Unexpected behavior of steam turbines

A steel turbine that shall take up to 384 steam/t, as it is written in the tooltip, fails to work (it makes a break noise) with a three boiler setup filled with distilled water: one strong steel boiler (256 s/t) and two regular ones (64 s/t), all of which must produce exactly 384 s/t. What’s wrong? I guess it must break right after taking more (but not equal to) 384 s/t as a regular steam engine (32-128 s/t) does so: it won’t break after taking its cap limit.

2 Likes

That is an Issue of the Fluid Pipes, you need to make sure your Multi-Boiler-Setup is perfectly symmetrical for this to work properly.

1 Like

You mean I have to set that turbine right in the center?

2 Likes

That MIGHT work, but you might also need to offset the middle boiler one to the front/back to make it symmetrical enough. You wont need a 4th boiler, as long as its exactly 1 pipe per boiler and 1 pipe for the turbine.

1 Like

Nope, it does not.

What about adding one pipe in front of (or above) the center boiler and then place a turbine on that pipe? I will try it later on, because I’d like to keep my boilers in place.

2 Likes

Connect all 3 boilers through 1 pipe to steam turbine. That’s possible using 2 tank extenders.

Extender above left and right boilers, pipe above middle boiler, turbine above pipe. Wrench-connect every extender to the pipe by right-click-wrenching extender’s side, which is closer to pipe.
That’s a bit tricky, if you have never used extenders.

2 Likes

I didn’t know about extenders. It seems overkill to me if it works as I guess: an extended boiler will need twice more time to heat up.

2 Likes

I wrote about extended pipe.

2 Likes

Welcome to “sloshing” fluids. Aim for the center if you’re combining, and expect you may need more than the minimum.

2 Likes

Yes I know it would change balance of things, but I still say fluid pipes should work like item pipes, but distribute to all connected ‘machines’ (perhaps weighted on distance or whatever).

1 Like

Ah, I’ve checked it out and now I see how it works. I thought it should extend a boiler, not a pipe itself.

And I think that one possible solution could be a minor calcification of one of the boilers, so it will produce a little less than its cap limit.

2 Likes

In creative world I’ve tested out an exactly same setup (with a turbine on the left), but with gas burning boxes filled with methane. And a turbine works! Boy, that’s fucked. Then I’ve tested the setup from my survival world and it works just fine. What? Can biomes affect it? Because in my survival world I am in a desert.

2 Likes

Do the gas burning boxes make more HU/t?

2 Likes

They shouldn’t.

Now I’ve recreated my world in creative mode, rebuilt my setup in a desert and it doesn’t work. Also I’ve tried to do same thing in plains in vain. So it works in a superflat world, and does not in a regular one.

2 Likes

So this setup works in a superflat world and does not in a regular one. That is very strange.

2 Likes

Disregard this, it actually works only when boilers are facing SOUTH. HOW IT IS RELATED?

Left one breaks and right one works:

2 Likes

Disregard all I wrote as it just works in one place and doesn’t in another one. Left one breaks, right one works:

2 Likes

Could be startup order. Fluid pipes aren’t perfect, you really should give it more than just the minimum.

2 Likes

That is why I said make sure its symmetrical, because even the slightest riming Issues can screw you over, due to the “atomic” way I implemented Fluid Pipes.

Maybe try putting the Turbine above the MIDDLE boiler and ignite the MIDDLE boiler LAST.

1 Like

I already found a solution that works for me:

I just was a bit curious about how two exact same setups work differently in two separate locations.

2 Likes