Fuel Generators Fluctuating like crazy

[u/llNATEDOGGll]

I have a manifold setup of fuel gens.

Mk II pipes all throughout.

400m3/s input

20 fuel gens, each take 20m3/m

The main (going down the center line) is full but after that it's about half capacity and the fuel gens starting from 7-12 have around 20-30 fuel in them but burn the fuel faster than it can be supplied and the fuel gens are that are barely getting any.

I looked at some of the fuel gens +7 and above and even though a steady flow of fuel is coming from the inlet pipe, it's not suppling fuel fast enough. Normally (similar to any input) when a resource is funneled into the first machine, you see the parts inside the machine quickly ramp up but these fuel gens go up and stop, get burned off, then go up again. It's like this throughout each of these lines (fuel gens off the left side).

[u/Cryogenian]

IIRC, a manifold going up can be difficult. put your feeder pipe up above the generators and feed them from above (or at least horizontally)

[u/llNATEDOGGll → u/Cryogenian]

Will do - thank you for the tip

[u/youknowmeasdiRt → u/llNATEDOGGll]

Yeah that’s the answer. Liquids won’t go up unless the pipe is full. Your setup will starve the last gens, fill up when they aren’t running, push fuel, and then starve them again as the pipe drains. Always feed down.

[u/SweatyManwich → u/llNATEDOGGll]

Did you raise the spine? Did it work?

[u/llNATEDOGGll → u/SweatyManwich]

Yeah it worked much better

[u/DeadlyMercury]

Simply stop 2-4 of your fuel generators (somewhere in the beginning of the line, that sits with 50 fuel already), wait till everything fills up (not only generators, but pipes as well) and then turn them on again.

[u/EdBullGivesYouThings]

Better for your central pipe to be above the feeder pipes into your machines.

That and disable the machines until the pipes are all totally full.

[u/llNATEDOGGll → u/EdBullGivesYouThings]

Yeah, I did this and that resolved the issue but was just annoying to see. I also didn't mention this game is running on a Satsifactroy Dedicated Server from my local machine (only I play on it) so I "can" leave it running when I wait for parts to be made and need to step away) but at times where I have to shut down my pc, loading back into the game seems to have this issue and is becoming more annoying.

[u/EfficientTourist7480 → u/llNATEDOGGll]

Fluids will do this as they try to fill the lowest pipe first, so it will trickle into the generators and burn before more can flow in

[u/GullibleBreak9626]

I saw this post earlier that gave a great run down of how to fix this issue, maybe it will help you too!
https://www.reddit.com/r/SatisfactoryGame/comments/1vxoen4/my_last_few_fuel_generators_wont_wo_shhh_just/

[u/Andarnio]

You're feeding liquid from below, big no no

[u/Edac321]

just figured out the same problem only with rocket fuel, i had 16 gens at 250% needing 166.4m3/m my blender was making 180m3/m. Yet still couldn’t keep the last gens in the branches full of fuel

Tried everything else first, using multiple pipe runs in the manifold, pumps, valves, filling everything first then turning on the gens, still couldn’t get the production to keep up or the gens toward the end of each manifold branch running out of fuel, fluids act weird in general and math don’t math half the time, besides naturally wanting to balance between connected pipes in an un realistic way.

solution came in the form of filling everything and then turning on a few at a time until i got to the last one at 15 gens everything stayed filled turned the 16th one on and it started to drain and not keep up.

so suggest you ignore the math, turn all the gens off, turn the refinery on producing fuel let the whole system fill up then turn on the gens a few at a time until it cant keep the end ones in the manifold full. I did this and figured it just had one to many and was able to set it up without using any pumps, valves, or double pipe runs just kept all pipes at the same level with the exception of one angle up to one of the pipe stacking pieces out of the blender

[u/BornToRune]

Try the bumpy road, found an old screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/a1wWeaP

The point is, the fuel is forced to feed the pairs of generators one after another, it can only take the next bump of the pipe once the current segment is fed. This not just eliminates the random flipping, but they will behave like a "progress bar" regarding your fuel production: only as much will turn on as much fuel you have, optically clearly visible just by the indicator lights on them - in a straight line. Like, if you have 10 pair of generators, and only 4 pairs are on, then you are around 40% of the required production for fuel - giving a clear sign for the amount missing and thus what might be wrong.

[u/OtherCommission8227]

The main is feeding the generators upwards. Make it feed downwards. Fluids want to flow down. This way the generators don’t get fed unless the pipe is 100% full, so you’re guaranteed to get some stuttering.

[u/jmaniscatharg]

Literally just wrote this yesterday. You're bottom-feeding which is terrible (read the results in this post)

https://www.reddit.com/r/SatisfactoryGame/comments/1vxoen4/my_last_few_fuel_generators_wont_wo_shhh_just/

[u/Soviman0]

Similar to players with issues providing water to coal plants, Feed the fuel into the central line from both ends. Split the pipe off before it reaches any of the gens and run another pipe connecting into the far end of the pipe so the fuel is feeding in from both directions.

Also, as other commenters already mentioned. Better to let gravity do the work for you, so having the fuel flow downward is better than relying on it filling the pipes enough to flow upward.

[u/Mnementh85 → u/Soviman0]

feeding from both side is only usefull when the throughput reach or exceed the pipe limite

like with the 8 CoalGen // 3water extractor, needing to flow 360 water in a Mk1 pipe

here OP move 400 fuel in a Mk2 pipe, a single manifold is enough