Old Gas Valve Help

I have an old style valve that appears to be packed with grease

can these leak?

I have turned the valve off a couple times lately and smell very very very faint gas smell every time i walk by it


this supplies a dryer

thanx

bbillcee said:

... very very very faint gas smell every time i walk by ... a dryer

Click to expand...

You should do something about that immediately. The amount of leakage you have might be no greater than an unlit pilot for a burner on a kitchen stove, but the gas company here where I live will not turn the gas on in the first place unless they are able to come inside immediately to be sure all pilots are lit ... and that is so there is no possibility of any level of accumulation and/or gas-air mixture of just-waiting-for-a-light gas.

Also, keep in mind that natural gas is lighter-than-air and rises, and that means there could be more above your head (or accumulating in a celing) than your lower-altitude nose can detect ...

Again: Do something about that leak immediately!

If you called the gas company around here with a situation like that, you would be told to immediately lay down the phone handest without hanging it up (to avoid any possibility of a spark at any switch) and to then immediately exit the house and not even smoke until after they had arrived, turned off your gas and made sure the house is completely clear of any accumulation. And when they told me to do that when my meter was leaking outside the house, that is exactly what I did.

replaced valve everything seems A-OK!

Yeah, you got it!

Strangely enough, it was at the same time you first posted that an elderly woman left a message on my phone that her pilot light had gone out on her furnace, and you were evidently replacing your valve at about the same time I was re-lighting her pilot.

May everyone sleep well tonight ...