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earthquake valve

Several days ago I accidentally cracked the flexible gas line leading into my home. I called the gas co. to shut it off. There was a strange looking valve on my gas line just beyond the meter. I asked the service man what it was and he said it was an earthquake valve to shut the gas off in case of an earthquake. The next day I replaced the line and turned the gas on but there was no flow. I called the gas co. to get them to find the problem and there was a different service man. He looked at the valve and said "what's that". I was surprised that he didn't recognize an earthquake valve. He said he'd never seen one like that. He couldn't reset it so he took it off. Later I looked up earthquake valves on Google and could not find one that looks like mine. It says "Quakemaster 75" on it but that was no help. Does anyone know how it works and how to reset it? I live in Ca. and they are always telling us that the big one is coming so I'd like to get it working and reinstall it. Engineman

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Reply to
engineman
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You could have shut it off yourself by giving the seismic valve a sharp rap...Useful if the house has a fire too, rap the valve and the gas is off.

Here's a cut away view of one that looks similar to yours.

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Reply to
Stuart Wheaton

Not the same, but does it reset like this one?

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Pete Keillor

Reply to
Pete Keillor

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Reply to
Calif Bill

Thats one Ive not see before. Most of them typically have a ball balanced over a valve seat and when shaken, the ball falls onto the valve seat and must be reset by an external lever. Yours appears to be a counter weight that triggers a needle or valve seat. I think if you pull the top off, you should figure it out easily. They are pretty simple devices for the most part.

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My particular earthquake valve was made by KOSO (now California Valve)
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in Palmdale, California on machine tools I used to service until they upgraded.

Anyways..works well, only had one trip..and it was a 4.1 about 15 miles away.

Reset easily, no harm no foul.

Cheap protection

"Not so old as to need virgins to excite him, nor old enough to have the patience to teach one."

Reply to
Gunner Asch

Btw...those that live in the Midwest...in the area of the New Madrid Fault...should have these as well.

Their BIG ONE is coming as well

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"Not so old as to need virgins to excite him, nor old enough to have the patience to teach one."

Reply to
Gunner Asch

PG&E just put in a high pressure line in front of my house in San Francisco. The earthquake valve they installed was located between the HP line and the exterior shutoff valve and buried in the street. It was about 6" long 2" in dia. with hemispherical ends. They said it would have to be reset by back pressure. It was interesting that all of the exterior connections other than that to the HP line were slip fit!

Chuck P.

Reply to
Pilgrim

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