We bought a Condar replacement catalytic combustor in 2005 for our Vermont Castings Intrepid II wood stove. Previously we did not have good luck with a new replacement catalytic combustor (more on this later). Our stove was built in 1983, it was the first model catalytic Intrepid II built. The life of the catalytic combustor depends on how much air the stove gets during catalytic operation. If it has air leaks from seams, the combustor only lives a couple of years, not six as advertised. I got tired of taking the stove to the barn and chinking it with stove cement to seal it up. After it ran a while, the stove cement fell out anyway. Operating the stove this way shortened the life of the combustor and the stove burned more wood due to the increased air fed to the fire. Lately I decided to chink up the seams on the stove body with aluminum foil. .. This did not last very long and required a lot of maintenance. Improved chinking made from length of stainless steel wire wrapped in steel wool and this all wrapped loosely with aluminum foil has proved to be a durable and lasting stove seam sealant. The old 1983 Intrepid II runs a steady temperature (550 to 600 degrees surface temperature, has no leaks and runs longer than it did when it was new (better seal). Stove cement is useless as far as I am concerned. It crumbles after a while from heat and the stove body flexes as it heats and cools, which destroys the cement seal. The method I describe for chinking the seam does not fail. I finally had to change the combustor because it did not work well anymore after 8 years. The new one performs beautifully. Try this trick, you do not have to move the stove, nor do you have to cure the seal, or smell the stink of the stove cement drying when the stove is first lit. When you take the combustor out and clean it, handle it lightly, be careful when you blow a little air through the combustor to get rid of accumulated ash and it will last a long time. Eventually you will have to replace it, though. I use a small wooden tool I made to chink the wire, steel wool, foil seal into the seams of the stove. It looks like a large straight blade screw diver made out of wood. The blade is about 1 to 1.5 inches wide. This does the chinking job nicely.
Good luck with your wood stove.
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I am happy we replace this part it seems to have increased the functioning of the insert. A worthwhile investment
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received product in great time.This is for a wood burning stove Have installed in stove but its to hot to start a fire in stove.

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