Pressure relief valve testing is critical to ensure the proper operation of these valves and the proper functioning of the…

Inline safety relief valve testing is a high-tech alternative to the laborious, expensive process of sending out safety valves for…

If you’re working on testing both types of valves, it’s critical to understand the difference between these valves, just so you know your facility is adhering to the proper testing schedule.

While both terms refer to valves used to release pressure from a pressurized system, their technical definitions are different. The term relief valve refers to a valve within a pressurized system that is used to control pressure for the optimal functionality of the system. Relief valves are designed to help your facility avoid system failures, and protect equipment from overpressurized conditions. With a relief valve, the valve releases (relieves) excess pressure to ensure the system stays at the optimal pressure level.The term safety valve, on the other hand, refers to pressure valves that are designed to protect people, property, and processes. In other words, the term safety valve refers to a failsafe or last-resort valve that will release pressure from a system to prevent catastrophic damage to workers or to systems, usually in the event that all other relief valves have failed to adequately control pressure within a system.

While both safety valves and relief valves work to release excess pressure, the way they go about it is different.  Let’s look in the differences in greater detail.

Understanding the nomenclature is crucial to understanding the various factors affecting pressure relief valves and the operations that they, in…

The general purpose of both safety valves and relief valves are the same. Both are pressure relief valves, and they are designed to let off pressure in any situation where a system becomes overpressurized. That said, relief valves and safety valves do function slightly differently:

Whether you’re working with safety valves or relief valves, they’re going to need testing. Minimize downtime this year with AccuTEST’s high-tech pressure relief valve testing system. Offering real-time results and remote support, our testing systems can be used inline to test any types of pressure relief valve. For more information about our system, or for a free live webinar demo of the AccuTEST system in action, contact us today.

As you already know, there are a multitude of pressure relief valves out there. In the industry, we tend to use terms like safety valve and relief valve interchangeably. And for the most part, this makes sense. Most pressure relief valves are designed to do the same thing — release pressure in a system.

Now that we have a better understanding of the technical definitions of both terms, you might be wondering if it’s okay to use the terms interchangeably. In most cases, industry technicians will understand what you’re talking about no matter which term you’re using. However, they are different fittings that serve very different purposes, so you should use the correct term for each.

But is there a actually difference between some of these commonly used terms, and if so, what does it mean for you? Here’s a quick breakdown of two popular terms: safety valve vs. relief valve.