Re: Industrial Water Purifiers not generating Purified Water

[Jamers]

I know this has been a point of discussion before, but I'd like to know if there's been any clarification on the conditions as to why players are having their Industrial Water Purifiers not generate excess Purified Water for their settlement workbenches.

I have two IWPs in Sanctuary and two at the Castle, but directly hooked via wires to Medium Generators (5 power). I'm in the habit of always pulling ALL aid items from my workbench storage at stashing them in nearby containers, as I've heard that having any aid items at all can cause the IWPs not to produce due to a bug.

I have Local Leader rank 1 and all of my settlements are connected via supply routes. Sanctuary is producing 98 water for its 11-14 settlers (it fluctuates often and unhappiness is going down, I assume because the defense score can't keep up with water and food output), and 80-something producing for the 11 settlers at the Castle.

I know that purified water will go to other settlements in need via the supply routes before being deposited into the workbench, but all my settlements have enough water production to be self-sustaining; it's the first thing I take care of when setting them up.

I decided maybe Sanctuary was bugged so I thought I'd store the two IWPs and generators that are set up in Sanctuary and head over to place them at the Castle. PSA: this doesn't work. I guess each settlement's "structure storage" is independent, as when I got to the Castle I found that I'd have to build them from scratch all over again.

SO, down to it: Has anyone made any concrete progress on what causes this to happen? The most common solution suggested seems to be to empty the workbench storage of all Dirty Water and Purified Water, or ALL aid items, and I do the latter. Both settlements had produced water in the past (30-60), but the last several times I've checked, they're both dry.

Here's an article I found that states that just traveling around or waiting doesn't cut it, and that the game wants you to be progressing with quests and whatnot in order for water production to advance. (Ignore the title; I've no interest in infinite money, but was Googling the conditions of this bug:

http://webjunkiesblog.blogspot.com/2015/12/how-to-get-unlimited-moneyunlimited.html

Items 5 and 6 state:

"5. Now just spend some 30 minutes of in-game playtime with some storyline missions or side quests, before you can actually collect purified water and sell them off to local merchants in the game.

6. 6. You should note that fast travelling or waiting will not spawn purified water as Fallout 4 demands you to be engaged in some gameplay activities for the game to progress."

I haven't spent any time waiting, and wasn't fast traveling just to spawn water, but I realize that I have been kind of doddling with storage management and not progressing much quest-wise. Is there any validity to these claims? This is the only place I've read any such thing.

Thank you for reading this very long post, and any feedback is appreciated!

TL;DR Looking for anything definitive regarding the apparent bug of Industrial Water Purifiers not producing. I habitually take all AID items from my storage already. All settlements self-sufficient on water numbers-wise, and all are connected via supply routes. IWPs in Sanctuary and the Castle. Is this a bug, or does one have to be actively questing and progressing for IWPs to produce?

[Pharos]

Supply lines will actually take the water to spread it to their connected settlements. The puriffiers at my settlements not connected to supply routes have the water in the workbench.

[leftharted]

I recently have experienced the same issue; I cannot confim this, but I Think ive only had this issue since the latest patch. before that, ive had no issues with water being generated at multiple settlements.

Ive read // goggled the same things, empty the Aid section, and that too much Dity water causes this... but I haven't had time to truly confirm or deny this.

it does seem to be tied to questing etc; ive spent hours building settlements and no water generates... complete a side quest or two in 1/8th the time, and Bam; water spawns. No idea what exactly triggers it.

ive tried replacing the units, and the generators, AND the wires, to no avail. (both storing // replacing; AND scrapping // rebuilding) i can confirm this doesn't seem help; so the issues does seem to correlate with the workshops inventory and/or what 'triggers' the water to generate.

Maybe something in that recent patch is effecting the 'trigger' of when water is supposed to generate?

EDIT= to add; my current play-through I do NOT have local leader. I am at the Starlight Drive-In, and my 2 industrial purifiers suddenly stopped producing. I have tried replacing them, as well as scrapping // rebuilding them. Issue seems to be tied to something else. only about 7 settlers live there.

[Jamers]

Originally posted by Asurmen22:

Supply lines will actually take the water to spread it to their connected settlements. The puriffiers at my settlements not connected to supply routes have the water in the workbench.

Hey, thanks for the reply.

I'm aware that they'll supply other settlements, but don't they only supply them as per their need according to the population:water ratio?

For example, if the Red Rocket Station has 11 population and 3 water production, I'd assume the supply line would deliver 8 water to them and store the rest, no? If that's the case, all of my settlements are self-sufficient water-wise as far as the ratio goes.

Even if there are a few settlements with a few water missing that I haven't checked on in a while, 160 water producing between the four IWPs seems more than enough for quite a bit of excess to go to the workbench.

Or do you mean that the excess itself goes to other settlements' workbenches, in which case I'd have to hop around collecting from all of them?

[Pharos]

I'm not sure if the excess shows up in other workbenches, you'd have to check that for yourself but it's a definit possibility. It could also just be bugged/poorly designed so that caravans just take ALL extra water in a workbench when they go.

Also it should be noted that caravans will supply each-other in a sort of daisy-chain. So if all your settlements are connected, even just one place providing water will spread it to all of them even if not directly connected.

[Jamers]

Originally posted by leftharted:

Maybe something in that recent patch is effecting the 'trigger' of when water is supposed to generate?

Thanks! Yeah, maybe. I like that idea, actually, as this is obviously a potentially game-breaking
source of income otherwise, so some sort of limitation would be welcome in my book. I'd just like to get to the bottom of how it works so that I'm not tanking my favorite settlements' happiness and losing population with massive water numbers that aren't actually doing anything.

[Emrys]

In my previous game I similarly could not get water into my workshop inventories no matter what I did. I restarted a new game and now it works normally. Sorry, I never found a clue for this bug.

[Vardis]

I stored and placed the purifiers again, went all the way out and back in, and they started working again. The only other thing I recall doing in that time span was creating a supply line.

[Harmonica]

Supply lines ruin the purifier production, and I don't think it's at all smart enough to use local water first and only then take from supply lines. I would guess that all the water just goes into one centralised pool. Yeah, that seems like a crude oversimplification but I guess when you're on a development timetable even five minutes spent making the water generation slightly cooler is time you can't afford?

My current task is removing Starlight from the grid entirely just so I can get the proper amount of production.

I've semi-confirmed that storing and re connecting wires will actually get purifiers functioning again (you might have to turn them off, disconnect the wires, reconnect the wires, and then turn them on), as I had an empty workbench and doing this made water appear. However, after x minutes the water disappeared because it was being consumed somehow.

I have around 100 production at Starlight and water pumps in every connected settlement but Starlight won't ever store water. I don't think the water gets stored anywhere when it's moved around, but honestly there's no easy way to test that. Or maybe it gets sold at bars/markets. Who knows.

[mrrogers]

How does the amount of water you get match up to the amount you produce? Does each industrial purifier you build then add that much water or is there some drop off?

[Harmonica]

Fixed my industrial purifiers instantly by removing the supply line hook-up to the rest of the grid. I had to wait around at the settlement in order to hook up with my provisioner. Bam, sent her to Sunshine Tidings (not a euphamism for killing her). Getting 50 water in the workshop after only a few seconds. Yeah I'm sure the rest of my colonies are gasping for clean water now but hey, INDUSTRY.

[leftharted]

Originally posted by Harmonica:

Fixed my industrial purifiers instantly by removing the supply line hook-up to the rest of the grid. I had to wait around at the settlement in order to hook up with my provisioner. Bam, sent her to Sunshine Tidings (not a euphamism for killing her). Getting 50 water in the workshop after only a few seconds. Yeah I'm sure the rest of my colonies are gasping for clean water now but hey, INDUSTRY.

hmm, glad to know that altering the supply line fixes it; but doesn't cause it.

I currently have the zero water problem on a play-through Without local leader; so no supply lines. my starlight drive-in decided to stop working =/

[bigbenisdaman]

Intresting. I generally recieve about 300 purified water at Sanctuary. All I do is travel outside the town, wait for 2 days, then fast travel back and they're there. Though I do have the stream lined with the water purifiers, its by no means full of them.

Edit: I do have supply lines to all other settlements from primarily Sanct. and have not noticed any other settlements getting an abundance of water (other than another settlement I've done the same thing in, just not quite to the same scale).

[dusty dan]

I found that it only produces purified water when i'm actually playing (not fast travelling, waiting, sleeping). I just stand next to my workbench for a few minutes and there's about 90 water in there

[Lannis]

The same worked for me. Just move some things around from your workshop and get rid of the dirty water if has any, walk around and check again minutes later :)

[LILI]

As this thread is still heavily consulted as it comes 1st when using basic keywords (DuckDuckGo : fallout 4 no purified water workshop), AND the problem still exists, it is not a necro but an update for an on-going issue, a good engineering practice ... :)

Latest version as of 11/2020, and the water stops being accumulated in my main Far Harbor/ workshop, even with all other settlements very well equipped with their own production.

In my case, confirming what Lannis said, it was the 16 Dirty Water, in my Far Harbor settlement, producing theoretically 450 water, but doing zero, and for several in-game weeks.
But it is the 1st time it happens in my 733h of survival game without anything added since 1st hour (no mods, no creative stuff, vanilla, as I go for the 100% achievements): it can be triggered any times then !!
As soon as I removed and sold the 16 Dirty Water stored in the workshop, waiting a bit by working on my 50m tall lighthouse, water came back. And without having to stop the supply line with my centralizing settlement (Sanctuary, +700 water supply).