[SOLVED] Stuck isolation valve Solved

All sorted now. Just took a bit of force and the screw turned. I didn't realise that's the cover screw and the grub screw behind it is what controls the gas. That's the reason why I didn't want to apply too much force to it.

Is that really an isolation valve ?. It looks more like a means to set the gas rate and altering that might affect the combustion. You unscrew the visible cap and there is a internal grub screw that is used to alter the rate at which gas flows through.

A proper isolation will normally be a quarter turn ball valve with a yellow handle and if this fire is the radiant front of a back boiler then there will be a 3-position valve that can be set to OFF, boiler only, or boiler and fire.

Gas fire restrictor

To permanently remove a gas fire (but the pipe still needs capping). I don't think that meets gas safety regs to cut off gas quickly because it is not immediately accessible.

Thanks, Andrew, for the information. I that's the case, then I presume you can shut off the gas to the gas fire that way too?

If this a radiant fire on the front of a back boiler then locate the actual incoming (?15mm copper) gas pipe which on a baxi bermuda will be on the right of the main boiler heat exchanger. There should be a 3-position brass valve there somewhere which allows you to isolate the fire on its own or both fire and boiler.

Thanks for all the replies.

The gas fire is in the living room. The boiler for the hot water/heating is in the kitchen. The gas fire is on its own - no back boiler. It's a Montrose gas fire.

As alan_m pointed out, it is a gas fire restrictor, just like the one shown in the link and I also thought its job was to allow the gas to be shut off at the gas fire so it can be serviced, etc. without having the turn off the gas at the mains.

I presume it also allows you to vary the volume of gas that the gas fire uses. I'm not sure what it's set at as I've never adjusted it.

The gas fire will already have its own flow/temperature control. You don’t want to be messing with the supply as that will interfere with the fire’s own control and possibly gas/air mixing. It should only be used as a supply on/off control as I understand it.

Tim

But a gas fire restrictor is not an isolator. if there was an emergency you need to be able to turn the gas off in one quick turn, which is what those quarter turn ball valves with a yellow plastic lever are for. If the person who fitted the fire didn't bother to fit one then I think we can conclude that he was not "Corgi" or "Gas Safe".

Absolute rubbish - at one time they were universal on all gas fires and probably still found in millions of homes. Why do you think that they are still sold?

Gas pokers with a bayonet connector were 'universal fitting' at one point but they never fitted now. ALL gas appliances must have a means of quick and easy isolation and that has been the case for many many years

This house, along with others on my road, were built in 2000. I believe that's when the gas fires were installed.

In which case I'm pretty sure that the gas safety regulations would have made the fitting of a quickly accessible isolation valve mandatory.

I’m trying to get the gas fire serviced and I will bring that up with the engineer.

That is an isolation valve.

Tim

The quickly accessible isolation valve is at the gas meter.

I doubt that very few have a valve that you describe fitted anywhere near a gas fire or a gas boiler.

I do have such a valve for my gas hob but to allow the hob to be removed. It was fitted behind a kitchen cabinet and only accessible by removing the contents of that cabinet.

The restrictor can, and is, used as an isolation valve.

But not in an emergency !

Oh no it isn't. For many folks the gas meter is highly inaccessible for quick access being buried at the back of a cupboard with a mountain of hoovers, and assorted junk in front of it, or down in a dark cellar.

People seem to have trouble sending meter readings every quarter for this reason. How are they going to get to the quarter turn lever quickly ?. I guarantee that plenty of people don't even know where the meter is.

Mine is just outside the front door.