The explosive result of blocking the TP Valve
Have you ever seen water flowing from the discharge pipe coming from your geyser? Well, this discharge pipe is connected to a very important valve on your geyser, called a safety valve, TP valve or temperature-pressure valve as it’s normally called.
What is the function of this valve?
It’s twofold, firstly to protect your geyser from overheating and secondly to protect your geyser from over pressurizing.
- Overheating occurs when your thermostat gets stuck in the on position, and the element keeps on boiling it can’t switch off. Steam is then generated in turn. Now, remember this all happens in a concealed cylinder inside the geyser. It builds up to the point that the cylinder will explode. The safety valve is installed as a safety function on the geyser, it senses the overheating opens up and discharges this boiling water out into the discharge pipe, in turn, cold water will enter the cylinder cooling it down saving your geyser.
- The second function of this valve is over pressurizing. This normally occurs when your pressure reducing valve malfunctions, causing the full amount of the municipal pressure to enter into the cylinder, the cylinder is not built for this high pressure and the safety valve censored this, will open up and it will relieve this excessive pressure out into the discharge pipe.
This valve is installed to protect your geyser, to protect your home and ultimately to protect your life.
Why is this important?
We’ve seen people kept the discharge pipe to prevent it from making a mess right in front of the back door, or driveway we’ve seen people relocate this pipe to a more convenient place to go and make the mess. Whenever you see water coming out of the discharge pipe, give us a call, there might be an underlying problem to your geyser that could be life-threatening.