We have no gas supply to our property. The boiler is displaying fault codes indicating lack of supply and there is no gas at the hob. Note that there is a known issue with a (Cadent) mid-low pressure regulator at our property and this is due to be removed 17Feb. OVO will be fitting a mid-domestic pressure regulator at the meter the same day.
I called Cadent. They asked me to look at the meter and press button A. When I told them the meter displayed VEND mode, they said they could not help and that my only next step was to call OVO. Unfortunately, there seems to be no number for OVO that works on a Sunday!
I cannot see from the forum what to do. VEND mode seems to relate to pre-payment. We pay by DD and are in credit and have been for a long time.
I am confident the issue is probably with the Cadent valve (again) and I explained all this to the Cadent helpline today but they insisted the VEND mode display means I have to contact OVO. I have emailed OVO and got a reply including “Our aim is to reply within 3 working days.”
Is there anything I can do on a Sunday other than burn electricity to stay warm until I can call OVO once phone lines are open?
Best answer by Blastoise186
Updated on 11/03/25 by Emmanuelle_OVO:
If you have no gas, check the following on your meter:
All gas appliances have gone off - it might just be the boiler so check the timer or thermostat is on.
Your Emergency Control Valve (ECV) is in line with the pipe and ‘open’.
If your ECV is open and all your appliances are still off supply, call us and we’ll look into it.
If you think there is a power cut or gas emergency, please call 105 for electric or for gas emergencies call 0800 111 999.
You may be entitled to compensation from your network company if your electricity or gas supply goes off. Your network company is not the same as your supplier, although OVO may supply your home, the network company is responsible for getting electric or gas to all the properties in your street. The amount you could get depends on whether the cut was planned, how long it lasted, or if it was the network company’s fault.
I have good news for you. I can confirm that your meter shows the Supply Status as ON. As such, the valve should be OPEN and it is allowing gas to flow through as normal.
VEND Mode is also not the cause of this issue. While it does relate to Prepayment/Pay-As-You-Go customers, VEND Mode is purely for entering UTRN (Unique Transaction Reference Numbers) top-up codes manually if the top-up doesn’t get delivered automatically for some reason. That’s all it does. Since you’re in Credit Mode, it has no effect anyway.
If you look at the display you’ll see a flame symbol to the left of the HAN letters. Next to that is the status which in your case currently shows ON, which is what you should be seeing if the supply is on. The other statuses are READY (valve closed but ready to re-open) and OFF (valve closed and locked out). But they’re not usually relevant to Credit mode.
I’d suggest telling Cadent that your supply is on at the gas meter and that it’s not a meter fault. I hope this helps with sorting this out.
Plus:
Blastoise186 wrote:
The other advice I can give is that you can also wake up your gas meter a different way, without going into VEND Mode.
Please note that this mainly applies to the Secure branded gas meters, and may not work for other brands.
Button B can be used to wake up the display and enter auto-scroll mode. Unlike Button A, this method will trigger the display to wake up and scroll through a few things like your meter readings, before going back to sleep mode automatically after around 60 seconds. You can get out of VEND Mode the same way - if you don’t press anything the meter will eventually timeout and go back to sleep.
It sounds to me as if Cadent either don’t understand how VEND Mode works, or got confused somehow. Just because VEND Mode exists doesn’t automatically mean you’re in Prepayment Mode, let alone out of credit!
If you have no gas, check the following on your meter:
All gas appliances have gone off - it might just be the boiler so check the timer or thermostat is on.
Your Emergency Control Valve (ECV) is in line with the pipe and ‘open’.
If your ECV is open and all your appliances are still off supply, call us and we’ll look into it.
If you think there is a power cut or gas emergency, please call 105 for electric or for gas emergencies call 0800 111 999.
You may be entitled to compensation from your network company if your electricity or gas supply goes off. Your network company is not the same as your supplier, although OVO may supply your home, the network company is responsible for getting electric or gas to all the properties in your street. The amount you could get depends on whether the cut was planned, how long it lasted, or if it was the network company’s fault.
I have good news for you. I can confirm that your meter shows the Supply Status as ON. As such, the valve should be OPEN and it is allowing gas to flow through as normal.
VEND Mode is also not the cause of this issue. While it does relate to Prepayment/Pay-As-You-Go customers, VEND Mode is purely for entering UTRN (Unique Transaction Reference Numbers) top-up codes manually if the top-up doesn’t get delivered automatically for some reason. That’s all it does. Since you’re in Credit Mode, it has no effect anyway.
If you look at the display you’ll see a flame symbol to the left of the HAN letters. Next to that is the status which in your case currently shows ON, which is what you should be seeing if the supply is on. The other statuses are READY (valve closed but ready to re-open) and OFF (valve closed and locked out). But they’re not usually relevant to Credit mode.
I’d suggest telling Cadent that your supply is on at the gas meter and that it’s not a meter fault. I hope this helps with sorting this out.
Plus:
Blastoise186 wrote:
The other advice I can give is that you can also wake up your gas meter a different way, without going into VEND Mode.
Please note that this mainly applies to the Secure branded gas meters, and may not work for other brands.
Button B can be used to wake up the display and enter auto-scroll mode. Unlike Button A, this method will trigger the display to wake up and scroll through a few things like your meter readings, before going back to sleep mode automatically after around 60 seconds. You can get out of VEND Mode the same way - if you don’t press anything the meter will eventually timeout and go back to sleep.
It sounds to me as if Cadent either don’t understand how VEND Mode works, or got confused somehow. Just because VEND Mode exists doesn’t automatically mean you’re in Prepayment Mode, let alone out of credit!
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