airlocks: which is best?

[Archmage Mucinex of the Shadows]

i need to be moving into the caustic biome and slime biome relatively soon, but i dont know which airlock is the best choice, i was thinking a waterlock would be good for the slime biome as duplicants wont have to wait for gasses to be pumped up through the airlock, thus resulting in less germs on the duplicant, and a gas pump airlock using atmo sensors for the caustic biome, any suggestions or recommendations on my current idea?

[Major Ducks]

well i use 3 mechanized doors in a row because they open without power much faster than manual ones

[Archmage Mucinex of the Shadows]

sorry, i don't think i was specific enough, i didn't mean airlock doors, i meant an airlock system meant to keep gasses outside of the colony, but i've seen a similar system involving 2 horizontal mechanized airlocks and 2 vertical airlocks, but im afraid it might not be as efficient as a waterlock

[L37]

Waterlock definitely. The only one that pretty much guarantees 100% ideal separation and does not require any power.
Proper one with pumps kind of works, but it is slow, requires power and has reliability issues.
It is also possible to use CO2 instead of water if you make deep enough hole for the dupes to go through...

[St_Minorto]

transit tube system ?

[AquaX]

Waterlock is king. It prevents any gases from mixing and restrict heat transfer to 1 tile. The downside is the soggy wet debuff but once you achieve exosuits, that can be ignored. Or you can spam paintings to keep it at manageable lvls.

The 4 door lock has potential to fail and allow some gases to mix.

[Eloi Monk]

It should be noted that water locks will add the sopping wet debuff. The 4-door lock mentioned is very efficient and does not add a debuff, but is considered kind of "exploity", as it deletes gas. Having said that, I use the water locks exclusively.

Originally posted by AquaX:

The downside is the soggy wet debuff but once you achieve exosuits, that can be ignored.

Showers will also remove the soggy wet debuff.

[Hoki]

every airlock system comes with their own pros and cons

the 3 door system ducks mentioned is the simplest and doesnt need much space but is very likly to have some gases pass through every once a while.

the 4door setup you mentioned yourself is an upgraded version of the 3door one being made of 4 doors and having the inner 2 flipped horizontal. that kinda airlock is suited are best for spots leading outside your base as those destroy gases that are within the outer doors.

liquid-airlocks air another solution for preventing unwanted airflow. for those you have your dupes bypass a wall separating the corridor for 2 kinds of gases and have them climb down to bypass. the bottom is either filled with water completly or just one step to just prevent airflow.
Con of these airlocks are that they provide stress-debuffs to every dupe passing through (as they get wet).
except for the debuff its the best option for areas that require controlled air levels like desinfecting storages.

a more risky alternative for the liquid airlock are those using certain gases instead. build the same way as liquid airlocks if youre using CO2 to seal off or flipped upside down for hydrogen.

at last there are logic based airlocks. L37 summed it up pretty much. those rely on logic and are expensive, slow and can malfunction. those logic airlocks are either pumpbased or use the idea of one of the previous mentioned ones.

[Jojojay]

Originally posted by AquaX:

Waterlock is king. It prevents any gases from mixing and restrict heat transfer to 1 tile. The downside is the soggy wet debuff but once you achieve exosuits, that can be ignored. Or you can spam paintings to keep it at manageable lvls.

The 4 door lock has potential to fail and allow some gases to mix.

can confirm. tried non-water airlock. was trash.

[Hedning]

This: https://imgur.com/homsH1e

[John Hadley]

I use water lock with an atmo suit checkpoint before it. There's no wet debuff when you are wearing a suit and if I'm worried about what is in the air in another area I'm not going to want to breathe it anyway.

[Operator]

This will be when it get updated to LU
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1735550356&searchtext=airlock

[rav]

ive had waterlocks break because of too much pressure, and it wasnt even that high and then you not only have to deal with the gases mixing but also with water leaking everywhere.

[John Hadley]

Originally posted by Hedning:

This: https://imgur.com/homsH1e

If you make your water lock with polluted water be aware that polluted water slowly emits polluted oxygen and will eventually evaporate into nothing and you'll no longer have a water lock. Putting clean water on top of polluted water will prevent it from letting off gases.

I think water slowly gets consumed every time someone gets the wet debuff as well. Either make sure you have a sufficiently large amount of water that it won't get consumed any time soon or only travel through the water lock while wearing an atmo suit which doesn't get wet.

One thing that would indicate against using a water lock is extreme heat. If the temperature will ever go over 100 C then your water will turn to steam letting all the gases through.

[Ozone]

I make a sas with two electric doors and pressurize it with oxygen. That way, when the door opens, it pushes the gases away. This has never failed me.

Water locks are too slow, and the debuff doesn't worth it.

[Hedning]

Originally posted by John Hadley:

Originally posted by Hedning:

This: https://imgur.com/homsH1e

If you make your water lock with polluted water be aware that polluted water slowly emits polluted oxygen and will eventually evaporate into nothing and you'll no longer have a water lock. Putting clean water on top of polluted water will prevent it from letting off gases.

I think water slowly gets consumed every time someone gets the wet debuff as well. Either make sure you have a sufficiently large amount of water that it won't get consumed any time soon or only travel through the water lock while wearing an atmo suit which doesn't get wet.

One thing that would indicate against using a water lock is extreme heat. If the temperature will ever go over 100 C then your water will turn to steam letting all the gases through.

It's petroleum. The carbon dioxide side is recycling exhaust from the rocket and is about 150° so yes, pwater would have turned into steam. That's also why this vacuum lock is so good. If the liquid is connected then heat transfers through it.

I have not noticed liquid disappearing by dupes walking through it and using small drops means your non-exosuit dupes only get soggy feat instead of slopping wet.