A couple years ago, I suffered a cervical spine injury which greatly reduced the strength in my life hand (thankfully, I am right handed). Since that time, I have continued to spit firewood manually, but had to rely on my Wife striking the wedge while I held it in place, Even though we were able to accomplish our task, I felt the entire situation was simply an accident waiting to happen. One evening, while watching online music videos, we saw an add for an electric log splitter (although it was for a different brand). We immediately began searching for one that had good reviews and, additionally, fit our budget. As soon as we unboxed our Bilt Hard Splitter, we began splitting a fairly large amount of firewood. It works flawlessly and neither of us wake up with our hands aching. We should have purchased it years ago. Thanks Bilt Hard!