Stove blowout

We run a pellet stove all winter to keep the house warm. It's cheaper and keeps the house warmer than running the furnace. We recently replaced a part in the stove that had worn out. The new replacement part wasn't an exact match, but the repairman assured us that it would work just fine. We realized this morning after running the stove with the new part for a few weeks that something was seriously wrong. A horrible smell was coming from the stove and ash seemed to be building up very quickly. Josh took the stove apart this morning and found the chimney was completely blocked with soot and the rest of the stove was choked with soot. There was more soot build-up in a few weeks than we had in 8 years of running the stove. I wonder if carbon monoxide was seeping into the house because the chimney was so blocked up. Luckily we all survived, but Kate, Maya and I had to leave the house because the smell was so bad and everything in the living room was covered in ash and soot. Josh stayed home and cleaned up the mess - here's how he looked when he was finished. While I was out today, I got a used part that was an exact match to the one that we replaced and the stove is running normally now.


And, here's a picture of Gramps carrying Maya on a walk we went on over the weekend.