Eko Attack35

[Tonty]

Hello. I'm a newbie. We are building a new house and I'm going to put radiant heat in the floor, add a heat exchanger in a propane furnace to heat the upstairs, and do some minimal ice melt. Total heated space in house/garage will be 4,100 sq ft and maybe 350 sq ft of ice melt. As this is Kansas, the ice melt will get used very little. I cut and split all my own wood, I do not pay for it. I'm wanting input on the Eko Attack35. Is it a good unit? I've also looked at Econoburn, but the price is so much higher. Also, water storage. For now I don't believe I will put it in, possibly down the road I will. Can it be put outside (boiler is inside garage) as long as it is insulated well and not far away? Thanks for any help!

 

[maple1]

Eko & Attack used to be different products/companies.

Is this something new? Did they merge? Have a link?

 

[Tonty]

No, you're probably right. I was going from New Horizon's reccomendation; they reccomended either an Eko 40 or Attack 35 and I figured they were made by the same company. Which one of those two is better? Thank you

 

[Bad LP]

All I will report is during a rather frank conversation I was having with a company is that I was told to look elsewhere. He didn't say that his was better but just that I might not be happy.

That said, I see many posts about them from what appear to be happy users. Maybe the guy was full of it but I didn't buy his brand either.

 

[salecker]

Hi
I have an Econoburn.Well built and had no major problems in the 7 yrs i have been using it.I have 1000 gallons storage.Mine is in a separate building.That was done because my wife and daughter have asthma.That said i will never have a wood burner in a house again,unless it is for ambiance like a fireplace.My boiler building was a bright white inside.It now is getting grey inside from smoke escape and ash.
Make sure that when you are building the area for ice melt that you put twice as much insulation under the slab?then you were planing too.The ground will be a huge BTU sink and once the slab is poured you can't add more insulation.

 

[maple1]

That said i will never have a wood burner in a house again,unless it is for ambiance like a fireplace.My boiler building was a bright white inside.It now is getting grey inside from smoke escape and ash.

That depends on the boiler. And maybe a little on procedure. No such issues here with my boiler in my basement.

 

[Fred61]

That depends on the boiler. And maybe a little on procedure. No such issues here with my boiler in my basement.

Ditto!

 

[Tonty]

Ok, so I've been still looking around at different units. I've been looking at the Switzer boiler, which has integrated storage, also. Any comments on that brand? Is it good and reliable? Thank you.

 

[salecker]

That depends on the boiler. And maybe a little on procedure. No such issues here with my boiler in my basement.

I added a smoke flap to my boiler, helps some but unless you are very anal about exactly when you load smoke escapes.I could add a smoke hood,but don't have to because the boiler isn't in my home.And i could seal up all the seams on the chimney to cut down on the ash,but i don't have too because the boiler isn't in my home.
Plus there is the dirt,bugs that come with storing wood in your house.We grew up with 20+ cords of wood in the basement of our family business every fall.That basement had it's own ecosystem.Our family also lived in the same building.
Then there is the piece of mind not having a flame source in your home.And the main thing to consider is no chance of carbon monoxide poisoning. A family of 5 along with a boarder died a year or two after we started using our system.The chimney in their rental house wasn't maintained and they died of carbon monoxide poisoning. I felt so relived that we went the way we did and have all our flame sources out of our living area.
We live in a remote town with a volunteer fire department.Our house is a log house.Those two points alone give insurance company's the chance to use their most expensive rates.so having the flame sources outside of our home is our insurance policy.

 

[Highbeam]

I added a smoke flap to my boiler, helps some but unless you are very anal about exactly when you load smoke escapes.I could add a smoke hood,but don't have to because the boiler isn't in my home.And i could seal up all the seams on the chimney to cut down on the ash,but i don't have too because the boiler isn't in my home.Plus there is the dirt,bugs that come with storing wood in your house.We grew up with 20+ cords of wood in the basement

So is this something all boiler burners need to do? Keep 20 cords of dirty, bug infested, wood in their basements? Have leaky chimneys dumping ash into their house, and so little draft that smoke dumps into the room?

I can see the perceived safety advantage of keeping the fire outside but what do you suppose is the leading cause of fires in homes? It's cooking equipment. Do you also cook in the boiler shed?

Your family has asthma and keeping the wood burner in a separate building will surely improve air quality.

 

[maple1]

So is this something all boiler burners need to do? Keep 20 cords of dirty, bug infested, wood in their basements? Have leaky chimneys dumping ash into their house, and so little draft that smoke dumps into the room?

I can see the perceived safety advantage of keeping the fire outside but what do you suppose is the leading cause of fires in homes? It's cooking equipment. Do you also cook in the boiler shed?

Your family has asthma and keeping the wood burner in a separate building will surely improve air quality.

No, it's not. I do 6 cords in my basement all winter - no bug issues after 20+ years of doing so, and it's clean as long as you take a minute or two to sweep bark bits etc. up every few days or so. My smoke pipe joints aren't even sealed up, no ash in the house, draft is in spec, and I get no smoke dumps. The open flame aspect - is also present with any fossil burner (oil, LP, NG). There also likely have been fires started from electric baseboard wiring, somewhere, sometime in history.

Having said all that, I completely get why some want or prefer the wood burning to be outside or in an outbuilding. But the perceived plus and minus factors of doing or not doing so do not universally apply to everyone & every situation.

 

[Fred61]

My wood is stacked in a shed about 60 feet from my walk out basement doors. My daily wood supply comes in on a Harbor Freight wood cart every afternoon in conjunction with my Pug's afternoon poop walk. There's a large plowed gravel parking lot so one activity doesn't interfere with the other.
Very efficient and expeditious.
I prefer not to have my wood in the house but I feel the heat loss from the boiler, plumbing and storage provides nearly 25% of my heat.

 

[salecker]

So is this something all boiler burners need to do? Keep 20 cords of dirty, bug infested, wood in their basements? Have leaky chimneys dumping ash into their house, and so little draft that smoke dumps into the room?

I can see the perceived safety advantage of keeping the fire outside but what do you suppose is the leading cause of fires in homes? It's cooking equipment. Do you also cook in the boiler shed?

Your family has asthma and keeping the wood burner in a separate building will surely improve air quality.

Sorry the 20 cords of wood were for a wood furnace,not a boiler or water heater.
My boiler has a fan for combustion,any seam or gap will leak ash while it is running.It blows a lot of ash out the chimany.Seeing i have it in it's own building i wasn't concerned with sealing all th joints in the chimany.That would make it a pain to service.The bigest ash leak is the boiler it's self.The panal that you remove for cleaning the tubes is or was a flat 1/4" steel. After 7 yrs it has a bit of a bow to it now,and i plan on welding a stiffener on it this year to try and keep it from leaking as much.
Nothing wrong with the draft,but the top of the fire box is flat,even with the top of the door opening.Maybe the draft in a basement with a 20+ ft chimney would suffice to pull all the smoke out.
I did not claim to remove all the causes of fire,did remove the ones that are present everyday whether you are home or not.And all three of us do know how to cook so that risk is very minimum,plus a good fire extinguisher on each floor makes that a moot point.
Up here in the cold north most house fires are caused by the heating system.Which stands to reason with a 8 month heating season.
Hopefully this helps clear things up for you.

 

[gfirkus]

Ok, so I've been still looking around at different units. I've been looking at the Switzer boiler, which has integrated storage, also. Any comments on that brand? Is it good and reliable? Thank you.

So, it took me about 4 years to finalize my plan. My dad had a 80's tarm with out storage to heat the house. I built in 08 and was for sure that's what I wanted . I didn't have enough $ right away so I burned propane. About 1400$ a year. Not bad. 2014 I think propane was $5.75 a gal., I made It thru. Looked at tarm, and ecoburn. Built a boiler room to fit. Thought I wanted a ecoburn until I learned about storage. Then was sure I wanted a garn jr. positive. Switzer was interesting but was too big to fit in space. Then I read here about Gary making custom to fit boilers . Read my thread about custom Switzer boiler. I heated a 1500 sf ranch house , 1500 sf unfinished bsmt, and a 1150 sf garage, along with dhw on 5 cords. Burnt the last wood up by July 12th. I love it. If your not 100% serious about burning wood, don't do it. This is a life style, not a fad. Switzer boiler was about same price as others if I bought storage with it . Garn was more. I am not in hvac but learned enough to self install. It was a huge investment in my mind, and I tend to go big or stay home. Not counting boiler room I have about $15,000 into it. About 12 year pay off with me making needed wood on my property.