Clogged pipes, the bane of my existence

[Esch]

I love problem solving games, and this game makes my mind melt (in a good way), however, there's one thing that completely turns me off about this game, and it's constantly having clogged pipes. It's to the point where it's not fun playing the game because this one feature is TOO aggravating. I've checked all connections and no pieces are missing. I've disassembled things so many times and rebuilt in numerous configurations trying to find one that works, but every time it clogs without reason. I believe I have ample power with two jumbo batteries and built a switch so when the clog happens I can turn off the pump. I've restricted the flow of water from max down to 50-100gps in the hopes that will help, but nope. After I unclog and start it up, 3-4 seconds later it clogs again. Always seems to be blocked at the bridge or the valve, but it looks like the carbon scrubber is barely working. The sieve output pipe overhead is never being used.

Before all this I found a video online about making a carbon scrubber that is self sufficient where the water is fed through a sieve and back into itself. Maybe that is no longer a valid concept in the game, I don't know, all I know is this is taking the fun out of the game for me because I can't solve the problem. Any help is appreciated, thank you for your time.

E

[kalbaba]

Your sieve output is connected to the bridge output.

Use the top right priority merge pattern to prioritize input from the sieve and add-on from the water tank:

Spoiler

 

[Mojo Filter]

The carbon skimmer only operates in the presence of carbon dioxide. Judging the colors in the last pic, yours looks like it may be surrounded by natural gas and will do nothing, so no polluted water will flow out of it.

[Dragondevo]

I have used something similiar to your setup without any issues for many cycles.  Looking at your picture it looks like there is only natural gas around the scrubber and no actual co2.  If you look at the material overlay(F4) and switch to gas it's easy to see what gas is where

[mathmanican]

2 hours ago, Esch said:

but every time it clogs without reason.

I assume "it" is the pump? The pump, even when working constantly at 10kg/s, continues to give the "output blocked" message on/off rapidly. You have to learn to ignore it (odd behavior, agreed). The natural gas issue mentioned by @Mojo Filter is mostly likely the reason your carbon skimmer is not working. Once it starts working, you'll still see the "output blocked" message on the liquid pump. It will fire on briefly every once in a while, the error will go off, and then it will show up again. 

[KittenIsAGeek]

Any time liquid isn't flowing freely through a pipe, the game considers the pipe "blocked."  This does not mean there's a problem.  For example, if a pump feeds water to a sink, and the sink isn't being used, the pump will say "output blocked."  This is actually the desired outcome.  There are some cases where "output blocked" is a problem.  For example, with the old pipe mechanics if you had a plumbed bathroom with, say, 3 showers and a toilet, and the toilet was 'downstream' from the showers on the polluted water line, then several dupes taking showers could cause your toilet to get the "output blocked" message and temporarily go out of order (Note: This is no longer the case).

However, looking at your setup, everything is working as intended.  The only reason your carbon skimmer isn't running is because there's no carbon dioxide to scrub.

[Blazing Falken]

While not your current issue, a future clog will occur if you keep feeding the loop water. I'd remove the bridge and let the water that's in the loop do the rest.

[DemainaNyx]

If the pump is saying the pipe is blocked, that's good.  That means it has filled the entire pipe and is waiting for more room in a powered off state.

The carbon skimmer isn't running because there is no Co2 to absorb, so that little stretch of pipe from the bridge to the skimmer is all that will ever fill right now.  You can now disconnect the pump from the loop and if any carbon dioxide gets into that area, it will be taken care of without any problem and the loop will work forever so long as you have sand/regolith in the sieve.

If you want more water in that pipe, you need to move the end of the liquid bridge further down the pipe closer to the sieve.

The only time you need to worry about the blocked pipe warning is if it is coming from the output of a machine you need like Lavatories, metal refinery, nat gas gens, etc.

[Esch]

8 hours ago, mathmanican said:

 

Thank you everyone for your help! When I first fired up the pump initially there was a lot more carbon dioxide in the room, but the pump only ran for 3-4 seconds so I wasn't aware the pump worked -that- well in removing it so didn't think the clogging was due to not enough of it in the air.

My intent was once it filled with enough water from the well I would shut off the pump so that the skimmer would be fed by the sieve. I didn't think I had enough water in there yet to do this. I will disconnect the bridge and see if maybe I do.

Thank you @kalbaba for that diagram. Where I have the bridge now was about the 4th rebuild trying to find something that worked. I originally had it all hooked up much lower (hence the floor being lower on the right side) and thought maybe gravity was causing the blockage, so I raised it up higher.

Thanks again!
E