How To Turn Your Gas On
If you’re just looking for how to turn your gas on, click here to go straight to the instructions without the lengthy intro
This was a pretty interesting weekend. And by interesting, I mean crappy. This was for several reasons, many of which are of the type that if you know, you know. One thing that really made this weekend crappy, however, was that the gas got shut off at my apartment.
I know, I know, it sounds like a stupid mistake on my part, and maybe it was, but I’ve never lived anywhere where I had to take care of utilities myself. Nor did I think about the fact that my predecessors would cancel the service as opposed to letting me transfer the account to my name. Anyway, that’s beside the point because my gas was definitely off. This is very bad, mostly because I hate cold showers, and of course, the hot water heater runs on natural gas. So I called the gas company and scheduled a time for them to come out and turn my gas back on.
Unfortunately, it was Friday afternoon, so the next available time was on Monday. “No big deal” I thought. I mean, I can stay in SLC for the weekend until the gas gets turned on, so at most, I’ll only have to take one cold shower on Monday morning right? Well, as you would probably expect, that’s not exactly how it turned out. Monday morning, after a freezing cold shower, I walked out of my apartment confident that I would have hot water by the end of the day.
Alas, it was not to be. I returned late that evening after a hard day of work and consulting, only to find that while the gas company had removed the seals from my gas meter, they hadn’t actually turned the gas on. There was a big, scary-looking yellow tag warning me that only specially trained and experienced individuals were allowed to turn the valve on, or else I would see my residence reduced to a smoldering crater the size of a football field. So, being the naturally cautious individual that I am, I fiddled with the valve, banged on it a bit with a wrench, twisted some stuff, and was miserably unsuccessful, in that I couldn’t seem to get any gas running through the pipe.
After several minutes of this, I decided to ask Google about how to turn my own gas on. Unfortunately, every query only turned up articles on how to turn your gas off, with the same dire warnings about trying to turn your gas back on without proper expertise and training. So I went to bed with the sinking feeling that I would have to endure yet another freezing cold shower in the morning.
So today I got up, jumped into the shower, shuddered my way through my second consecutive frigid shower, and went to work, determined to call the gas company to find out what it was that these “experts” knew. After talking to an amused secretary (I told her I wanted to get my gas turned on because I couldn’t handle the showers anymore) I was transferred to the tech department to talk to a trained individual, who would walk me through the process of turning my own gas on. Here’s the dialog that ensued:
Me: So I need some training on how to turn my gas on.
Tech: Get a wrench and turn the valve a quarter turn in either direction.
Me: That’s it?
Tech: Yep. Thanks for calling.
Sure enough, I went out and turned the valve a quarter turn to the right, and sure enough, I had gas. To my credit I did the same thing last night and couldn’t make it work, probably because I hadn’t received the proper training. So the two cold showers were pretty crummy, but hey, now I’m one of those people that the tag talked about! I’m a super-duper highly-trained, expert gas turner-on-er. So, if you ever get one of those scary yellow tags and you need to have an expert turn it on, you can give me a call. I promise not to blow our house up.
Since I couldn’t find it anywhere on Google, Here’s how to turn your gas meter on:
- Call your gas company and make sure that they’ve taken the seals off of your meter and that it’s ready to be turned on. (simple, I know, but hey, gotta be thorough)
- Make sure that everything that uses gas is turned off inside your house. This is important. Safety first.
- Get a crescent wrench (one of those adjustable plumber-types should be fine)
- Go out to your meter and find the valve. It’s up one of the pipes that lead up from the meter. Mine was on the left pipe.
- Use the wrench to turn the valve a quarter turn to either the left or the right so that the valve is perpendicular to the pipe. Apparently it’s important to do this slowly.
- Go inside and follow the directions that should be on each gas-using appliance for lighting that appliance. Don’t open the valve for any appliance until you are ready to light the appliance. IF YOU SMELL GAS, DO NOT LIGHT ANYTHING. MAKE SURE ALL GAS VALVES IN YOUR HOUSE ARE CLOSED AND WAIT 30 MINUTES UNTIL THE SMELL IS COMPLETELY GONE. This is critical to avoid turning your house into the aforementioned crater.
August 31st, 2006 at 4:48 pm
I’ve got gas, and I don’t need to turn it on… do you know how to turn it off?
September 4th, 2006 at 3:09 pm
So, have you ever considered writing instruction manuals, or in the very least, the warning tags on such things as pillows or “rub-a-dub dolly dolls”? You have a gift, my friend.
January 8th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
cool thanks alot I will try it….. I too am having the same problem…no hot water…bummer…
February 14th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
how do i take the seals off my meter. I have a green line coming into my house that i own, it still runs through the meter, I disconnected from my SW gas line but the gas company won’t take my seals off.
March 21st, 2008 at 9:27 pm
them utility bastards stuck an expansion plug in the main line after the meter. so when i turned the valve i still had nothing in the house.
April 13th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
How do i take the seals off ?? I took the lock off my meter and turned the valve nothing. Me and My kids sure can use a hot shower. Im tired of boilling water for a bath.
April 15th, 2008 at 7:32 am
Thanks dsve that was it I have gas in the house. It was a expansion plug in the main line. You the men!!! NP
April 15th, 2008 at 7:32 am
Thanks dsve that was it I have gas in the house. It was a expansion plug in the main line. You the man!!! NP
May 7th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Just thought add something here. My gas was off also, but turning on the valve did nothing. I’m not sure exactly what an expansion plug is, but mine had a spring valve in it that I had to reset which I think is different. Basically the spring valve is designed to close when pressure is released, so if gas goes off for some reason it can’t go back on without a manual reset. All I had to do was turn on the gas main and reset the valve and presto! Back in business…
May 30th, 2008 at 10:59 am
How do you take the seals off the meter?
June 6th, 2008 at 8:01 am
NP.
So how did you remove the expanion plug
June 13th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Can’t get mine back on either..where is the expansion valve or that spring thing?
September 2nd, 2008 at 10:50 am
HELP!! Turned valve no Gas…
November 7th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
The utility company turned me off, I went back out and turned my valve and turned off the gas inside the house but nothing seems to work, I’ve looked for the expansion plug but don’t know what it looks like. Help kids and I need a hot shower.
November 20th, 2008 at 12:04 am
DSVE how do I take the Expansion plug in the main line out.
November 20th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
there is a cap that they place in the line before or after your meter to block it. you can remove it by loosening the pipe that connects to the meter and taking it out.
March 21st, 2009 at 11:16 am
How do I remove the expansion plug?
April 17th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Help..I turned it a quarter turn .. It lights but quickly fades out along with the gas pressure..What can I do ?
July 12th, 2009 at 8:21 am
SCARY
July 22nd, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Very good info thank you so much – I guess you can find anything on the internet
July 23rd, 2009 at 8:45 pm
They turned my gas meter off. How do I cut the plug that they put in so I have gas again.Please let me know Thanks.
July 23rd, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Please let me know how to turn it back on. Thanks
July 23rd, 2009 at 9:05 pm
they turn my gas meter off today and I would like to know how to cut the screww they put in with the blue cut of gas thing so I have gas for water for the weekend Please let me know how I can do it. THANKS.
August 24th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
I got a baby in the house and really need my gas … they put a little pin on my meter .. how do i unscrew that?
October 28th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
i live in an basement apartment and i know what meter is my i turned the valve and nothing happen how do i find out if there’s a ecpansion plug in it and how do i take it out.
October 29th, 2009 at 12:52 am
I see here that people mention that the problem with not being able to turn on their gas is the expansion plugs or seals. Nobody really has said how to remove these obsticles or where to find them on the meter! Any help? I tried to turn on my gas and there is something obstructing it.. Help.
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:45 am
know anything about turning gas back on in CA where we have a red box, Earthquake Shut Off Valve. Looks like a flathead screwdriver and a 1/4 turn would do it, but I couldn’t get the screw like thing to move. Those gas co bastards had me wait in all day Sunday, when I called them at 11pm “oh, it’s still on our work sheet, we can still come”! Yeah, wait, just let me get out of my coffin cause i’m always up all night. “Or we can come on Mon between 8am & 8pm”!!! What? Cool, I’ll just call my boss and tell him I might come to work this week between Tues & Fri, I’m sure I won’t be fired. Better still, think of all the weight I’ll loose since I’ll have no income to buy food. Oh, and, don’t worry about turning the gas back on, I won’t have the $ to pay the bill.
November 23rd, 2009 at 3:17 pm
My main was on and my gas pressure would not come up. It ended up being the regulator,(the big round disc looking thing)it was made in the eighties. So I removed the cap on the end of the regulator and the diaphram was stuck. With my finger I tapped the nipple just inside and it jumped out a bit, the gas pressure jumped up. Put the cap back on. Done.