I have an old smart meter, I have had no gas to any appliances since Friday evening and the meter is displaying open valve fail. It sounds like a battery fail. How can i get an emergency repair? Can't get through to OVO helpline until Monday??
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My gas smart meter is displaying "valve open fail" - what should I do?
Best answer by Nancy_OVO
Updated on 21/10/25 by Ben_OVO
So sorry to hear of the issues you’ve been having with your gas smart meter which have also affected your gas supply over the weekend.
Great work on checking the meter screen for this error message. It sounds like your meter is experiencing a fault either due to low battery (which operates the valve on some smart meters), or a mechanical issue preventing that valve from opening/closing.
All gas meters (smart and traditional) have an internal battery that powers them. This is designed to last for up to 20 years, with a meter recertification (exchanging the meter to replace it with a new one) scheduled every 10 years, so it’s unusual for this issue to crop up so soon.
If your gas smart meter is making a beeping sound, it indicates that the battery is low and the meter will need replacing. If the battery fails this can affect the supply, as in your case, so it’s important to reach out to our Support Team if you do ever notice that your meter is beeping.
It’s really distressing to hear that this happened out-of-hours and you were unable to give us a call. If your gas supply is off out of hours we recommend calling the National Gas Emergency helpline on 105.
Our emergency info and contact details can be found here:
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+4Hey
Sorry to hear about this.
It does sound like some type of fault. Photos of the meter would help us try and determine what the problem might be.
i wonder if someone in admin has changed smth on the account which may have disrupted the supply.
It’s extremely unlikely for someone to have just gone in and changed something randomly, they would need details to access the account and without speaking with yourself, no one will be able to do anything like that.
It sounds like your meter is experiencing a fault either due to low battery (which operates the valve on some smart meters), or a mechanical issue preventing that valve from opening/closing. All gas meters (Smart and traditional) have an internal battery that power them. This is designed to last for up to 20 years, with a meter recertification (exchanging the meter to replace it with a new one) scheduled every 10 years.
If you can share some photos that would be helpful, but it does sound like a fault.
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