OK, you'd think with a BS in Electrical Engineering that I'd be bale to figure this one out on my own, but I'm rusty so I'll ask.
I have a speeco 5 tom electric log splitter. Unit works fine, does most of what I need done and was way cheaper than a gas unit so ok. Problem is my splitting area is about 70-80 feet away from my exterior outlet. Regular cheap orange extension cord won't even turn the thing on, so I went out and spent $70 on a 100' 12 gauge extension cord rated to pass a full 15A. Splitter turns on, buyt has less and less power as the ram extends further..the motor sounds right, but the ram moves slowly from rest and the further it extends, the slower it goes until it stops about 8" from the wedge. So I'm guessing the cord is losing enough current over its length to keep the motor from running at its max capacity.
Now here is where it gets weird to me.
Take the splitter back up to the house and plug it directly into the outlet to test that its not a problem with the unit itself, works great...plug it into the new 100' extension cord, still next to the outlet and the darn thing works just fine...full power, full extension, ram moves fast and it chewed right through a big hunk of maple.
Haul it back down to the splitting area and stillplugged into the same extension cord its back to low power and will not extend fully.
So what gives? If the 100' extension cord is fully extended in a line about 70-80' long (so there's a bunch of slack, its not pulling out of the outlet or anything) the splitter doesn't work right...but if I take that same cord and loop it back to the starting point in a sinlge big loop the thing works great. Out of curiosity I tried my cheapie 100' $30 extension cord and darn if the splitter didn't work just fine so long as the cord was all coiled up...but unravel it and the motor wont even start.
I need to be able to use the splitter where my rounds are, otherwise its got pretty much no value to me...I suppose I could haul the rounds up to the house and split up there, but thats making a mess in a designated clean area instead of my designated messy splitting area.
Is the 12ga 15A 100' cord just not beefy enough and I need to get a 10ga cord rated for 20A maybe?
Speeco manual says to limit extension cord to 20', so I am ignoring that spec, but it would be really handy to figure out how to make this just work as it sits.
I have a speeco 5 tom electric log splitter. Unit works fine, does most of what I need done and was way cheaper than a gas unit so ok. Problem is my splitting area is about 70-80 feet away from my exterior outlet. Regular cheap orange extension cord won't even turn the thing on, so I went out and spent $70 on a 100' 12 gauge extension cord rated to pass a full 15A. Splitter turns on, buyt has less and less power as the ram extends further..the motor sounds right, but the ram moves slowly from rest and the further it extends, the slower it goes until it stops about 8" from the wedge. So I'm guessing the cord is losing enough current over its length to keep the motor from running at its max capacity.
Now here is where it gets weird to me.
Take the splitter back up to the house and plug it directly into the outlet to test that its not a problem with the unit itself, works great...plug it into the new 100' extension cord, still next to the outlet and the darn thing works just fine...full power, full extension, ram moves fast and it chewed right through a big hunk of maple.
Haul it back down to the splitting area and stillplugged into the same extension cord its back to low power and will not extend fully.
So what gives? If the 100' extension cord is fully extended in a line about 70-80' long (so there's a bunch of slack, its not pulling out of the outlet or anything) the splitter doesn't work right...but if I take that same cord and loop it back to the starting point in a sinlge big loop the thing works great. Out of curiosity I tried my cheapie 100' $30 extension cord and darn if the splitter didn't work just fine so long as the cord was all coiled up...but unravel it and the motor wont even start.
I need to be able to use the splitter where my rounds are, otherwise its got pretty much no value to me...I suppose I could haul the rounds up to the house and split up there, but thats making a mess in a designated clean area instead of my designated messy splitting area.
Is the 12ga 15A 100' cord just not beefy enough and I need to get a 10ga cord rated for 20A maybe?
Speeco manual says to limit extension cord to 20', so I am ignoring that spec, but it would be really handy to figure out how to make this just work as it sits.
