I hate Liquids - Wtf is wrong here?

[FireDogy]

I'm trying to setup water to my nuclear plant. https://imgur.com/a/0TQQ5o9
The plant comes 600 water/min. My 2x overclocked water extractors produce 300 each, fed into a pipe series mk2 that has a 600 capacity.

However I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how the almighty heck I can reliably transport the water uphill to my nuclear plant. I have tried with THREE pumps mk2 (50 m headlift) and it does ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

The pipes until the first Pump are always full, the pipes between 1 & 2 pump, and 2 & 3 pump are constantly halfway full w/ 5 - 20 flowrate.
Then the water between the 3 pipe and nuclear plant is literally ZERO. I have tried rebuilding that segment, deleting pump, adding pump, etc. Nothing.

Anyone got some simple solutions? I looked at similar problems on reddit and was redirected to 20+ page guides, I appreciate the effort but absolutely ridiculous to expect people to read that just to build a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ PIPE SYSTEM.
(My apologies for the frustrations)

[Heiinz]

build an mk2 pump right after the extractors. press H to be able to see how far the fluid goes. build the next pump just before the indicator that shows where the fluid will stop (it's shown while you build a second pump). repeat.

[Kage Goomba]

1: You don't need so many pumps - 1 should be sufficient based on what I'm seeing (read the fine print - pumps are for lift - too many causes problems - mk2's are good for 50m - in truth you may not need them at all as the extractor gives you 10m upfront but 1 pump should be more than adequate unless the perspective is off. Use wall panels if you need to gauge/measure height)

2: If your splicing pumps into your line - you should delete the pipe around it and rerun connections then try again. Splicing still causes problems these days. I never drop pumps into a pipe without rerunning connections.

Screenshot would be helpful for the connections on the nuclear gens as well.

[Fenix]

Kage the Imgur link is the screenshot

[Kage Goomba]

Originally posted by Fenix:

Kage the Imgur link is the screenshot

Yeah of his extractors - but I don't see what's on the Gen' side is what I'm saying.

Unless I'm missing something - its just the one.

[Bobucles]

pipes
600/min

Yep, there's your problem. The fluid engine just can't do it. Mostly this is caused by machines producing and taking fluid in bite sized chunks, while fluid flow wants to be smooth. The chunks cause fluid to slosh around, and every slosh is a loss of flow rate.

The best thing you can do is make sure fluids flow downhill into machines. Downhill acts as a natural valve to prevent fluids from sloshing and maintain flow rates. Also don't even try getting a perfect 600/min between machines, stick with 500-550. Your sanity will be much better for it. Pumpjacks are pretty okay for getting a consistent 600, as long as it flows downhill into machines.

[Maehlice]

You have a fundamental misunderstanding or misconception about how liquids flow in the game, which is evidenced by your pump placements.

(No, I am not saying this condescendingly or just to be a jerk. Solve that, and you will likely be able to solve every fluid problem in this game on your own from here on: )

A pump is only needed to make liquid go UP. A pump is never needed within 20m (or 50m with Mk.2) vertically of another pump.

You can run a pipe 100km around the entire map with only one pump so long as the vertical elevation doesn't exceed 50m higher than that pump. (You can drop down infinitely and then back up all you want within that 50m range!)

Similarly, you MUST have a pump within 10m vertically of the liquid's source -- the Water Extractors in this case.

Assuming your pipes aren't bugged, your first pump is likely too high. Bringing it down a couple meters should solve the 50% full problem. Delete all the other pumps.

If a pump within the 50m headlift of a previous pump solves a problem for you, that same problem could probably be solved with a valve instead.

[Bonky]

Originally posted by Heiinz:

build an mk2 pump right after the extractors. press H to be able to see how far the fluid goes. build the next pump just before the indicator that shows where the fluid will stop (it's shown while you build a second pump). repeat.

Nice tip! Thank you

[Zigamus Wizard]

Another method you can try is called a water tower, place a pipe running straight UP, go UP 1 wall HIGHER than anything that uses that fluid in your entire MAP, then bend the pipe over and go back down, then run to whatever you want. This brings Gravity into the formula and that equals head pressure to feed anything that is lower than the top of your tower. So you would only need pumps to get up and over the top of the tower, from there on the gravity will feed it across your entire map. Do this for each fluid you need to use pipes on.

[Seb]

I like to put a fluid tank at the end of the line just before my machines that will use that fluid.
Wait for that to fill up then start your machines.

[BierPizzaChips]

Avoid floor holes for pipes - such stopped not reproducible a few times the flow for my pipes. Best practice: Always build a "water-tower" aka tank for that fluid higher up than any machinery consuming the fluid. Pump up to that water tower and then just connect all downstream, best with an MK2 as main line and MK1 from the main line to each machine. Check the fluid tank on your "water tower", if levels are decreasing or even empty, then pump up more. Check the last piece of the main pipe - if fluid level is very low, shorten the main line and build a second.
Such worked very well for me - i am not a Giga-Factory builder and finished the game without any nuclear energy. Therefore, have an easy to check setup was very beneficial for my average game style.

[Spark Plugs]

One thing i do to properly measure headlift is to build foundations upwards, marking 20/50m in blue and red respectively, then build a platform to where ever you are going to see generally where your visual requirement is. as for the reactor, if it works like coal generators, i'd say fill the tanks and clock for 99.5% of max pipe capacity, so that there's always a tiny surplus of extra water

[Alistair MacBain]

As others said there should be only one pump. This isnt high enough to need more.
If stuff isnt flowing just reconnect the pipes that usually solves those issues.
And you can definetly run 600m^3 through those pipes.

[Mad [FR]]

I just say this because 1 Make this mistake A LOT ...
did the pump is in the right direction if the flow go to the extractor it will block the water ...

[Setian]

Yeah one pump right after the extractor usually fix the issue when you reach the max capacity of pipes, and be careful with junctions, if 2entrances feed 1 exit of the junction they push each other out, a valve usually solves the issue

For example
Pipe 150 enter and another connected pipe of 150 enter feed into 1 300 pipe might cause issues if 1 of the 150 entrances reach the destination faster

I hope that makes sense... long story short put a valve on both feeding pipes and set the income to 150 (depending on how much you want the pipe to enter) this to prevent backflow and sloshing.