I've got a 16 ton Ramsplitter Horizontal/verticle electric model. I was looking for electric, since I do all my splitting right up near the house, and didn't need the portability of gas (or yet another gas engine to take care of). I ended up with teh 16 ton unit, since that was the biggest I could get that still ran on 110 VAC (the bigger electric units need 220). I rarely use it in vertical mode.. I knew I wouldn't, but I liked the height of the H/V models. Not as much bending over, so my back holds up a lot better (a pair of small handheld logging tongs really helps avoid all the bending when picking up the rounds as well).
For the most part, it's a decently built unit, with a decent cycle time. Hydraulic controls do have the detent for auto-return. A couple of complaints:
(1) With the horiz/vert models, the wedge moves, and pushes the log against a stationary flat plate. The weld where the wedge meets the carriage/slide on which it rides made a huge, round "knob". Since this joint is on top of the slide, it sits a good inch up from the bottom of the log when splitting, making it harder for the log to ride up over it. This robbed the splitter of a lot of power. A few minutes with a grinder took care of reshaping that, but it's something the factory should pay more attention to. (On a horizontal-only model, where the wedge is fixed in position, it probably would not be as much of an issue, since this lump or knob would be right at the outer edge of the log when splitting)
(2) The carriage on which the splitting wedge rides is held together with hex-head bolts. The carriage itself has a nice tapered edge to help the log ride up and over it's base. Unfortunately, the hex heads stick up and catch the bottom of any log over about 8" in diameter (smaller ones pass between the bolt heads). This robs a tremendous amount of splitting power. It would have been much better to use countersunk bolts... probably allen head drive, flat head (not sure what they are called). When I get around to it, I'm going to remove the carriage and have it drilled with a chamfered countersink to match the bevelled underside of the bolts I intend to replace the hex-heads with.
(3) While you can stop the motion of the ram with the hydraulic controls, there is no On/Off switch for the electric motor. You have to shut that off by unplugging. This does cause some arcing in the plug. I'd like to see a nice, protected, weatherproof switch on the unit (OK, a relatively minor gripe... I can always replace the male plug end on the splitter, and the female plug on the end of my extension cord when they've arc'd enough to cause a problem.)
It's holding up OK so far, though I've only split about 5 cords with it. I was worried at first because the two-stage hydraulic pump seemed to be "stuck in high gear". It would stall the ram under even some fairly light loads (causing me to wonder if they had cheaped-out and used a single stage pump). It started working normally by the time I'd run my first 1/3 cord or so through it.
My summary: If looking for an electric splitter, I'd buy this one again. It's much more capable and solidly built than the light-duty 3 to 5 ton models that seemed to be the only other electric models I could find. If I were going for stand-alone gas, I think I could find better deals and/or better built by shopping for other brands. I did not shop around for 3 point hitch models, so I can't compare them
John Mc
