In October of 2012, I found some hefty conversation here about properly shutting off a gas valve inside the house. At that time, a gentleman described the same situation I just discovered. My gas dryer has a gas flex line from the back of the dryer to the pipe jutting out a little from the wall. The internet and even this website state that the gas line is open and on, if the valve is parallel to the pipe jutting out from the wall. I recently had to turn off such a gas line for my gas clothes dryer and it was in the North/South (Vertical) position for the last 10 years (not parallel) and therefore "On" but the gas pipe from the wall is East/West (Horizontal) and of course, is stationary. So to turn mine off, which was the same dilemma as the previous writer, I had to turn the valve 1/4 turn to the left which then made the valve parallel to the pipe in "Off" position. It is so difficult to discern the small, embossed yellow letters on the bottom of the same yellow valve as to whether they say OFF or ON, so I turned it left (after 3 days thinking about it) hoping that was correct. Since the gas was on in that previously current position all this time...the opposite had to be off. It is unnerving though, that all the expert statements say, "On" position has the valve handle parallel to the wall pipe... when in fact, apparently many of us do not have that status. Such a critical matter to be sure about and yet the experts never say the valve can work the other way also. If I were designing such a serious valve control, you better believe it would be quite clear on the valve handle which direction is OFF and certainly not Yellow on Yellow paint with small letters. Experts here and on the internet in general, need to make a correction for persons like myself who need expert advice. Don't call the gas company; they refuse to guide you over the phone. (surprise!) and the appliance dealers cannot even comment--they hire independent subs to do their work. The subcontractors won't say anything over the phone either. So we need some truly correct advice from the expert sites and from this site. I would like to know if anyone else out there has had the same experience. Thank you

 

Welcome to the forums.

There shouldn't need to be any major conversation or short story about gas valves.
If you have a problem shutting yours off.... post a picture of it and we can tell you what to do.
How-to-insert-pictures.