Meter-in, meter-out and bleed-off circuits are widely utilized in order to adjust the speed of a hydraulic actuator by using a flow control valve and in order to regulate the pressure of a hydraulic volume by using a simple on-off valve. In these circuits, a relief valve serves either to maintain constant system pressure or to protect the system from over-pressure loading. The relief valve of a bleed-off circuit is the second case frequently undergoing on-off action during operation. It makes the analysis of the pressure control characteristics of the circuit highly difficult. In this paper, steady-state flow rate, pressure, heat loss and efficiency of the three circuits are reexamined and basic experiments far obtaining the characteristics of a pump and relief valve are conducted. Finally, simple empirical first-order dynamic models of decreasing and increasing pressure were separately proposed and verified by comparison with experiment. As the result, the basis for the theoretical analysis of the pressure control characteristics of a bleed-off circuit using a simple on-off valve is established.