Is there an easy to prioritize one liquid source over another?

[badimo]

I keep being in situations where I have two liquid sources through pipes.  I only want pipe source 1 to flow when pipe source 2 is exhausted (temporarily).  I have complicated ways to accomplish this, but if somebody has an easy method, let me know.

[Kabrute]

bridge in from source 2, when source 1 empty source 2 will pick up the slack

 

There are rare times this won't work right but 99% of the time, this will work

[Soulwind]

I tell you, I have more trouble getting multiple pipes to flow correctly together than I do in almost any other part of the game.

For instance, I need 2 inputs (one from a water sieve, one from the main radiator line) that I want to join together and

have flow out of a pipe outlet.  Every time I tried to link them with a bridge, one or the other would stop flowing.

I finally ended up with a double bridge system like so:    ----> B1 -> B2 -> B1 -> B2 ---->  (where one input went with B1 ,

and the other went through B1 and into B2, then B1 output joined into B2 output).  That finally worked the way I wanted it to, but

it was certainly not intuitive to set up.  And, it worked, but I'm sure there was probably a better/more efficient way to do it.

[SeAn1211]

Instead of going through complex piping system. I use 3-4 huge clean water tanks depending on my build. My main water tank should contain at least 20 cycles of water output from each geyser.

Then I would use automated doors trigered by pressure sensors to transfer water from different tanks.

[TheScaryOne]

Use a burst valve! But seriously, the plumbing oddities are your friend. Have the priority line come in to the machine from one side of a bridge. Then, in the empty space between the bridge, have the second line come in and through the bridge's output. Bridges have priority, so it will ALWAYS pull from the one line, until it runs dry, then it will pull from the other line.

This was how I got rid of my germy clean water, prioritized it to the electrolyzers over geyser water.

[KittenIsAGeek]

Here's my setup when I want to prioritize a source.  

The upper line is from a now empty pool.  As you can see, that pipe is continuing to drain into the hydroponics tiles.  The lower line is from a new source that will start once the first is empty.

[badimo]

Thanks for the simple solutions.

I wonder if the bridge solution is intended or a bug.

[Coolthulhu]

58 minutes ago, badimo said:

I wonder if the bridge solution is intended or a bug.

It has been there forever. Sounds intended, especially considering that there is no simple way of doing many things without it.

[MrBetaSkull]

If I may give an idea, how about making a Hydrosensor in the buttom of your Source 1, if that is off then source 2 goes active. This way, you can "simply" make it a backup source?