Pipelines: flow, head lift and common fixes

Three different limits

Production is how much fluid your machines make per minute. Capacity is how much a pipeline segment can carry: 300 m³/min for Mk.1 and 600 m³/min for Mk.2. Head lift is the height a liquid can reach above its source or the last operating pump. More pumps do not raise a pipe’s capacity, and a larger pipe does not make an extractor produce more.

A Water Extractor supplies 10 m of head lift. Pipeline Pump Mk.1 supplies 20 m and Mk.2 supplies 50 m. Head lift does not add up when pumps are placed beside each other: place the next pump while the liquid is still within the previous pump’s reach, and check its direction. Use the in-game pump display and hologram to check the actual rise.

Nitrogen Gas and other gases do not need pumps to climb. They still need enough pipe capacity. Keep each fluid on its own network; a pipeline is not a mixed-fluid conveyor.

Read a branch, not just a total

A capacity calculation is a lower bound for separate routes. Two 300 m³/min pipes only provide 600 m³/min if neither is fed through a shared 300 m³/min bottleneck. Add up all consumers downstream of each segment, and check that segment rather than just counting the pipes leaving your refinery.

Machines consume and produce in cycles, so an instantaneous flow reading can fluctuate. Watch stored fluid and machine uptime over several cycles. Prefill a new network before enabling the consumers; an empty line has to fill its own volume as well as supplying the machines.

Buffers store fluid but cannot fix a persistent production shortfall. A valve can limit flow or prevent backflow, but cannot force an insufficient supply to meet demand. Leave space to add a second feed when a long manifold proves unstable near its nominal capacity.

A repeatable troubleshooting order

1. Check the source first: power, recipe, clock speed, inputs and an unblocked byproduct output.
2. Compare average supply with total demand. Include every consumer on that network and any fluid being packaged for export.
3. Follow the route segment by segment. Inspect hidden Mk.1 pieces, disconnected junctions, reversed pumps and closed valves.
4. For liquids, check the highest point on the route. A pipe that goes over a hill needs enough head lift to cross the hill even if the destination is lower.
5. Pause consumers, let the network fill, then restart one branch at a time. Observe which buffer starts to empty.
6. For recycled water or other byproducts, verify that fresh input cannot occupy all the receiving capacity. Budget the recycled amount explicitly or give it a separate consuming route.

Continue planning

• Apply this to coal power
• Handle refinery byproducts
• Compare pipes and vehicles