At one point in my phaco career, I became frustrated with cracking the nucleus when it was too soft. I also notice that my residents especially have a lot of trouble. So, I started using a nucleus cracker (Ernst cracker) which fits easily in a small incison and separates widely. I fell in love with it, and now I use it routinely on all cases ( I am not a high volume guy, so I don’t mind spending an extra minute using it). I make two troughs 90 degrees to one another, fill the AC with a little viscoelastic, insert the cracker and presto! I can easily rotate the nucleus with it and crack the other troughs. If the quarters are too big, I chop them when I am in quad removal mode. I recommend having this instrument on your tray- it really comes in handy.