The earliest and simplest safety valve on the steam digester in 1679 used a weight to hold the pressure of the steam, (this design is still commonly used on pressure cookers); however, these were easily tampered with or accidentally released. On the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the safety valve tended to go off when the engine hit a bump in the track. A valve less sensitive to sudden accelerations used a spring to contain the steam pressure, but these (based on Salter spring balances) could still be screwed down to increase the pressure beyond design limits. This dangerous practice was sometimes used to marginally increase performance of a steam engine. In 1856 John Ramsbottom invented a tamper-proof spring safety valve which became universal on railways.

AVC Safety valves also evolved to protect equipment such as pressure vessels (fired or not) and heat exchangers. Safety valve term should be limited to compressible fluid application (gas, vapor, steam).

The two general types of protection encountered in industry are thermal protection and flow protection.

For liquid-packed vessels, thermal relief valves are generally characterized by the relatively small size of the safety valve necessary to provide protection from excess pressure caused by thermal expansion. In this case a small valve is adequate because most liquids are nearly incompressible, and so a relatively small amount of fluid discharged through the relief valve will produce a substantial reduction in pressure.

Flow protection is characterized by safety valves that are considerably larger than those mounted in thermal protection. They are generally sized for use in situations where significant quantities of gas or high volumes of liquid must be quickly discharged in order to protect the integrity of the vessel or pipeline. This protection can alternatively be achieved by installing a High Integrity Pressure Protection System (HIPPS).