How concerned should I be about water pressure?

[Phoenix]

I realized II still can't fully grasp some concepts around water management.

Here is a setup:
A water tower directly feeds a single water switch which feeds several water substations. There should be no problems like disconnected pipes or anything else, this is a long-running network.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3157645571

A tooltip above water tower output says "maximum flow is 41 meters per day".
Still, actual water flow at the switch is already at 46 meters (this is an actual number observed through time, not some momentarily peak).

So, this flow is divided between several substations. The nearest substation has a water flow of 26-35 meters, most of time it's only around 25-26.
Water tank of the substation has a 40 meters volume. Still, it's completely empty all the time and water trucks are running bringing water to it.

1. Am I running out of pressure? It it time to put pumping station into bussiness? Does water tower's flow actually reached its limit?
2. How large IS this limit for this setup since actual water flow (46), supposedly, already exceeded any number shown me by the game (41)? Should I believe "max flow" numbers at infrastructure points "outputs" or ignore them?

[Phoenix]

Important fact which I failed to mention: pipes up to water switch are large (127 m capacity), pipe from the switch to substation is medium (56m capacity). Pipes' throughput shouldn't be an issue.

[RyanFireball]

Trusts the evidence you have presented. Using water trucks is very good sign.
R/Tom

[Phoenix]

Originally posted by RyanFireball:

Trusts the evidence you have presented. Using water trucks is very good sign.
R/Tom

Are you sure usage of water trucks is a good sign of anything? As far as I understand, they'll run until everything is full to the brim. As far as I get it, that's not always the case even if I'm not running out of water.

My concern is that this particular water station is constantly [/u]empty [/u] in the first place, while anything else is not. I expected to see, on average, around 15m of water inside (if I'm NOT running out of pressure). And if I DO run out of water/pressure, which of all the numbers that make no sense to me anymore, currently, could show me that.

[RyanFireball]

You might not have enough gravity flow to fill the offending water station. Using pumps should probably fix that. Be aware that when using pressured water, the water usage increases. Water trucks are not meant for regular use as far as I have understood.
R/Tom

[Phoenix]

Originally posted by RyanFireball:

You might not have enough gravity flow to fill the offending water station. Using pumps should probably fix that. Be aware that when using pressured water, the water usage increases. Water trucks are not meant for regular use as far as I have understood.
R/Tom

That's exactly what I suspect in the OP . The question, basically, is: is there any clue in this whole system (besides the empty water station that I can discover only by chance) to surely know it's so and not some weird bug going on?

Numbers, in my view, don't match each other at all. If I don't have enough pressure, I, at least, expect the whole system to be slowly running out of water. That's not the case either! All other water stations are completely full, the switch itself is full. All the time!

What am I missing?

[ling.speed]

Originally posted by Phoenix:

What am I missing?

Unpausing the game.

(and letting things fill to capacity)

[Phoenix]

Originally posted by ling.speed:

Originally posted by Phoenix:

What am I missing?

Unpausing the game. :mrcat:

(and letting things fill to capacity)

Oh come on, I'm not that dumb

[ling.speed]

:) I mean from the screenshot it looks like there is a one pipe worth of flow, so if its not filling the substation, something is taking all the water further down...

Also afair the "max water flow at max pressure" numbers can be misleading, i'd ignore them.

ps: when running out of pressure in setup like that you might want to upgrade the pipes to bigger size, that would increase the pressure... as would a pump yeah.
Acutally i wonder if the last pipe isnt small size... it kinda looks thinner

[Phoenix]

Originally posted by ling.speed:

:) I mean from the screenshot it looks like there is a one pipe worth of flow, so if its not filling the substation, something is taking all the water further down...

Also afair the "max water flow at max pressure" numbers can be misleading, i'd ignore them.

ps: when running out of pressure in setup like that you might want to upgrade the pipes to bigger size, that would increase the pressure... as would a pump yeah.

Hold on, now I'm even more confused than before. How a bigger pipe would increase the pressure here? There's a big pipe from tower to switch and medium pipe from switch to substation. Waterflow is around 46 cubes which is way lower than medium pipe capacity.

[ling.speed]

Originally posted by Phoenix:

Originally posted by ling.speed:

:) I mean from the screenshot it looks like there is a one pipe worth of flow, so if its not filling the substation, something is taking all the water further down...

Also afair the "max water flow at max pressure" numbers can be misleading, i'd ignore them.

ps: when running out of pressure in setup like that you might want to upgrade the pipes to bigger size, that would increase the pressure... as would a pump yeah.

Hold on, now I'm even more confused than before. How a bigger pipe would increase the pressure here? There's a big pipe from tower to switch and medium pipe from switch to substation. Waterflow is around 46 cubes which is way lower than medium pipe capacity.

Im not well wersed with pipes, there is a wonderful although a bit large guide about water from silent shadow. Im sure he explains it well.

While pressure in game does come from gravity as it does irl, the actual transmission enforces a choke on the flow which might be a litte gamified, with pipes having pressure limits, and flow being proportional to pressure etc.

[John Moridin]

There is an ultimate water management guide that explains things.

Otherwise you can forgot about water pressure and just use large pumping stations.

You can connect 3 large pumping stations to a small water treatment plant. Each large pumping station has 3 output pipes, so you can supply 9 water substations.

[Phoenix]

Alright, it seems we have to conclude it indeed is a water pressure deficit, and the game fails to meaningfully convey this since max. water flow numbers it shows could be inaccurate or outright erroneous.