Pre-1.0 I had aluminum factories that took the waste water from aluminum scrap and fed it back to the alumina solution refineries. However, in my new 1.0 world I can’t seem to get it to flow correctly.
I’ve tried several solutions, including:
- putting the waste water lower in the junction than the fresh water
- adding a valve to the waste water to prevent backflow
- adding a valve to the waste water to only supply the amount not provided by the fresh water
The only think I have not done yet is decrease the water extractor rates, mostly because I don’t recall having to do that before when I used a valve.
Any tips? Anyone else had success in 1.0
Update: I believe I may have found a solution - I’ve added a fluid buffer just after the waste and fresh water merge.
waste fresh
\ /
buffer
|
refinery
This seems to give the pipeline a little wiggle room to settle, whereas without the buffer the fresh water would slowly fill in whenever the waste water wasn’t at full production. The waste water would then back up, which meant production of aluminum scrap would back up, which meant that alumina solution would back up, and then meant the water would back up leading to a sort of deadlock With the buffer there’s a little more wiggle room in the pipeline for excess water
I solved this by putting a valve on the extractor water near the junction to limit it and prevent back flow. I also reduced the extractor to the correct amount, though I don’t think that’s necessary.
IIRC, this is also the solution in the FICSIT Pipeline Manual. It’s always worth another read through!
Oh, boy! You’re in fire a treat. This thing is amazing. Enjoy!
You aren’t being dumb like my friend and I did where we tried to push 360 water through a mk1 pipe?
Took us far too long to realise our mistake.
To be honest, I usually dedicate some refineries to using waste water - the Satisfactory fluid mechanics are too janky and all the fluid logic gates you might see creators discuss are based on specifics of how fluid calculations are done which could be changed without warning (especially for things like putting a hump in a line - that relies on the engine not doing some specific optimizations).
Having waste go into refineries that get priority on bauxite means you’ll need to pay a few minutes to build a buffer initially and then your output should be consistent as long as the refinery capacity and bauxite flow are sufficient.
This is what I do, maybe not optimized to the best but if you looked at my factories they are not optimized but they will never clog because of by products.
I tried using the waste yellow stuff (I’m not at a computer lol) from making uranium cells to process the nuclear by product but it kept getting clogged and I ended up setting up a package and sinking it for full reliability.
This was all my first blind playthrough. I learned a lot but there is something to be said for reliability
I use a valve on waste water to prevent back flow, but not limit the output. Then I put a valve on fresh water to limit its input to the amount needed minus waste water output. It does take a little to get up to 100%, but I haven’t had any issues lately.
But I have done both of those things and am still encountering the issue. I swear it worked before
I’m sure you’ve done this, but you’ll want to make sure you’re using all of the water being input based on calculations.
For instance, if you’re making 100 m3/min and you need 400 m3/min for 100%. Then you’ll need to limit fresh intake to 300 m3/min. However, if your refineries aren’t running at 100% and maybe only using 300 m3/min then your waste won’t be used to full capacity.
To counter this I tend to starve the system of water by limiting fresh and then bumping it up until max is reached.
It’s a bit finicky, but seems to work for me.
I got it working by using a difference in head lift. Build a series of liquid storages, one on top of the other; hook them up in series. Connect fresh water to the bottom of the tower. Make sure that the fresh water line doesn’t have enough head lift to fill the highest container (you can move your pumps back or make the tower taller to do this). Connect waste water to the tower, with plenty of head lift. When the water level is below the limit of the fresh pump, both fresh water and waste water can enter the tower, and it gradually increases. When the water level is above the limit, fresh water stalls but waste water can still enter, and the water level decreases. As a result, the water level hovers around the limit, and your machines can keep running.
A simpler method with just limiting fresh input with a valve will stop working if the machines aren’t producing constantly, since the pumps will keep bringing in fresh water and fill the pipe when the machines are idle.
