I have an old Portway Tortoise stove No2. I have been renovating it
and getting my chimney ready in our old Victorian cottage. I want to
know what is the best way to light the stove and use it? We have just
fixed the top with fire cement and to harden it decided to light the
stove outside the house (chimney pipe and hearth not quite finished!)
Lucky for us as smoke poured out of everywhere - not the just the
chimney pipe, and when we closed up the bottom the fire burnt so
slowly that the stove hardly heated at all! Obviously we won't have
the right air flow as the pipe isn't attached to the chimney but I
wondered if anyone is using one of these and could give us
'instructions' on how to get the best out of this lovely looking
stove!
What is the best fuel to use - wood, coke, coal?

On Feb 25, 8:33 pm, "fran" wrote:
I have an old Portway Tortoise stove No2. I have been renovating it
and getting my chimney ready in our old Victorian cottage. I want to
know what is the best way to light the stove and use it? We have just
fixed the top with fire cement and to harden it decided to light the
stove outside the house (chimney pipe and hearth not quite finished!)
Lucky for us as smoke poured out of everywhere - not the just the
chimney pipe, and when we closed up the bottom the fire burnt so
slowly that the stove hardly heated at all! Obviously we won't have
the right air flow as the pipe isn't attached to the chimney but I
wondered if anyone is using one of these and could give us
'instructions' on how to get the best out of this lovely looking
stove!
What is the best fuel to use - wood, coke, coal?

http://www.fireplace.co.uk/text/texthistory.htm

On 26 Feb, 00:42, wrote:
On Feb 25, 8:33 pm, "fran" wrote:

I have an old Portway Tortoise stove No2. I have been renovating it
and getting my chimney ready in our old Victorian cottage. I want to
know what is the best way to light the stove and use it? We have just
fixed the top with fire cement and to harden it decided to light the
stove outside the house (chimney pipe and hearth not quite finished!)
Lucky for us as smoke poured out of everywhere - not the just the
chimney pipe, and when we closed up the bottom the fire burnt so
slowly that the stove hardly heated at all! Obviously we won't have
the right air flow as the pipe isn't attached to the chimney but I
wondered if anyone is using one of these and could give us
'instructions' on how to get the best out of this lovely looking
stove!
What is the best fuel to use - wood, coke, coal?

http://www.fireplace.co.uk/text/texthistory.htm

thanks for the web site which gives a history of the stove, but I
really need practical advice on how best to actually use it! We've
never had a stove.