Shutoff Pipe Blocked

[Zorenai]

Hi, maybe one of you can help me with an issue?
I have a steam turbine setup, and there I run a gas pump that's supposed to pump any escaped steam back into the steam chamber while pumping any other gas away.
I thought I'd save some power by using a shutoff instead of a filter, and now I am constantly running into trouble with the pipe being blocked.
Maybe I'm just blind and it's a really obvious issue, idk, I'm running shutoffs elsewhere in my base just fine. I'd be really thankful to anyone who can tell me where the issue is.
Screenshots attached, thank you! :)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1989321312
this is the gas pump that's giving me trouble

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1989321403
as you can see, I set up the pipe element sensor to filter steam, anything else should just pass afaik, but it does not :(

[Monoxide]

Based on the damaged pipes above, it looks like you probably have a break in the line. -OR- your automation for the sensor is not set up properly (not triggering on when it is supposed to).

[Zorenai]

Sorry, I should have mentioned: It worked perfectly fine with a filter, and if I dismantle the shutoff, the gas flows just fine. None of the damaged pipes is broken (but that's why I need it to work, can't have steam going into my cool gas cycle). The shutoff has power, is connected to automation... I am honestly clueless :(

[Monoxide]

Sounds like you have an issue with the automation then. How do you have it setup? Can you provide an automation overlay screenshot?

I assume you have SOMETHING wrong there if it works fine with a regular pump/filter.

I know I have used automation to filter before but has some funky issues; it works, but isnt always as simple as it seems.

[Bokonon]

Maybe I'm missing something here but isn't the point of a shutoff to stop flow? Filters don't stop flow so the steam is moving and not cooling enough to condense (and break your pipes) before exiting. The shutoff stops the flow, the steam just sits there, it cools and condenses and causes the breakage. Again, unless I'm missing something ...

[Monoxide]

I think Bokonon may be right - I had assumed the pipe would pass through the shutoff 'in port' if the shutoff is 'off' but I think it gets stuck there. I had a setup using automation on shutoffs, but that could be the "but isnt always as simple as it seems" I mentioned in my previous post. This was quite some time ago, and I am at work so I cant check/show my setup.

I had mine as a temperature regulator, so it wasnt super important for each packet to be perfect. If the room was below x degrees, open the valve to allow a hot liquid in to warm the room (balm lillies). At least that was the basics of what I did.

[Zorenai]

here is automation: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1989638908
as you can see, it is literally just the sensor basically^^
@Bokonon @Monoxide usually, stuff goes past the shutoff, unless it detects the one thing it is searching for - which would be steam in this case - then, it switches to the other pipe, forcing the selected material to go through there. I use this very successfully in another part of my base to sort my hydrolyzer output into oxygen and hydrogen. That's why I am so confused as to why it won't work - I've done it successfully before :(

[Monoxide]

So I go back to Bokonon being right, and elaborate on my statement (which could be totally wrong) that the vent cant go left 'through' an off shutoff pipe. So the way you have it built seems to be; if steam shutoff is open to bring steam back into room, else shutoff is closed and contents will continue through the vent. The issue being that the contents cannot go left past the shutoff as they sit there waiting to go through the shutoff pipe which is now "closed". Doesnt seem to be necessarily anything wrong with what you did conceptually, but the game doesnt work that way.

Again, I could be 100% wrong here.

[Zorenai]

...okay, the oxygen machine is probably a little complicated for a single screenshot, but to show you what I mean, I am using the very same method with my squeaky pufts. They are in a room with a chlorine geysir, but duplicants have to get in and out, so other gases inevitably come in. Here is a screen of the setup there: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1989644030

The gas pump pumps all gas past the element sensor. I have set it on polluted oxygen right now. As you can see, the shutoff that is connected to it forces all polluted oxygen into the other pipe, from where it is transported out of the room. All the while, other gases (for example my precious chlorine) flow past the shutoff. That's basically what I want to do with steam as the gas that is sorted out. I hope I could clear up the confusion, sorry if I was not saying it right the first time^^' and thanks for your patience

[Bokonon]

You're especially destined for failure if you're pumping a mix of gases. The sensors and shutoffs aren't instantaneous, it takes a game tick or two to trigger and shut, whatever gas tripped your sensor is past the shutoff by the time it closes. You can have steam in the pipe cooling with oxygen sitting on this sensor, the sensor will never notice this, you're actually probably lucky this worked at all. Go back to a filter if you really need filtering.

[Monoxide]

I was able to accomplish something LIKE this, but I did it with mini pumps at the bottom of my base, which probably wouldnt work for you based on temps.

Though I had a horizontal mini pump that was on automation to only run when the sensor (same vertical level of the pump) has a build up of non-O2. This made it so the pump would activate when there was a layer of CO2 (or anything else). Was it perfect? No, but it did what it was supposed to. With only 15 or so dupes, it kept the non-O2 out of my base well.

Only mentioning this as it seems in the same vein of your plan, and might trigger some ideas. That said, Bokonon is right again in that it will be easiest just to switch back to a filter. Your best option would probably be to get all the non-steam out of that room and lock it off so there are no contaminants to even worry about. My steam rooms are usually built around a fully filled water area, so there are no gasses to begin with.

[Bokonon]

Yeah, similar setups can work but I think it's the fact that OP is dealing with steam that's right around the condensation point that makes it unworkable (at least not easily workable) in this situation.

If you have steam in the chamber that houses your steam turbine, something is majorly wrong, this is the thing you need to fix, not how to pump it out. If you're trying to create a vacuum for your steam turbine, yeah that's just not going to work either, there needs to be something to help cool the turbine..

[ArieBier]

If the gas isn't flowing across the shutoff input, then you've probably confused the game as to what the direction of the pipe should be. If you put a input in the middle of a pipeline like that, the game can sometimes decide that this must mean that gas should flow towards that input from both sides. You can probably correct this issue by placing a gas bridge behind the input to force the direction of the flow.

[WillieSea]

The game has a lot of problem detecting which way to flow in pipes, and needs that bridge, especially when there are splits in the pipe. The bridge gives extra direction, I guess.

I don't know why, because the end of each pipe is a input or output, so it should be able to figure it out without the bridge.

[Zorenai]

it's working now :) something else not pictured was the issue (an extra pipe further away). But now, the steam is being filtered by the shutoff^^ no filter needed

[blackknight24]

you lost me on the first line... if steam is escaping at all... you did it wrong!