Running pipes to Hydroponic Farm tiles

[Grimjack Hex]

On more than one occasion watching a broadcast I've seen people running pipes underneath the tiles and then a single pipe going up to the tile. Why are they doing this instead of running a single pipe through all the tiles?

[SKull]

Because the flow eventually stops when it has to go through the tiles. It's a building with a supply point but no exit point, so it's designed to keep the water it gets and not let it leave. You can try it yourself and see. Three or four tiles will get water, the rest will not.

[Bunker]

i always run pipe directly through all the tiles.
never encounter and water issue.

maybe that was an old bug.

[mikek]

i've seen both happen.

but what i do know is: running a single pipe through all will make it so the first plant gets first and if there is not enough the others wont get any

[SKull]

Might be an old bug. But I had the water stop in the pipes followed by flooding many times when I ran the pipe right through early on, so I just stopped doing it. The other way works just as well, and I've never had any issues with that. I'd rather know for sure that something is going to work.

[Not a Bard]

It's not a bug, it's the way pipes work. Fluid (or gas or shipping line crates) will always try to go through an "exit" first. If the exit is full then it will pass and go to the next pipe segment. For example a hydro farm that can't take more liquid, or a bridge that leads to a full pipe, will be passed.

If your throughput to the hydro tiles is much more than the plants need, then the pipe will fill and all plants will get water. But say you only have enough water to fill one hydro tile - then if the plants are linked in series, the first tile will always take all the water. If you link them with the "one tile running up" design, the water will alternate which plant it ends at.

Also, you might want to know that stuff running through pipes always alternates which path it takes when reaching a fork. (It goes left once, then right once, then left once etc.) So, say you have one long pipe with branches to each hydro. The first fork will get half the water, because the fluid always alternates going down that pipe before moving on to the next fork.

Anyway, if you're pumping enough water, one long pipe works fine.

[Grimjack Hex]

Right now I have two hydroponic tiles feeding germy polluted water to Thimble Reeds. It's the in sequence pipe way and not the individual feed way. It's working fine. The water isnt going anywhere other than the two tiles. If I add more we will see what happens.

[lPaladinl]

Originally posted by SKull:

Because the flow eventually stops when it has to go through the tiles. It's a building with a supply point but no exit point, so it's designed to keep the water it gets and not let it leave. You can try it yourself and see. Three or four tiles will get water, the rest will not.

This hasn't mattered when I did it. Water will flow through each tile in a row. I was watering 15 tiles in 5 rows of 3 with 1 tile gaps between for airflow vents and decor

All I've noticed is that, regardless of which way you do it, sometimes the water pauses a moment to check each tile if it's ready to accept water or not. But neither method seems to solve that, it's just how the game works.

[Moradyne]

Originally posted by gamerTagGoesHere:

It's not a bug, it's the way pipes work. Fluid (or gas or shipping line crates) will always try to go through an "exit" first. If the exit is full then it will pass and go to the next pipe segment. For example a hydro farm that can't take more liquid, or a bridge that leads to a full pipe, will be passed.

If your throughput to the hydro tiles is much more than the plants need, then the pipe will fill and all plants will get water. But say you only have enough water to fill one hydro tile - then if the plants are linked in series, the first tile will always take all the water. If you link them with the "one tile running up" design, the water will alternate which plant it ends at.

Also, you might want to know that stuff running through pipes always alternates which path it takes when reaching a fork. (It goes left once, then right once, then left once etc.) So, say you have one long pipe with branches to each hydro. The first fork will get half the water, because the fluid always alternates going down that pipe before moving on to the next fork.

Anyway, if you're pumping enough water, one long pipe works fine.

I Agree. It works for me. These plumbing and venting mechanics is frustrating.