New wood splitter hydraulic problem

[mx842]

I have a reason for NOT adding a valve.
If the hydraulic system needs opened for some reason, I would ALWAYS drain and replace the hydraulic oil.

How often do you have a problem?? every 10 years??? In that time, you should have had 3 oil changes.

If there is a problem,, there is a 99% chance the oil needs changed.

AND if the valve is between the pump, and valve, and accidentally gets closed,, you will be buying at least a pump.

How much hydraulic oil can you buy for the cost of a pump!!??

I don't know............ 20 gals of fluid is going to cost about the same thing as the new pump I just bought. Also if you go by what the engineers say with regard to tank size a 16 GPM pump will require roughly 40 gals of fluid to operate properly and that would really be costly to do every year of two. I do agree that if you had a catastrophic failure of the pump or maybe even the valve, an oil change and tank cleaning would be needed.

I do agree that the valve in the line could be a problem if the operator is careless. Some things I agree with engineers on and some things not so much. My old splitter I built had roughly 5 gal's oil capacity with a 11 GPM pump and the thing was still going after over 35 years of hard use. The sad thing on my part was when I filled it all I had was a 5 gal pail of Dextron transmission fluid and that stuff was in there until I decommissioned the ol girl 35 years later. I added some here and there because of a leak or two or when I had to change a hydraulic line but It never was full blown changed. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that is what you should do in any way but that was just the reality of that poor old machine.