Why use a splitter instead of an inserter?

[Jesse]

This is mainly a question about balance - I’m not sure I understand why, in how the game mechanics work, it’s important to use splitters at all to balance materials. Instead of splitting off a line of coal in two directions why wouldn’t I just use a couple fast inserter to grab it and put it on a new line?

[Jeck]

Splitters work faster than even the fast inserter, but they're also useful for compacting lines or splitting belts that carry two different items. Plus they don't use electricity/fuel (not that it matters).

[Jesse]

Originally posted by Jeck:

Splitters work faster than even the fast inserter, but they're also useful for compacting lines or splitting belts that carry two different items. Plus they don't use electricity/fuel (not that it matters).

Do splitters automatically sort two different types of resources? Or do you just mean if there’s two different ones each on one side of a belt already divided?

[GordoBoy]

Splitter are for balancing, Inserters are for insertion, you need to learn how to use the splitters to make a good setup, if a belt does not have enough resources, take it from another belt!

[GordoBoy]

Originally posted by Food and such:

Originally posted by Jeck:

Splitters work faster than even the fast inserter, but they're also useful for compacting lines or splitting belts that carry two different items. Plus they don't use electricity/fuel (not that it matters).

Do splitters automatically sort two different types of resources? Or do you just mean if there’s two different ones each on one side of a belt already divided?

Splitters reproduce nelts, if you put one in front of the belt with iron on top and copper in the bottom, the other connected belt will have the same output.

[GordoBoy]

Originally posted by LeIntrepid:

Originally posted by Food and such:

Do splitters automatically sort two different types of resources? Or do you just mean if there’s two different ones each on one side of a belt already divided?

Splitters reproduce nelts, if you put one in front of the belt with iron on top and copper in the bottom, the other connected belt will have the same output.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1411669778 like this

[Jeck]

Originally posted by Food and such:

Originally posted by Jeck:

Splitters work faster than even the fast inserter, but they're also useful for compacting lines or splitting belts that carry two different items. Plus they don't use electricity/fuel (not that it matters).

Do splitters automatically sort two different types of resources? Or do you just mean if there’s two different ones each on one side of a belt already divided?

See the picture above. It doesn't auto sort based on item, but it does auto sort based on what side of the original belt it was on. So items on the left side of the belt, will split to the left side of BOTH the new belts. So if you have coal and iron ore on one belt for example, each on their own side, splitting them will create two identical lines.

[robert225]

Originally posted by Jeck:

Originally posted by Food and such:

Do splitters automatically sort two different types of resources? Or do you just mean if there’s two different ones each on one side of a belt already divided?

See the picture above. It doesn't auto sort based on item, but it does auto sort based on what side of the original belt it was on. So items on the left side of the belt, will split to the left side of BOTH the new belts. So if you have coal and iron ore on one belt for example, each on their own side, splitting them will create two identical lines.

It is worth mentioning that the splitter also has functionality (Click on it to get to its UI) to filter either output to a single item, and to prioritise both input and output lanes. In the above picture, you could split the Plates and Gears onto separate belts, if that was what you needed.

(Example use of prioritising - You are running out of your original coal mine into your power station, and set up a new mine, merging the belts with a splitter. You can tell the splitter to use the old mine input as a priority, so it gets used up first.)

Splitters are a very versatile tool, since 0.16.

[BitterSwede]

Red belts can spit out 26.67 items per second. A fast inserter can move 2 items per second. To get balance without items building up, you'd need 14 fast inserters, where one will be inactive half the time (leaving one of the two output belts with one item per second less). On top of that, they require a collective 644kw of power to operate, or 7kw if idle. That would be 15 and a third solar panel dedicated to every single red belt balancer you wish to create.

A splitter can split as fast as the incoming belt of the same color and require no power to operate.

So splitters require no power source and takes 1/14 (7%) the space. That's the main reasons people use splitters instead of inserters for balancing.

Even if you're fine with that, consider you wish to balance a main bus, which is typically grouped 4 belts at a time. That would be 56 fast inserters, 115 extra pieces of belt, take up at least 170 squares of space and drain 2.576MW of power, equivalent to over 60 solar panels. It would not give perfect balance either, and leave some gaps.
Or you could do a 4x4 splitter balancer with 6 splitters, 14 belts and 4 underground belts over an area of 32 squares, with no power requirement. This would balance perfectly and leave no gaps.