This thing should be cooking you out of the room it is in when running wide open.
Our Napoleon 1401 runs at 450° to 600° using one of those magnetic stove thermometers.
Now this is a 6 year old stove with secondary burn feature so they run hotter.
I got home from work a hour ago and my stove was still going strong.
My wife I loaded it before she went to bed at 9 PM.
The family room is at 78°, the rear bedrooms at 71° when I got home.
This is in a 1900sqft ranch just for comparison, it was 31° outside based on the car thermometers.
Now you said you got a fisher, fine stove in its day. They don't make them anymore, do you have an owners manual? if not get one here.
http://hearth.com/econtent/index.php/wiki/Fisher_Stoves
While your there go to the forums and read about firewood.
How many elbows are in the flue pipe.
I've been harvesting and processing firewood for myself, my folks and my sister for nearly 20 years.
Willow will burn very hot and fast when it is properly dried, (seasoned)
Willow is a very wet wood when alive and I'm fairly certain your newly harvested standing dead is still plenty wet. Willow is very heavy when alive and being processed (cut, split and stacked) but very light when dry and it burns fast, pine and cottonwood are the same. This is why it is viewed as a poor firewood, why go through the work to process willow if other harder type wood is available. Willow will weigh about the same as oak when harvested but the Oak will weigh three times as much when dry because willow has that much more moisture in it.
So you basically are using the kindling to cook the moisture out of the willow to get the willow to burn. You will go though a lot of kindling. Your fire will not be that hot because you are boiling off water on every piece added prior to the wood fibers burning.
How do you plan to get future firewood, purchase? process yourself?
By the way I'm currently burning silver maple, which is just a notch or two above your willow on the firewood chart, but this batch has been cut split and stacked in the sun since spring 2010.
You might look into obtaining a facecord, rick , or 1/3 of a full cord of dry firewood, just to make sure that is the issue. Be careful as there are plenty of firewood sellers out there that sell green wood as dry or seasoned.
Should it always be burning with flames or is embers fine? I have been adding a log when I check it and it is mostly embers. To me this does not seem warm enough for a real cold night...not bad this evening....high 30's and it is keeping it well enough to wear a sweater. Should I keep a good pile of logs in there at all times on colder nights to get it hotter?
