Pressure relief valve routing

[Copymutt]

Greetings. I follow this forum daily, finally have a question.
I’d like to bring my submersible well supply plumbing up to date.
System sets below grade in a 6x6x5 concrete well house. Well insulated and been near service free for 40 yrs. One pump replacement, one control box replacement and one rusted nipple replaced.
Presently has no check valve, gauge or over pressure relief. The item I’m unsure of is how and where to route/dump the relief pipe.
Being in a below grade structure my thought was to modify the casing cap to accept a fitting. Presently one bolt in the cap is removed and a drain back for the attached freeze proof stand up is stuck in there. Any other ideas or is there a modified cap made for this feature?
Thanks in advance.

 

[RS]

That's not a good idea to drain anything into a well, probably against local code. What prevents the well house from filling up with water when you have a hurricane? My parents had a similar set-up, and it had a natural drain to a lower area. If you can't do that you could drain everything into a sump and have a pump.

 

[Twowaxhack]

That's not a good idea to drain anything into a well, probably against local code. What prevents the well house from filling up with water when you have a hurricane? My parents had a similar set-up, and it had a natural drain to a lower area. If you can't do that you could drain everything into a sump and have a pump.

I don’t think they have hurricanes in Colorado.

 

[RS]

I don’t think they have hurricanes in Colorado.

For some reason I thought he was in FL! In CO there should be someplace to drain it to!

 

[Copymutt]

No issues at this location with hurricanes or possible flooding. Additionally the well house has a six inch concrete berm above grade.I dont see how its possible to connect a relief valve 4’ underground to a sump. The only thing that would be going into the well is the water that came out of the well. All hose bibs have anti syphon fittings. I have a friend that was very ill for two years before the medical field finally suggested his water source as the cause. His well was collecting livestock fecal material via an open casing cap. If I route the blow off (relief) above grade and terminate above grade it would be a visual indicator of an event, but seems wrong. Terminating into a sump hides the event.

 

[RS]

I have never seen a relief valve on a well water system, only on water heaters. Is your water heater in the well house? If there's a little condensation or leakage in this well house where does the water go?

 

[Valveman]

All water well pumps should have a pressure relief valve. With a 40/60 switch it should be set no higher than 75 PSI. The 150 PSI ones for like a water heater will not work. The pressure relief in a well system is not so much to keep high pressure off the lines as it is to keep cooing flow going through the pump in the event the pressure switch malfunctions and fails to shut the pump off. The pressure relief itself can be down where it won't freeze, but needs to be piped to above the surface and to a place you can see when it discharges. Water coming out of the pressure relief is your alarm that there is a high pressure condition. If you plumb the relief valve to a drain or the well you never know you have a problem until it is too late. Plus as was said, dumping water down a well is not good.

If you want to update everything you should consider extending the casing above grade and installing a pitless adapter. Pitless or not you should also consider the PK1A control kit as it will deliver strong constant pressure to the showers and uses only a 4.5 gallon size tank.

 

[Copymutt]

Thanks valveman, I’ll stub the relief above ground directed towards a slope.