Learn Water Towers in Under 3 Minutes [Satisfactory]

[@Runesun]

I couldn't find the clip, but I'm pretty certain Snutt said on a dev stream that he used one of these setups in the Update 5 Teaser World. Will you give one a try?

[@frostcrackle2374]

"The indicator is a dirty, rotten liar." THANK YOU. 👏👏👏 Every single guide I've watched has said to just let the pumps snap to the indicators, but my network has NEVER worked at full efficiency using that concept. Happens even in update 8.

[@truefreak]

If you really want to save on power, you can build a fluid tower with no pumps at all. If you put a valve at the very bottom of the output pipe and set it to 0 flow, it will continue to provide the headlift even though no fluid is moving. I used this to set up a roughly 300-meter-tall fuel system. I have a buffer at the top that I filled with a packager and some packaged fuel.

[@Runesun]

I'd heard that was a thing, but never knew the specifics. Thanks for sharing!

[@WaLLy_]

I got a mechanic I discovered as well with the big round tanks. They create headlift based on how full they are. You have tanks as buffer , and before piping it to machines you make the pipes go below the tanks, than build the pipes to the same height as the tanks and then back down again. This will make it so only once the buffer tanks are full enough it is able to go up enough in the pipes to the rest of your machines.

[@Runesun]

I have a trick similar to this as well but different in implementation for a flow control and debugging purpose.

[@ArkCarbon]

Thanks man, spent so many hours trying to do coal efficiently because I just didnt understand pipes very well.

[@Runesun]

Glad you found it useful! Coal is one of those first big problems to tackle. For early game coal I've found it helpful to have one extractor at 75% per 2 coal gens. The underclocking also stretches the early power a bit longer too.

[@gemmel3197]

Best explanation of this I've seen, thank you.

[@nightismonochrome]

Quick, concise, and easy to understand. Honestly I don't play this game, but this was still satisfying to watch and made me want to try this game out.

[@Runesun]

Appreciate the kind words! If you like these types of logistics and factory building games even a little, you'll certainly get your money's worth.

[@skilz8098]

If you haven't tried it out and you eventually decide to... be prepared for it to consume you! This game is captivating and so beyond addictive!

[@dombuilder1197]

Don’t start playing. It will be so good you don’t want to stop playing but take up as much time as two full time jobs. It will make your brain burn because you need to do so much planning and build so much stuff.

[@HW-ow9zp]

have gamed for 29 years, too many thousands of combined hours. this game is seriously worth a try if you even saw it and looked appealing. one of my favorite games of all time FROM time to time.

[@AndrewKeifer]

This is probably the best explanation for how to set this up that I've come across. Thanks for uploading!

[@HW-ow9zp]

very cool man. first time seeing your stuff, never cease to be amazed by the quality of content from the satisfactory community. appreciate the excellently clear and concise detail, will check out more of your stuff. take care!

[@Runesun]

Much appreciated!

[@nathanoy_]

incredible video quality, keep up the great work! You earned my subscription.

[@Runesun]

Much appreciated! Lots more to come!

[@StormFX7]

Do note that if you're running multiple pipes, you can achieve a similar effect by simply putting adequate pumpage on one pipe, as long as all the pipes are in the same network. Though it does make it a bit more logistically effective to have the water "tower" near the pumps since you've got power there already. Another tip: Avoid loops. If you have two rows of machines and running pipes down both rows, do NOT connect them at the far end. This causes some weirdness in the flow and can starve machines. Edit: Oops, didn't realize how old this video was. :P

[@Runesun]

I haven't looked at U8 yet to see how this may have changed so hopefully this helps someone! Thanks!

[@HW-ow9zp]

really? I have found almost the almost opposite where I have not been able to fix some lines without adding a loop on the end. I typically don't lead with it but only end up adding it as volume needs and I scale up but I can think of 2 or 3 times now in u8 where the loop has saved me! but you have to overflow it. if you don't let it fill when you add it then it is going to starve your machines because you literally aren't making enough fluid to fill the pipes. As McGalleon always preached, Full Pipes are Happy Pipes!

[@daniellclary]

Had to try that out immediately. And it works. I wonder what the range on that is though.

[@Runesun]

As long as the tower part is higher than where it goes I don't think there's a limit. I had 4 nuke plant floors in a tower that went 8 floors high with no issue.

[@BLAndrew575-]

Indicators are indeed dirty rotten liars. Thanks Runesun! Helps a lot!

[@billythedoor]

very helpful! thanks for sharing! i ALWAYS struggle with pipes!

[@Runesun]

Pipes definitely can be a struggle point. I've found the towers simplify things a fair bit. Glad it helped.

[@rellify3]

So much better than the other videos, thanks.

[@Lotnik102]

Cool tip mate. It will help much more to build my factories. Thanks.

[@oldguy7402]

Subbed. Perfect, concise, thorough.

[@baddon6977]

Great Explanation! I use tanks at the top for looks.

[@JustinCuster]

This is a great idea! Thank you.

[@auzrael]

Your headlift may have been fine, but your work pressure was low, which makes your fluids flow slower at the top where the factory is. Adding the second pump nice and high restored your work pressure.

[@Techischannel]

It is suprisingly realistic and works quite closely to how water works irl. Its not perfectly accurate but its good enough for the job.

[@Layarion]

a water tower irl can provide headlift for an infinite amount of forks that all also go up to the height of the tower? with each fork even exceeding the flowrate of the tower itself?

[@Techischannel]

@@Layarion Ofc not and i didnt imply it as such. I would now go into excruciating detail but it seems that youtube deletes a longer response on pressing reply. This is actually my 5th try to replying. I am kinda exhausted now. Allright so the reply went thru (yay) so here is a TLDR: A water tower of the size capable of providing enough flow and pressure to a megafactory on Satisfactory Scales would be a lake. And the Stuff is submeged within it. Pipes would very simply burst at the sheer pressure and machines would very likely break aswell. That said, great source of power. Water pressure of a hundred or two meters is Hydropower Material.

[@halbouma6720]

Thanks for the tutorial Runesun!

[@heighRick]

Thanks Runesun, helps a lot

[@dakkota23]

If i ever get organized ( we all know that won't happen) I'll have to try this

[@Runesun]

Why do you need pumps if everything is on the ground? :)

[@Adtomskio]

How do you only have 640 Subs?? Your content is awesome and these short straight to the point videos are so appreciated.

[@Runesun]

Appreciate that so much! Realistically likely because I haven't made many videos! Itching to get back into SF with Update 8 but free time is a challenge at the moment with work, wife and kiddo. :) Soon™

[@Catafly7]

Great Vid Runesun. Keep them commnig

[@Runesun]

Thanks and You Bet!

[@jaye1967]

Even easier, get your water from one of the high lakes. Either north of the dune desert or from the center of the map.

[@Runesun]

Definitely an option in some areas!

[@UnhingedSystems]

I'll make it complicated by packaging all my water and using a train to fill a massive tank storage system at the highest point and then just run all pipes down from there. Will overcome headlift by using trains 😂

[@chaosakazero]

Directions unclear accidentally got stuck in nuclearpowernado

[@Runesun]

No. No. No. The Nuke Tower is a Tornado Free Zone. 😂😂

[@marnusvanderwesthuizen4431]

this helped me so much

[@Runesun]

Yay! Happy to hear that! Which build did you use the fluid tower for? Coal? Fuel? Something else?

[@marnusvanderwesthuizen4431]

@@Runesun Used it for the nuclear power

[@Runesun]

@@marnusvanderwesthuizen4431 hell yeah. That's one of the best. Helped me a ton

[@uolocur9356]

All of my fluids go out, get lifed, and then come back. Its a bit more work but everything always runs perfectly

[@vanitymarks8798]

very nice and concise. i struggle with keeping things neat and straight, especially pipes. i am spaghetti.

[@Runesun]

I think we've all had our share of spaghet at one point or another. :)

[@legendaryone696]

That was beautiful

[@DarthBludgeon]

Great video, thank you! The problem is, the Mk II pumps are wonky at best. I've never been able to get them to work reliably, as their indicator pulses are pretty much useless. I really hope they fix this someday, as it really screws up my oil supply system. Water seems to work better, since you have those enormous pumps you can just plop into the lake. I'd be just as happy if they'd abandon the incredibly complicated fluid system, and maybe just run it like the gas system Or at least give us the option in the settings menu, to shut up any troll purists out there. Better yet, finish the bloody thing so we can set up our mods and leave them alone.

[@CerebralTag]

I am the absolute master of as few pumps as possible. Ask Pitchit.

[@Runesun]

😂😂😂

[@skilz8098]

That's about what I do in some situations...

[@ZizzlyWizard]

Am I tripping or did I miss the point? You use a pump to push it up to the machines but what's the point of the return pipe

[@Runesun]

There were no pumps up to the machines. Only on the looping pipe (the tower). I could have had a network of 100 pipes all going up to the height of just those two pumps and avoid 200 pumps on the 100 other vertical pipes.

[@ZizzlyWizard]

@@Runesun 1:24 is not a pump im seeing you explain?

[@Runesun]

@@ZizzlyWizard If you pause at 0:49 - make a note of the pipes you see going into those machines. NONE of those pipes ever receive a pump, but water is also NOT getting up to them at the beginning. The goal of the video is to NOT add a pump to those but have them pick up head lift from the tower that will have a single pump such that all 4 of the pipes at the back just start working once the single pipe going up with pumps is hooked up. It's at the chapter starting at 1:11 where we build the tower, hook the network up together and those pipes at the back are suddenly able to push their water up where they couldn't before with no actual changes to those pipes directly. Basically it's a method for when you have to bring lots of the same fluid resource for a big build up a large way, you can save yourself the power and the headache of a ton of pumps in a large build. In the case of this build I would have needed 8 pumps to do all 4 pipes high enough. With the tower I needed 2. (edit: typos and a bit of clarity)

[@lawlzercawpter]

Beautiful!

[@Runesun]

Thanks!

[@thebigboi5357]

What's the purpose of the return pipe? Is this if you have machines that produce water (or some other fluid, like alumina solution) as a by-product?

[@Runesun]

The return pipe is what provides the head lift to the network of pipes which is why the pumps are only on one side of the pipe junction. A pump in the network elsewhere resets the headlift above that pump to only what that pump can do and defeats the tower.

[@SerunaXI]

Even in update 8, the indicator still goes further than the actual headlift.

[@Koh-Wei-Jian]

Title: how to avoid pumps Contents: *build pumps*

[@Runesun]

Hahaha! NOT WRONG! However, we did build 2 pumps instead of 4 so we still avoided some that we would have needed otherwise and more lifts up to that same level if we expanded horizontally wouldn't have required any new ones. :)

[@JaredSvB]

How do you connect the loop to your system????

[@piotrkujawski6555]

So basicly you can pump up water frominfinitely many water extractors using just one line of pumps???

[@Runesun]

In a nutshell yes. There are some caveats in the way you setup the pipe network and the fact it will try to even out the flow, but that's never been an issue for me. I have fed 32 nuke reactors with 32 mk1 full pipes (1 per reactor) with no issues using this method.

[@piotrkujawski6555]

@@Runesun would it still work with full mk2 pipes?

[@Runesun]

@@piotrkujawski6555 Yep. I've done lots of mk2 pipes up considerable heights with this method.

[@victoriaplant2316]

I just tried setting this up and the water stops flowing vertically once I set up the second Mk. 2 pump :( no water in the pipes above it.

[@Runesun]

I can't speak for update 8 (yet), but I hint at this at some point in the video that pumps used to at least not actually reflect the "snap points" so I'd usually put the pumps a touch lower. Also double check it's powered. Done that once or twice and realized I never powered the pump.

[@opliko]

This doesn't make any sense to me. Why wouldn't you just use the 2 pumps on the 1 pipe going up to where you want it to go and split it once you get to the machines? The tower seems fully unnecessary with no purpose that I can figure out

[@Runesun]

Because this is feeding 1200 water up. That's much more than one pipe can handle (mk1). Yes I could have used Mark 2 but this was a small example. Picture it as two pumps handling going up to handle headlift in a tower with 20 pipes going up to machines. Now you have a savings, but for me it's also not having to worry about power logistics that goes with the pumps. Sometimes the pipes are going up in various areas too or you can have some nice looking pipe logistics without worrying about pumps and the electrical for them.

[@SuperGamingMoo]

so you just need 1 pipe connected to unlimited network for headlift?

[@Runesun]

Essentially yes. As long as nothing else on the network prior to reaching the height you want a pipe to get to resets headlight it should take on the headlift of the water tower. The pipe junction being under the first pump is key.

[@Irishhawk8]

Okay this video explained some issues im having with my pipes. But at 0:58 it shows each Water extractor has their own pipe with a Pipe Junction at the start. But at 1:29 you connect each Junction together. So why does each Extractor need their own pipe if you're going to be connecting them anyways. This is the issue im having with my setup. I just junction and connect the middle to wherever it needs to go. Am i doing this wrong?

[@Runesun]

The _own pipe_ thing was a reference to one overclocked 300 water extractor does 3 refineries perfectly as they require 100 water each. I could have used a mk2 pipe and only had 2 pipes, but I the demonstration worked better with many mk1's. Second bit is that for the water tower to work you need everything on the same network so you have to connect all of the pipes together to share in the head lift the water tower generates.

[@XCanG]

I didn't get one thing, does you have any external connection from your water tower at the top? I didn't see any on the video

[@Runesun]

Good question and no. When water falls in the pipes it captures the headlift of that height and allows the water in other pipes in the network to "have that headlift". So the water over the bend falls and goes out the bottom connection providing all that headlift to the whole network. That's why it is key that you have your first pump "after" that connection on the other side of the loop.

[@nukachronic6211]

No longer works per update 8 unfortunately. Now there are valves which allow for one-way flow.

[@Runesun]

Still works for my existing setups in Update 8. Haven't built a new one yet though.

[@serianaa]

@@Runesunit does work as long as you can manage to keep the damned return pipe and the top pipe filled. The amount inside the return pipe reflects your headlift, if it is half, then your other pipes will only reach / fill up half of it. It took me 3 damned days to figure it out that its useless for my setup.

[@reallyanotheruser7290]

Physics!

[@marcus_w0]

Well, i guess that you're the guy who makes wet concrete then. I was wondering, what this recipe was all about. Not that there's not enough limestone around... The only time I'd do this, is to sink access water. But even there are better ways.

[@benvan2446]

great video! You should make KZbin Shorts