How to make a pump work at max rate (12000/s) ?

[Regicide]

Hello,

I need a little help with my Main-Bus Fluid system.

I'm running low on water and I don't get it fixed. I have 3 Off-Shore Pumps, pumping water into a tank, with one Pump on the other side of the tank, pumping the water into my Main Bus.

But for reason I don't really understand, there is always only one Off-Shore Pump working on max (or all three, but sharing the amount of 1200/s)

The pump itself can deliver 12.000/s, so what's wrong, why don't do all three off-shore pumps work at max to feed the tank and the pump directly on the tank?

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2434656006

[Fel]

That's because of how pipes work for throughput.
Specifically the amount of pipes used between pumps.
https://wiki.factorio.com/Fluid_system#Pipelines
1135 per second should mean that you used something like 25 pipes.

You could make 3 pipelines to bring nearly all of the water from the offshore pumps, use pumps nearly back-to-back (not a great solution of course), use trains to transport the water or rethink your factory's layout to not have long distances between water sources and things that need a lot of it.

[knighttemplar1960]

Another thing you can do is determine an adequate water flow from the chart Fel posted and then place a pump after that number of entities to keep the flow rate at that level. Then instead of using a tank and 1 pump just send all 3 pipelines to the place where it is needed.

The train solution is superior to that scenario however as even pipe to grounds are messy and they suffer collisions unlike belts and splitters.

[impetus_maximus]

i believe when pumps were updated at one point, the devs mistakenly made them pump 10x the amount intended. they didn't bother fixing it because in most cases the pipes etc would limit them anyway.

even with an infinity pipe providing water directly to a pump feeding another infinity pipe to remove the water, it never goes above 6000/s. i managed to top one out briefly by going 3x infinity pipes>storage tank>pump>storage tank>3x infinity pipes, but it drops down and stabilizes to 8985/s

give player 5 infinity pipes

/c game.player.insert{name="infinity-pipe", count=5}

example blueprint

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

*pro tip if you want the fastest transfer of fluids with trains, use wagon>pump>storage tank. having any pipes between the pumps and the storage tanks will slow the transfer.

[Jupiter3927]

You could bring water in via train...
Drop off water where it's needed and you probably won't get anywhere near the pump's maximum throughput.
If you somehow do manage to get a section of your factory demanding 12k water every second, you may have to rethink your design and add another train station to bring in water.

[Regicide]

Okay, so main problem is too many pipes by far too less pumps, and to make it really work: screw pipes, hail trains.

Never thought of deliver water with trains, but since it works flawless with Oil and Sulfur Acid, why not water?

Thank you @all, I will try to establish some train based water supply to my Main-Bus now =)

[impetus_maximus]

you are most welcome. thanks for the bro fist.

[Anau Naga]

I know this is an old post, but I thought my response would be useful for anyone looking for an answer:
It seems pipes bottleneck pumps because an individual pipe can't hold enough water, and the speed at which pumps work are dependent on the amount of water in the container before it, and the amount of empty space in the container in front of it.

That being said, pipes hold too little water for the pumps to work at max speed, but fluid containers can get around this issue.

Here's a screenshot of the setup:
left of the selected pump is producing water and right side is consuming water
Factorio Maxed out pump
This also explains why having a pump move liquids directly from a fluid wagon to a storage container is so fast compared to regular pipe transfer speeds

[Hurkyl]

And, for what it's worth, the 2.0 update coming out this month will completely change the fluid mechanics, so the issue of this post will no longer be relevant (unless you decide to continue playing in a 1.1.x version or earlier).

[Chindraba]

Use boilers instead of storage tanks. Save 41 iron ore, at the cost of 5 stone, for each step in the chain. It will also keep the pumps in a straight line rather than staggered, and if it matters, save a tile of width without the risk of one line 'connecting' to another.

Of course, if you don't lock your game to 1.1.x this won't matter in 13 days.