No,  use heat as needed to initiate and/or maintain the reaction.
It may not be needed, but usually is, I often place the flask in the center of a stove with the four burners around it on low
This is generally the only heating needed. The turning point of the reaction is so sensitive that a warm room has made the difference between success and failure.  I have had mixes so close to going off,  that just creating a hot spot on the bottom of the flask with a small cigarette lighter initiates the reaction.
The ultimate is to use the energy from a lightning flash to fire it up, or the energy from your favorite album played at the flask. Imagine mixing everything then stepping to the window ,one dark night. A bolt of lightning flashes in the distance. Iodine is light sensitive , the bolt of lighting fires up the reaction.

Q: Toluene, methanol, xylene, naptha....which is best? I have access to all
of these in my area.

Toluene is considered best as the nonpolar, for the A/B.
 Methanol is considered best to extract sudo from the pills.
Others have other preferences, this is what the majority would agree to.

Q: Sodium Hydroxide....Since I'm so new to this I have no idea the difference
in the old and the new red devil lye. Is there a way to tell them apart
without screwing up the product to do it?(packaging etc...)

The old is not found very often, a metal can with a plastic snap on top.
New is in a plastic container with a screw off top.

Q:  Povidone in the A/B reaction? How do you Identify it ?
If it does turn up in the reaction ,is it a lost cause or can it be saved. Most of the
information I found on this just refers to it briefly and says to watchout
for it.
A difficult question to answer my friend. Just to clarify your question first.
The A/B is an extraction, you want to remove povidone  from the pills and not let it ruin your RP/ HI reaction. You will not know it is in your reaction mixture until it misfires then all you know,  is , it messed up.
It is possible to recover the reaction mix,  Using 1/2 a pound of E . The reaction was  abnormal but did make chili.
Was able to see a 20 % yield after filtering out povidone for five days.  Just managed to break even after a week of frustrating work. If it happened again, I could probably recover 40% in one day of extra work.
If it gets into the reaction it looks like any other screwed up reaction , 1/2 way firing off , but never really sure, because it was pushed by the cook so hard,  he is left wondering. You can finally identify it when you do the A/B extraction for your meth product,  but by then it is too late, it has messed up the quantity of your product not the quality.
.
The place to spot it and remove it is in the A/B extraction of the E from the pills. It is going to fuck up your yield from the pills,  that is minor compared to it trashing the reaction.

A good basic screening I always do on a unknown lot of pills is the following:
Take 20 pills,  crush them,  soak them in denatured alcohol , filter,
add 20% lye water to the filtered liquid, until pH12+ is attained.
examine what comes to the surface with the Ephedrine.
Big globules  is povidone. Sudo will look like a whitish cottage cheese. Povidone is clear or yellow or brown  and in large globules, you will be able to see that something is in the upper layer  besides the waxy ,cheesy  pseudo .

Remove it from the pills by  repeating the above,
then heating it to almost boiling for a minute or two.
Next very carefully add toluene slowly to the hot lye mix(it may go off in your face)( you can wait until it cools down).     
This will dissolve the sudo in the toluene but the povidone will coagulate, and remain solid.
Separate the lye water and discard.
Remove the bigger hunks floating in the toluene layer with a screen,
filter the rest out with a coffee filter.
You may have to replace the filter several times, as the povidone is designed to prevent filtering. Large amounts of povidone will be removed , if you dry it,  it will return a very small amount of off white powder, Do not worry very little sudo in in this voluminous glob of povidone you just pulled out.  It will only be a slight inconvenience to filter,  once it has been heated.
Once filtered proceed to make the pseudo E -HCl salt, or evaporate the toluene for pseudo E fee base crystals to use in the reaction.

5)I have read a couple of methods on refluxing and wanted your input. What
are the advantages of this method?

No advantage at all,  it is an old technology,  easy to compare to old computers , They works but no one uses them any more. Takes many hours , produces less product , people often fall asleep and end up with a fire.

Also,  would there be any advantages to
performing the I2-RP reation separately and then adding the E and applying
heat in the P/P method or should this be left stricktly for refluxing.

It is a good approach, the reasoning for it is sound. I have done it, there is a tendency to add to much water then you end up refluxing to get the pseudo to react.
In reality it is equipment related once again.
Opening a single neck flask full of  HI that has been taped up  is not practical , and very dangerous.
It is much simpler to mix them cold all at once, being sure to get it homogenous , upon the addition of a little water the reaction is often spontaneous not requiring any external heat. seal it up and open when complete is more efficient for many.
A vacuum flask with the p/p hose coming off the side vacuum nipple , and adding fresh chems through the top stopper is an excellent way to perform this method. and would make it the choice. However  vacuum flasks are just that , for vacuum, they are thick walled and are easily cracked by heat. A thinner smother surface is more heat stabile

Methhead had an advantage very few others have, he had a enormous supply of the exact same type of RP, E pills, and I2. His reactions were standardized.
Most people will never see the stuff react twice the same way because of variability and availability of supplies.
Usually people do a different sized batch with all types of variables changing.

It is best to have an idea of all the methods available, then you will see that what is being done is always  the same.
You won't get misled by someone who fails to  mention heat, or omits a portion.
The whole process involves so many steps, few have a complete lab, making it nearly impossible to describe every reaction exception and problem encountered after 50 of so batches. But the basics are always the same learn them and you will devise your own methods easily.
Being bees and at the cutting edge of this stuff,  you will soon become so familiar with what is happening,  that you will be able to deal with every situation you encounter. Most cooks will never achieve this high degree of sophistication, except after many years,  you will know this after a  few months.
Every recent breakthrough in procedures and to thwart the DEA in the past  1-1/2 years has been developed or perfected here,  the hive, by bees, just like yourself.
The advances have been  incredible since the reflux days.
A year ago 60% were refluxing,  today maybe 5% reflux.
Next will be the Na/Li and ammonia gaining on the HI/RP because of the bees here working out the bugs. .
Then the electrolytic will become popular, Again bees doing experiments that fail,  but still advancing..
You learn more when you figure out why something failed,  than by re-doing a successful method over and over

The method I wrote up is a composite of hundreds of reactions, from using straight hoses run outside,  to p/p tanks, mixing the three chemicals 12 different ways, constantly experimenting.
Each batch had a parameter altered to determine the outcome,
I had all the chems to react one pound , this was split into six equal  batches one or two cooked a day with modifications just so we could evaluate the effects of  temperature and flask sizes.

 Methhead could walk into my lab,  and and perform a reaction that would not seem much like his write up. But to him it would be the exactly the  same reaction. . Just applying his knowledge of the reaction, with my equipment..
If methhead mixes it up,  and it starts cooking on its own, he won't put heat to it, until the reaction slows and shows signs of dying. Then he would use  whatever form of heat was available to maintain control of the reaction. Just like anyone with the experience will do.
The different HI/ RP methods then,  are equipment related generally. The chemicals are doing the same exact thing.
 Experience with these chemicals allows you to be able to see what is actually happening or not happening  and correct problems that may arise.
This is why I respond to your questions, I see that you are evaluating every single step, you want to know why this is being done instead of that, when you finish you will understand each step, and will be a successful cook.
I even evaluated every movement I made in the lab . why did I pick that up, was their an simpler way, what once took 10 hours,  I can do in 2 hours. There will always be waiting periods, waiting for something to separate, you just plan around that there is always plenty to do.
All my filtering is vacuum filtering,  done with a special buchner funnel that fits on any flask or bottle and does not need a vacuum flask, I will be revealing this gem shortly. The reaction mixture can be filtered  5 times in five minutes, as fast as I can pour it in the filter, The pills are filtered so completely in a minimum amount of time. Once soaked they will be filtered 4 times in less than ten minutes through several inches of filter medium and it is  crystal clear.
Washing and cleaning the final crystals is outrageous in a buchner,  and is many times more effective than using a flask or bowl and a funnel filter, as fast as you can spray the solvents the vacuum pulls the crud off and begins drying the crystals

The odds of success are against you initially, the DEA spends millions to try and fuck you up.
Once you get a good batch to fire off you will become un-stoppable, the amount of cake, you can make of one batch will pay for 5 failures easily,
An  oz can be gone in a one  day.

Worlock ,I really appreciate your time and value your input. Thanks for
providing practical, safe information for those of us interested in the
trade. I hope this message finds you well and your yield 2 for 1(wouldn't
that be nice!!).

That would be a very  excellent turn of events.

If you choose to answer these redundant questions just e mail me or post it
on the hive.
Thanx,
          The Sinner