Quarter turn gas valve not opening.

So there is a gas connection for an oven that I was trying to make use of, just to check I oppened the shut off valve and listened, no gas sound no gas smell. I put soap on it. No bubbles.

is it possibly that this valve isn’t opening. It been untouched in the closed position for years.

Here is the valve with the handle removed:




And here is the hole I’d expect gas to pour out of when I opened it, but nothing happened.

The gas line appears to be open. I can stick a pEncil into it. Yes there is gas in the rest of the house. In fact there is gas at the stove top about 3 ft away which almost certainly comes from the same branch off the main gas pipe.

Here is a photo of the kitchen.

circled are two quarter turn valves (yes I’m sure they’re quarter turn valves)

the red arrow is where I know the gas pipe runs vertically from the water heaters 1 floor below, to the furnace two floors above.

that is the only gas pipe I am aware of.

the stove has gas.

The gas pipes are behind that tiled embedded in a brick wall. I’d like to eliminate every possible option that I can before taking a chisel to the wall.

The valve above the stovetop controls the gas to that appliance and is 1/4 turn.

The floor is a slab, the wall where the red arrow is located is an opening in the slab which runs from th basement to the roof and contains water pipes, a gas pipe, hvac ducts and chimney ducts. While it’s possible that another gas pipe comes up through the slab in the wall, it seems very unlikely.

So here is the thoroughly annoying resolution to this.

the day after I post this, my in-laws come over and I tell my father in law about the problem. Fast forward a couple hours and they leave and my wife says, by the way, the gas works.

i said, “no way, how did he fix it?”

”he just opened the valve, I watched him”

”are you sure it works?”

”try it”

i try try it, you can instantly hear and smell gas.

i tell my wife “no way, call him and ask what he did.”

she calls him, “he says he opened the valve”


anyway this is not possible, so either they’re screwing with me or the universe is screwing with me, but either way it works now.

so would I.

the only think I can think of is maybe there was an air bubble or something that got in the line between the two valves and ....

but it even as I type this I realize it doesn’t make any sense.