Idling Refineries

[Bakerman]

You guys said I’d be back when I had had trouble with aluminum and you were right. I put together a rough but functional factory to churn out batteries. It was so fast I thought I was home free, but by about 1,000 batteries my refineries started to idle. They’re getting their inputs, and they’re switched on. They’re also not clogged up. The idling is a mystery to me. Any idea what’s up? Thanks!

[info]

Idling has to be either output full or inputs starving. If its not one of those two then something is bugged.

[tdb]

Can you show a screenshot of the inferface of an idling refinery?

[Bakerman]

Turned out the water needed a place to go. Can i just say how much I love this game despite how bad I am at it? Amazing!

[Jack-o-Lantern]

Originally posted by Bakerman:

Turned out the water needed a place to go. Can i just say how much I love this game despite how bad I am at it? Amazing!

so, you are at alluminum ehehehe :)

[info]

If you cant tune it just right with liquids then its best to package and sink overflow IMHO

[Mogges]

If you have the recipe for wet concrete, use it. It´s the best way to get rid of water. Limestone can be found almost everywhere and concrete is one of the most important items.

[Warlord]

The easiest way I found to deal with the excess water in Aluminium processing (and others) is to route them back to some refineries that get zero water from water extractors. These refineries have an entirely separate alumina solution track from the rest. This way, once the extractor-fed refineries clog up with water, they stop producing. The Bauxite ore they were hogging goes on to the no-extractor refineries, who now have plenty of water and bauxite, and produce alumina.

Eventually, consuming more water than they produce, they start to run idle and shut down. The first refineries, who were water clogged in their output, no longer are, and start up again. A few back and forth cycles like this and the refineries reach a kind of equilibrium, where most of the extractor-fed machines and most of the no-extractor machines are all running constantly. If I wished to do the maths, I could figure out the ideal ratio of machines on both sides of this (and restrict water production via valves to the extractor-fed machines), but this is simpler and nearly as efficient.

Oh, and I also use alternate recipes that allow me to produce aluminium ingots without touching silica. Mostly I do this because my favorite Bauxite deposit is way too far from any quartz. Just one nearby oil extractor for coke and this mine is self-sufficient.

[GI Ged]

Aluminium water setting can trouble, i made some screenshots that explaines it
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197986391995/screenshot/2062140295800708707/
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197986391995/screenshot/2062140295800715521/
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197986391995/screenshot/2062140295800724811/

[info]

Originally posted by Warlord:

The easiest way I found to deal with the excess water in Aluminium processing (and others) is to route them back to some refineries that get zero water from water extractors.

In one setup I have 3 Refineries producing 120 Water each feeding an overclocked Refinery that wants 360 and is not connected to the Extractor fed line.

The rest get their water from Extractors at full pace and nothing ever backs up.