Adjusting pressure relief valve on well water

Question

I have well water with a manifold inside the house that has a faucet, pressure tank, temperature sensor (for pump) and pressure relief valve. My current pump pressure is set to 60 which effectively goes from about 53 to 67.

I would like to bump up the pressure another 10 psi to improve reverse osmosis system pressure on the 2nd floor as well as the general improvement on the 3rd floor. I get about 10 psi drop every floor now. The pressure relief valve says it's set to 100 psi (at least from manufacturer), but it starts leaking around 70 psi.

First of all, is it advisable to go up another 10 psi? I assume the likelihood of leaks goes up and maybe the pump life is decreased. I'll probably also need to increase the pressure in the expansion tank. ~63-77 psi on the first floor (and lower on the above floors) doesn't seem to be extremely high to me, but I'm no expert.

Second, is there a tool to adjust the valve? It has two notches with a hole in the middle. A 5/8" or 11/16" slotted bit should fit, but those are hard to find and something like $20 online. How is this usually adjusted on the field?

Answer 1

Most (or the ones I've met) well system pressure reliefs are non-adjustable. So if it leaks 30 PSI below rated pressure, I'd replace it (for less cost than your proposed tool purchase, as far as I recall.) Odds are that parts to rebuild yours will be more than simply buying a new one.

Toilet valves get wonky (or may) above 80 PSI or so, and any increase in well system pressure will reduce the effective capacity of the pressure tank (and should also be accompanied by adjusting the pressure in the pressure tank to a few PSI below the new low setpoint.) If your pump does not run at least a minute to refill the pressure tank (with nothing else drawing water) you should increase the size of the tank or add an additional tank.