Airlock pipes blowing up since update

[chugster600]

I am looking to see if anyone has come up with a simple solution for condensation buildup in airlock pipes. Mine keep bursting after a single use of the airlock and I haven't quite got my head around the new ice/liquid/gas update and what it all means. Some helpful advice would be appreciated :)

[ulzgoroth]

Which environment? And how much pipe for how much gas?

My moon airlock, with 6+ pipe buffer and a working pressure in the airlock in the 75-kPa range, mostly oxygen, hasn't burst yet and it has been a few days.

There's three ways I can think of you'd be getting obvious problems: low temperature condensation due to the pipe losing heat a lot, compression-based condensation because you squeezed a gas so much it had to liquify, or just blowing out the pipes with raw pressure because they have less internal volume than they used to.

[chugster600]

Environment is Mars. Its a standard airlock set up with a small pipe going from the active vent in the airlock back in to the base. When you say you have a 6+ pipe buffer on yours, I would really like to see how this is set up, and how do you deal with condensation in the pipe. I would be grateful if you could share a couple of screenshots if possible

[ulzgoroth]

Originally posted by chugster600:

Environment is Mars. Its a standard airlock set up with a small pipe going from the active vent in the airlock back in to the base. When you say you have a 6+ pipe buffer on yours, I would really like to see how this is set up, and how do you deal with condensation in the pipe. I would be grateful if you could share a couple of screenshots if possible

I didn't deal with condensation in the pipe at all! It's a super-amateur minimal air room built so I wouldn't die of thirst - I haven't even hooked up the airlock console yet or created an always-pressurized zone, I just have a cube with doors and an active vent connected to a pipe which runs along the top of the base at the moment (originally it ran into open vacuum, before I built more walls). The pipe has no connections other than the active vent.

However, my pipe probably loses heat slower in vacuum than yours does in martian atmosphere, so if your problems are thermal it might be a mismatch.

[ZeroTheHero]

I kinda had the same problem after the update. Kept hearing the pipe ready to blow sound checked all my pipes and finally found it in the Airlock pipes. The pipes had stress and had the water warning. My fix quickly remove the offending pipes and replace with an extended buffer. Seems to have fixed the problem. Mars.

[mepatuhoo]

do you have steam in your atmosphere? Water has a low freezing point and sounds like you may have water in your air and it's freezing in the pipes breaking the pipes. Try using a filter to pull the water out of the air. Would be nice if we had dehumidifiers and humidifiers in the game.

[ulzgoroth]

The obvious immediate defense for condensation problems would be to attach a condensation valve to every gas line so any condensate forming gets pulled into a protective drain pipe. Wouldn't it? Obviously you might prefer to avert the problem, but you can treat the symptom.

[Duke Leto]

Another problem is that if you are using a high pressure buffer on your airlocks ... that buffer is now 1/10 the size. And even though the update included "inline tanks" -- those tanks are not insulated .. so are pretty useless in cold environments. So you can easily end up with a "tree" of gas pipes to create enough volume.

[ulzgoroth]

Originally posted by Duke Leto:

Another problem is that if you are using a high pressure buffer on your airlocks ... that buffer is now 1/10 the size. And even though the update included "inline tanks" -- those tanks are not insulated .. so are pretty useless in cold environments. So you can easily end up with a "tree" of gas pipes to create enough volume.

Though the gas pipes also have a (proportionately??) higher pressure tolerance, so pushing the same amount of gas into the pipes shouldn't rupture them directly I think? It could cause condensation due to the extreme pressure though.

[Duke Leto]

Originally posted by ulzgoroth:

Originally posted by Duke Leto:

Another problem is that if you are using a high pressure buffer on your airlocks ... that buffer is now 1/10 the size. And even though the update included "inline tanks" -- those tanks are not insulated .. so are pretty useless in cold environments. So you can easily end up with a "tree" of gas pipes to create enough volume.

Though the gas pipes also have a (proportionately??) higher pressure tolerance, so pushing the same amount of gas into the pipes shouldn't rupture them directly I think? It could cause condensation due to the extreme pressure though.

Actually gas pipes have the same pressure tolerance as before the update, 60Mpa, so the buffer is actually 1/10 the size.

But you did bring up a good point, the update supposedly did increase regulator/back regulator pressure to 60Mpa instead of the previous 20Mpa -- and since my buffer max pressure is set by a back regulator I can probably make the buffer a higher pressure by 3 times. (prob a bit less for safety.)

I will have to try that, as it means I can probably get away with less additional pipes.

But they really need to make a insulated version of inline tanks, or they will mostly be useless because temperature control is a lot more important now.

[Duke Leto]

Also higher pressure also means higher condensation points -- so higher pressure can be bad for things like co2 which will become liquid easier possibly rupturing gas pipes.

[JeanDeaux]

Took a quick look into this myself, also on Mars setting up a new game & Hab. There are pollutants in the Mars atmosphere and they are condensing in your pipes as you're setting up your airlock. Since the initial supplies don't include purge or expansion valves, might be best to start with a very minimal atmosphere until you can install such devices. I think we can expect to see varying results as you wander around to other planets. As the moon lacks any atmosphere, it may be safer to start an airlock without these additional safety devices.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2022729808629108933/77E1F173DB8431B0C718902FDB4FACC654DA748A/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

[JeanDeaux]

After a few cycles in the manual airlock (food, water, etc) I've noticed that each new cycle adds just a bit more of the Martian atmosphere to my pipe I'm using to store my airlock atmosphere until I can get completely built and running.

Each cycle introduces more pollutants so my liquid pollutants level is growing with each cycle. If you're not keeping an eye on the pipe pressure, then it's going to BOOM on you one day. Removing & replacing the pipe to purge the atmosphere will likely solve the pipe pressure problem, but that looses the atmosphere you've been saving. Basically, don't hem and haw with the airlock build.

[ulzgoroth]

Would just laying some more pipe for your buffer make a difference? If you had 6 pipe lengths instead of what I'm reading as 2, that would bring your pipe pressure down to just over 8 MPa. Might be enough to not condense the pollutant?

...waitaminute, is this thing doing condensation based on total pressure rather than partial pressure? I don't think that's how that works?

[[ToJ.cc]Apsis]

The initial startup kit for Mars needs to include a passive vent or pipe stack vent (not sure of the actual name). When I setup my airlocks on Mars, I send the "outside" gases back outside. The inside gases, I send back into the base instead of just storing them.
I'm using an IC10 chip to run my airlock instead of the console and circuit board so I can run multiple active vents.
I cheat for my saves because I don't feel like mining though. I don't believe the passive vents are overly expensive in terms of materials.

[ulzgoroth]

Originally posted by ToJ.ccApsis:

The initial startup kit for Mars needs to include a passive vent or pipe stack vent (not sure of the actual name). When I setup my airlocks on Mars, I send the "outside" gases back outside. The inside gases, I send back into the base instead of just storing them.
I'm using an IC10 chip to run my airlock instead of the console and circuit board so I can run multiple active vents.
I cheat for my saves because I don't feel like mining though. I don't believe the passive vents are overly expensive in terms of materials.

Passive vents are very cheap. They do require you get a pipe bender though.

The advanced airlock chip (which seems to be in the starter supplies) would probably work for that too, that's exactly what it's meant for. However, a second active vent...not so much. (The passive vents should be optional, but having one 'inside' and one 'outside' active vent not so much.)