BioMass was designed based on lessons learned from the very reliable and proven EKO. I drove to West Virginia and reviewed the design of all three. Left with the BioMass and don't regret the decision. But another poster here Boilerman I'm pretty sure has an Attack and I think it has an improved control system since the time I selected the BioMass over the Attack. From hanging around here for ~6 years, you CAN become a satisfied user or any of these three. I'd call the BioMass and Attack second generation boilers. According to the importer, the EKO was the baseline to create a improved, cost-effective gasser boiler, the BioMass. Not sure about the Attack's design background. If you go by the number of posters here it appears there is a larger BioMass user base than Attack. No idea why because as I recall all the Attack users ended up satisfied. Be warned, there is a price to be paid for these lower cost systems, that mainly your customer support will come from this web site. Some new users are either talented or persistent enough to not let that deter them, but if you're not of the nature or skillset that fixes most stuff around the house, you might be better served spending a few more thousand to purchase from a dealer that makes enough money on a unit sale to support you. Rather than bash here you can PM me about the BioMass and maybe Boilerman will chime in and you can get his personal take on the Attack. The BioMass has earned the honor of having a Sticky above so there's a good bit of unit specific info there, but frankly my first year was saved by the gracious help of EKO users here. The users who just want to feed wood and walk away, I think, seem to be better served by stepping up to the next tier which is roughly a $3-4K step. Then if you want the Mercedes class boiler and be almost guaranteed to be satisfied is at the Froling level.
For my wife and I, we had no idea if heating our large, inefficient home with wood was practical, feasible, or worth all the trouble/effort. No idea if my wife would hate feeding the beast while I was at work. But, it heats our home very well for a fraction of the cost of propane (our home is very remote) and she actually enjoys it. Knowing what I know now going into our sixth season about ourselves, wood heat, gasification boilers, and everything that goes with operating it, I'd spend several thousand more and step into at least the Vigas, Varm, tier. But really, if I was to do over, I just get a Froling. For me payback would have been 4 instead of 2-3 years. The cost difference spread over a 10-15 years of living with these things running them for ~1/3 of a year.... the cheapest route can become very frustrating. You don't hear of Frolings for sale on Craigslist because of frustrated users. But you may find a BioMass. Ok... I need to go make money. Bottomline, going cheap has it's own cost. Evaluate if you enjoy figuring things out mostly on your own, or if you're the feed it and leave it type and pick a unit that matches you. Not many more thousands will get you to the next tier of boilers. Read and you'll find the biggest frustration of users at this price point is customer support. Don't rush the decision for this season. It's best to go visit users and get a sense of happiness first hand. Best wishes and take your time.
