy one, I'd buy from the guy that invented it.

That would be pretty hard to do, as who ever "invented" it has been dead for many years, as a form of todays kinetic splitter was already around when I was a kid!

SR

 

[Msamt]

I like my DR, when adjusted correctly handles knotty stuff fine, and hardwood well. Put about 6 cords thru it and it used only 3 gas fill ups. A bit overkill for what I needed, and a little pricey for what I use it for, but very handy.

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

That would be pretty hard to do, as who ever "invented" it has been dead for many years, as a form of todays kinetic splitter was already around when I was a kid!

SR

The guy who invented the SuperSplit, which is the kind of machine that is being discussed, is alive and well and selling machines. His patent just ran out, not his life.