No Water for Coal Generators? Why?

[QMasterJ]

Have things changed since experimental update? I've built 8 Coal Generators with 3 water extractors. Actually I ended up adding 3 more and they still will only fill up 5 Coal Generators. Does anyone know why?

[Deadly Peanut]

i've just recently built the same coal plant: 8 coal gens and 3 water extractors. works fine, no problems.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2517100025

(i was careful to have everything at the same level so i didn't need to use pumps for the water. also the platform is over built so i can add another duplicate coal plant in the future)

[[TATO] PlainKay]

You have to kind of "debug" your water system. Too many pumps is no good, too few is no good. I usually trace the volume and flow from the source (pump) and make sure all the numbers make sense and don't fluctuate.

Many times a "flush all" is good to reset the system, especially if you haven't done it since you "finished" your pipe layout.

If you have a picture or pictures of it I can maybe help out summore.

[Drunken Peasant]

maybe elevation change? structures can only go 20m vertically without pumps *from my experience with oil production its not much higher then your character*

[Suzaku]

Another common mistake is forgetting that MK1 pipes can only handle 300 water/min, so if you try to shove all your water through a single pipe, it gets bottlenecked and causes a water shortage.

[Deadly Peanut]

Originally posted by Suzaku:

Another common mistake is forgetting that MK1 pipes can only handle 300 water/min, so if you try to shove all your water through a single pipe, it gets bottlenecked and causes a water shortage.

this is accurate... it's not easy to see in the SS above, but i put in a circular pipe system that presumably splits the water from the 3 water sucker thingies and feeds it to the nearest coal gens sequentially.

[QMasterJ]

So how do you prevent bottlenecking? Do you just connect one water extractor with two coal generators?

[Suzaku]

You either connect fewer extractors than the pipes can handle (for example, a single MK1 pipe can handle 6 coal generators, or 2.5 extractors), or you set up your pipes and extractors in a way that some of the water can be used up before being supplemented with more water.

Originally posted by Deadly Peanut:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2517100025

As you can see in this screenshot, he has the extractors connected in a large loop. This way, the 360 water/min that the extractors are pumping out goes in multiple directions (basically 180 water/min to the left, and another 180 water/min to the right). By setting it up in such a way, the pipes aren't a bottleneck, and the generators aren't starved for resources. There are other ways to set it up, but this shows the main idea of how to avoid a bottleneck.

I tend to use a single long pipe in front of the generators, and have extractors connect at several points along the pipe. As some of the water is used up, another extractor supplements it, but never so often that it goes above the 300 water/min that the pipe can handle.

[GI Ged]

one MK1 pipe (~300m³) can only support 6 coal generators (45x6 270m³) and headlift with only the extractors is 10m. if you dont have a valve yet, pump your water up to storage tanks and downhill to your coal generators.

[Lil Puppy]

Fluids depend on several factors:
1. height above extractor/pump. Extractors have a 10m headlift (can lift liquids 10m 2 large foundations and 1 medium), while mark I pumps have 20m and mark II pumps have 50m.
2. How you pipe things matters.
Example: the 8:3 standard setup for coal generators.
1 water extractor goes in from the left, 1 goes in from the right, and the other enters from the center of the main distribution pipe going to the generators. This way 120 goes in from the left, 120 from the right, and 120 gets split 50/50 from the center so each side (4 generators each side) gets 180 water, thus one single mark I pipe can handle 360 water per minute when its single direction flow rate is only 300m/s.
Somehow this always baffles people that only go on the math.

But, the fluid system has glitches so you may have to rebuild certain sections that keep bugging out on the pipeline. If you notice a section of pipe that has plenty of water in it and the next section doesn't, one of those places has a glitch or is too high for the water to flow, or simply hasn't filled up yet. It's up to you to diagnose where the issue is and correct it.

I had to rebuild a section of oil pipeline that climbed up a cliff 60m 3 times before it worked because of a glitch/bug. I built it identically each time but the first 2 times failed when the pipelines next to it worked flawlessly the first time.

https://satisfactory.fandom.com/wiki/Head_lift

[QMasterJ]

Thank you all for the help. I appreciate the detailed explanations in your responses. I feel more confident that I can get this corrected now.

[Maehlice]

Originally posted by Quentin:

Thank you all for the help. I appreciate the detailed explanations in your responses. I feel more confident that I can get this corrected now.

As a stalker and a scholar, let us know if you find out exactly what the fix is. You're not the only one having these issues, and it's sometimes inexplicable.

[QMasterJ]

So, I went back to one coal area and set up a single large fluid buffer up on a ledge slightly above the generators. Before I set up it's output to be connected to the three coal generators that didn't have water going to them, I went to one of them and noticed that the water had filled them up (only because I had turned the power off). Interestingly enough, after I turned the power on to the three dead coal generators, I noticed that It didn't start sapping the water out like before. So perhaps after I had logged out last night and logged back in this morning it cleaned out the bug? In any case I still attached the output of the fluid buffer to the end of the last coal generator that was originally not working. I kept an eye of them for several minutes and the water stayed at full capacity in each generator, so hopefully that means everything is good.

[Deadly Peanut]

well done... happy it's working for you

[Zaliff]

I know this thread is old but I found a solution for 8 coal generators and 3 water pumps. overclock the first 2 water pumps to output 300m^3 of water combined then after 4 or 5 generators splice in the third pump. (you might need to add a pipeline pump before the 3rd pump splices in and after the 4th or 5th spilt for the generators to act as a one way valve.) I hope this helps someone.

[Suzaku]

Originally posted by Alp1ne:

I know this thread is old but I found a solution for 8 coal generators and 3 water pumps. overclock the first 2 water pumps to output 300m^3 of water combined then after 4 or 5 generators splice in the third pump. (you might need to add a pipeline pump before the 3rd pump splices in and after the 4th or 5th spilt for the generators to act as a one way valve.) I hope this helps someone.

No need to overclock. If you're using 3 extractors, then you have enough water. If you overclock, you're just oversupplying water at a higher energy cost for no reason.