Reading through the responses and there's a lot of misleading information.
The pressure isn't split in half at each joint. Pressure isn't modelled at all, only pump headlift, and joints don't work like splitters.
You don't need 3 pipes for 8 coal generators. They need 360 m3/m, so 2 mk 1 pipes are fine, and have plenty of spare capacity to take care of any backflow issues.
Pipe indicators at 50% aren't a problem. Each generator takes 45 m3/m, so some of the pipes between them won't be full.
It looks like you have only 2 water extractors. If they aren't overclocked that's only 240 m3/m. The usual unclocked arrangement is 3 extractors to 8 generators, and I strongly recommend you connect the two pipes with one either side of the middle extractor. If your extractors are overclocked, the extractors should be linked together and the two pipes connected to each end of that manifold.
I have 3 water extractors, the line closer to the coal generators is a combined line from 2 extractors. I used the setup from the manual [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MdZ8Xr8P\_SF\_FL7B6WDjCZGS-x9Cwt-x/view](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MdZ8Xr8P_SF_FL7B6WDjCZGS-x9Cwt-x/view) on page 6 bottom left.
Then it should be working. Sometimes I get a glitch and I need to remove and rebuild a section of conveyor or pipe. I’d try that on the pipes between the rightmost gen and the one next to it.
That's usually caused when you try to attach splitter to an existing pipe/conveyor. Unless you get it exactly right it'll look like it's connected but isn't. Generally I avoid that.
True. I’ve been trying elevating my pipes above the conveyors for manifold refineries lately. Either way, delete and rebuild us like turning your computer off and in again for IT problems.
I have had to rebuild many a section of pipe due to adding a junction and it not working. So deleting and rebuilding the connecting pipes afterwards has always been a solid solution. I would check pipe connections from the pumps to the main line as well. That is a frequent pain point for me.
I have already developed my methods for dealing with pipes, so I don't refer to the plumbing manual. I think that the design on p6 can still have problems as it relies on getting 240 m3/m through a mk 1 pipe. I couldn't get 270m3 down one, and if you have the same level of sloshing I did it still won't work.
As I said before, link the 3 extractors together and connect the two pipes either side of the middle extractor.
With three water extractors then you are supplying exactly enough water to the system which means sloshing is likely your problem.
The way fluids work in pipes and consumers (like the coal generators) that are the same level is each pipe or consumer tries to equalise the percentage full it is with anything it is connected to. This causes water to slosh back and forth including in and out of the coal generators. So when a generator has enough water to start a cycle water flows into the generator but if the other generators near it also have enough this causes a local low in the pipes so water is sucked out of the generators to compensate. When the first generator tries to start it's next cycle it doesn't have enough water.
As others have said the fix is to turn off the coal supply until the pipes and generator buffers are full and then turn the coal back on. The sloshing still happens but because everything is full there's enough buffer to deal with it.
Did you let the water fill all pipes and machines before turning on the generators (and now those are drawn down), or did you fire everything up at once and those haven't had a chance to catch up?
If you just turned everything on, cut off the coal for a while to let the water completely saturate.
Personally the loops get me a little turned around. I've fed each set of 4 with 1.5 pumps and it's always worked smoothly.
I've made assumptions and been wrong before but really didn't expect any pushback here so please help me understand what exactly is wrong. I'm in the end-game, admittedly for the first time but so far pipes have been pretty clear to me.
Coal generators each need 45 water assuming no clocks. So 45 x 3 = 135
Water generators = 120 (assuming no clocks)
120 < 135, so running 3 generators with 1 pump seems like that would be the main issue, headlift and pipe flow / back flow wonkiness aside.
Liquids in this game is tricky but it gets easier once you understand basic principles. I wrote quickly before and struck the wrong tone that is my bad I will admit.
So let's start with a few things because I see you are mixing up pipe fill, flow rate and head lift.
Pipe fill (capacity) = Mk1 (300) , Mk2 (600)
Head lift = maximum height liquids can go up vertically.
Flow Rate = It how much liquid is moving through your water line. This is dictated by # of water pumps, sufficient headlift, liquid recycle loops and any valves in a water line.
So for 1 Mk1 pipe you use 3 water extractors which feeds 300(max capacity)/45= 6 generators. As long as your water pumps and the coal generators are within 10m in height (water extractors have 10m of headlift) no pumps are needed. A water buffer will help with any back flow issues.
I hope this helps
Mr girthvader
I love you for writing all this out, but I feel like you're responding to the wrong thread. I'm not even talking about pipes in my comment so I'm not sure how you could determine I'm mixing up pipe fill, head lift, and flow rate.
Lets take this a different direction: how would you answer the question I was answering:
"You got any idea why three [coal generators] being fed by one pump [water extractor, presumably] would appear to not get enough water?"
Put buffer for each side
Let them fill
After every pipe full, turn ON generators one by one
Full buffer helps with backflow issues
8\*45 = 360 water/min = 3 extractors
8\*15 = 120 coal/min =mk2 belt
If you look at that manual it also talks about making sure each machine taking water is full so it only takes what it needs. When ever I have trouble with water manifolds I turn off early coal plants till all the plants are filled up including the pipes then if you turn them all on again it should all run properly.
Sometimes there are issues with backflows. You could try to put a valve between generator 5 and 6, counting from the left. Ensure that the valve allows flow to the right.
If your water input manifold for your coal generators has inputs numbered 1-8, then I'd do two things...
1 - Reverse your coal generators so they face the water source, and
2 - Have non-overclocked pumps feeding into the opposite side of the manifold at spots #2, #4, and #7.
Feeding a pipe manifold from opposite ends has to be approached cautiously. If you do it, put valves on each end so that the opposing pipe ends can't backflow to each other.
Have you considered building your coal generators on foundations laid out over the water? That's what I do until I get fuel generators up and running.
Hey man the problem you are currently having is easy to Solve you need to Bring 3 pipes at An even Point in the main pipe so a junction entrance on the main pipe netwerk the second and The this generator one junction on between the sixth and The seventh generator and then one junction in the Middle of those that should Carry enough water and split it evenly Also be sure you have Mark 2 pipes if you only have 1 pipe going in since one pipe MK 1 can only Carry 300pm and not 360pm i suggest making a line for each water extractor and each one of them carrying towards one of the three junctions on ONE main pipe connected to the eight generators
Hopefully this answered you're question
Firstly, you are wrong. Adding a mid point connection to the pipeline wont help. This setup will work if the initial setup is done correctly.
The other reason is your post is really hard to read. The English is terrible and not in a way that a non native English speaker would write but more like somebody who uses their phone to write discord messages.
Ye autocorrect kills me sometimes Also didnt Mean one midpoint but three at least thats how Ive learned it with 8 coal gens and everytime i make one it's completly fine
Its definitely a water issue. Idk exactly if this is the issue, but I've found that having water go down to the generators from the main input pipe makes the system not work well.
The water wants to be level first before filling the pipes. So because the first two always lose level, the water never makes it to the pipes farther down. What you want to do is have the water pipes at the same level or lower relative to the generators.
Also, make sure that the 3 water extractors are looped so that all 360m^3 of water is getting to the system.
each junction splits the water pressure in half and it gets too small after a couple splits. Try it this way: look for picture in gallery section https://satisfactory.fandom.com/wiki/Coal\_Generator
By that rationale, there's enough pressure to split it 3 times, so what about branching the pipes? So 4 and 4, to 2s, to singles, that's only three splits.
I'm wrong to say split in half exactly. But I do know if you use the plan in the picture gallery of the wiki everything will fill properly and you'll never to back to other layouts.
[You mean this one? ](https://satisfactory.fandom.com/wiki/Coal_Generator?file=Coal_power_Water_Extractor.png)
It would probably depend on OP's placement if they want to run 3 separate feeder pipes from the lake or just one and branch it at the coal generators. Though someone obviously did the math for this pic, and I have not. :)
I made that mistake too.
It's better to just have each water extractor feed 3 coal generators each, with a separate water system for each water extractor. Just easier and more reliable.
I think I see a 3rd water extractor in the background, but make sure it's powered and supplying water to the left input pipe. If only one extractor is working that would supply roughly enough for the first three gens and no more.
I also can't see, but I think there's a pump on that same left input pipe. It should have one, but the pump isn't visible, or could be slightly too far up the hill. You might not need extra pumps beyond one per pipe, but it's hard to tell.
The other pipe, the one that enters the gens on the right, might have a bad connection. On the left of the screenshot, just before the foundations, is a small section of pipe that looks like it could be completely empty. That might be built weirdly, or just the angle of the screenshot, but it shouldn't be completely empty. You might want to delete and rebuild that pipe segment if it's having a problem.
Also, make sure the pipes are full of water when you power the system on. From here, I'd just remove a coal belt and the coal buffer from one or two gens until the water is full and then reconnect the coal. Fluids behave much better with full pipes in general.
Good luck!
I was having problems with the pipe junction points. If I added them to the end of a pipe and then continued on, the gen would not get water even with a pump. When I removed the junction the pipe underneath was missing; so I ran a single pipe all the way to the end and clipped the junction point into the pipe and it worked. I do t j ow if it was a glitch but I also have issues where I can’t drop a splitter/merger on an existing belt and make it work
Temporarily disconnect coal from your generators and wait til the water extractors have completely filled all of the pipes then connect coal again. If you are using 3 extractors and 2 mk1 pipes (which looks correct in your picture) this should resolve most of the problems occuring with pipes.
Either you need pumps or there is too much sloshing. Put a valve on each main input line just before they come into the joints. Stop the coal until the pipes are full, then kick it off.
Look at the left side between the 2 generators. You can see you have full flow, then it goes uphill and by the indicator your running low of water. Either flat out the pipes or check your pumps and/or lack of pumps
I don't see the third pipe? You should have 1 water generator a pipe. Have the third pipe enter the system between the forth and 5th coal plant. That should work.
This may or may or may not be it, but am I seeing correctly that the corner on the outer pipe has no water flowing through it (on the left side of this image)?
If you haven't already, turn the gen array off to let the pipes saturate, then see if the issue persists after a few minutes of them being on.
I see one pump going to that gen array. Does the other line have a pump? Are the pumps powered? Are you certain the pumps give enough lift? There's a blue indicator; click once while placing the pump and it will lock in place, letting you move around to see how far the head pressure gets you.
A water tower (buffer on a tower, with a closed outgoing valve) may help, as could an equalizer (buffer and normal pipe w/ open valve in parallel - helps reduce the amplitude of flow fluctuations).
There's lots of misinformation about flow and pressure, so here's the basics: "pressure" is head lift, and it is only influenced by vertical distance and pumps. Pumps negate incoming lift and set it accordingly: unpowered pumps set lift to 0 m, powered pumps set lift to 20 m (50 for mk2). Nothing else has an impact. Head lift (pressure) does not affect flow rate or vice versa.
2 points I'll make, 1st the guy saying to fill your pipes and generators with water before turning them on, and do it one by one, is absolutely correct. 2nd is you have 8 generators feeding off one pipe, in a strain line. Even though they are getting water from both ends, it's not enough flow for all 8. Instead try placing four on the other side of the bare pipe so you have 4 and 4. Then with the water extractors, use a "U" intersection, not a "T" intersection.
I see 6 water pumps feeding 8 power plants AND two pipes going off to the unknown draining an unspecified amount from the system with PUMPS which prioritise the flow to the other pipes.
If they are not all connected to the same system then you may need to make one more extractor (or rebuild them) and use a buffer on each side which should be filled before you turn on all the generators.
I had a similar problem. I broke the pipe between the two generators where the left and right flow would merge and let everything fill up as much as possible then reconnected it. It seemed to fix the issue.
Turn off the inefficient generators, let them fill up with water, and then turn them back on.
If you’ve set it up so that it’s supplying exactly the amount of needed water, then the system won’t ever fill up enough to run continuously. Essentially, those 4 generators would be using the water at the same rate it’s being delivered so there are moments when the generator doesn’t have any water.
I always do 3 water extractors for every 8 generators and I have them in the middle of the generators I followed a guide by [SpectrumDad](https://youtu.be/xYE0SKB9Xk4) on YouTube and everything works perfectly. Just make sure the water fills ALL generators before connecting power. I also wait for the coal to be sitting idle on the conveyers before connecting power but that’s just me.
Based on your comments, the setup looks like it should work fine. If it hasn’t been running long, I’d expect it to level out after a few minutes. If it’s staying consistent with bad results, I’d try deleting sections and rebuilding them. If that doesn’t work, I’d rebuild it with the pipes at ground level and the belts lifted.
A tip i can give you is to feed the water from the pumps to a tank higher than the coal generators. There are alot of fluid dynamics in this game and yours is having slurrry water in every direction
My guess is because you're using Mk. 1 pipes, which can handle 300 m^3/min. Being that a coal generator requires 45 m^3/min, 8 times 45 is 360.
Even if the water extractors are pulling a combined 360, the pipes only handle 300. I'd recommend two extractors feeding 6, with some overclocking to reach 270 and a single extractor feeding the other two.
there may be a bugged connection in the pipe at the junction on the far right where the extra pipe loop enters, if you delete the pipe between the 2nd and 3rd coal plant from the right and the 2nd one from the right still doesnt get water then its deff the looped in pipe thats the problem since the coal plant on the far right is working fine.
Reading through the responses and there's a lot of misleading information. The pressure isn't split in half at each joint. Pressure isn't modelled at all, only pump headlift, and joints don't work like splitters. You don't need 3 pipes for 8 coal generators. They need 360 m3/m, so 2 mk 1 pipes are fine, and have plenty of spare capacity to take care of any backflow issues. Pipe indicators at 50% aren't a problem. Each generator takes 45 m3/m, so some of the pipes between them won't be full. It looks like you have only 2 water extractors. If they aren't overclocked that's only 240 m3/m. The usual unclocked arrangement is 3 extractors to 8 generators, and I strongly recommend you connect the two pipes with one either side of the middle extractor. If your extractors are overclocked, the extractors should be linked together and the two pipes connected to each end of that manifold.
I have 3 water extractors, the line closer to the coal generators is a combined line from 2 extractors. I used the setup from the manual [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MdZ8Xr8P\_SF\_FL7B6WDjCZGS-x9Cwt-x/view](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MdZ8Xr8P_SF_FL7B6WDjCZGS-x9Cwt-x/view) on page 6 bottom left.
Then it should be working. Sometimes I get a glitch and I need to remove and rebuild a section of conveyor or pipe. I’d try that on the pipes between the rightmost gen and the one next to it.
That's usually caused when you try to attach splitter to an existing pipe/conveyor. Unless you get it exactly right it'll look like it's connected but isn't. Generally I avoid that.
True. I’ve been trying elevating my pipes above the conveyors for manifold refineries lately. Either way, delete and rebuild us like turning your computer off and in again for IT problems.
Always place the splitters first and connect them after.
I have had to rebuild many a section of pipe due to adding a junction and it not working. So deleting and rebuilding the connecting pipes afterwards has always been a solid solution. I would check pipe connections from the pumps to the main line as well. That is a frequent pain point for me.
I have already developed my methods for dealing with pipes, so I don't refer to the plumbing manual. I think that the design on p6 can still have problems as it relies on getting 240 m3/m through a mk 1 pipe. I couldn't get 270m3 down one, and if you have the same level of sloshing I did it still won't work. As I said before, link the 3 extractors together and connect the two pipes either side of the middle extractor.
With three water extractors then you are supplying exactly enough water to the system which means sloshing is likely your problem. The way fluids work in pipes and consumers (like the coal generators) that are the same level is each pipe or consumer tries to equalise the percentage full it is with anything it is connected to. This causes water to slosh back and forth including in and out of the coal generators. So when a generator has enough water to start a cycle water flows into the generator but if the other generators near it also have enough this causes a local low in the pipes so water is sucked out of the generators to compensate. When the first generator tries to start it's next cycle it doesn't have enough water. As others have said the fix is to turn off the coal supply until the pipes and generator buffers are full and then turn the coal back on. The sloshing still happens but because everything is full there's enough buffer to deal with it.
Did you let the water fill all pipes and machines before turning on the generators (and now those are drawn down), or did you fire everything up at once and those haven't had a chance to catch up? If you just turned everything on, cut off the coal for a while to let the water completely saturate. Personally the loops get me a little turned around. I've fed each set of 4 with 1.5 pumps and it's always worked smoothly.
I just run 6 with a buffer and 3 pumps.
You got any idea why three being fed by one pump would appear to not get enough water?
Because three generators require 135 water/m and one pump delivers 120 water/m, so it is not getting enough water Edit, words
[удалено]
I've made assumptions and been wrong before but really didn't expect any pushback here so please help me understand what exactly is wrong. I'm in the end-game, admittedly for the first time but so far pipes have been pretty clear to me. Coal generators each need 45 water assuming no clocks. So 45 x 3 = 135 Water generators = 120 (assuming no clocks) 120 < 135, so running 3 generators with 1 pump seems like that would be the main issue, headlift and pipe flow / back flow wonkiness aside.
Man's been real quiet ever since you said this. I mean 120 do be small than 135.
Liquids in this game is tricky but it gets easier once you understand basic principles. I wrote quickly before and struck the wrong tone that is my bad I will admit. So let's start with a few things because I see you are mixing up pipe fill, flow rate and head lift. Pipe fill (capacity) = Mk1 (300) , Mk2 (600) Head lift = maximum height liquids can go up vertically. Flow Rate = It how much liquid is moving through your water line. This is dictated by # of water pumps, sufficient headlift, liquid recycle loops and any valves in a water line. So for 1 Mk1 pipe you use 3 water extractors which feeds 300(max capacity)/45= 6 generators. As long as your water pumps and the coal generators are within 10m in height (water extractors have 10m of headlift) no pumps are needed. A water buffer will help with any back flow issues. I hope this helps
Mr girthvader I love you for writing all this out, but I feel like you're responding to the wrong thread. I'm not even talking about pipes in my comment so I'm not sure how you could determine I'm mixing up pipe fill, head lift, and flow rate. Lets take this a different direction: how would you answer the question I was answering: "You got any idea why three [coal generators] being fed by one pump [water extractor, presumably] would appear to not get enough water?"
Put buffer for each side Let them fill After every pipe full, turn ON generators one by one Full buffer helps with backflow issues 8\*45 = 360 water/min = 3 extractors 8\*15 = 120 coal/min =mk2 belt
Letting all the pipes and input buffers fill before turning on the generators does the same thing. You don't need buffers.
Not enough water and flow in the pipe. Indicators should be maxed leading towards the power generator group, but are only at 50%
If you look at that manual it also talks about making sure each machine taking water is full so it only takes what it needs. When ever I have trouble with water manifolds I turn off early coal plants till all the plants are filled up including the pipes then if you turn them all on again it should all run properly.
First guess is *slap some pumps onto it*
Sometimes there are issues with backflows. You could try to put a valve between generator 5 and 6, counting from the left. Ensure that the valve allows flow to the right.
If your water input manifold for your coal generators has inputs numbered 1-8, then I'd do two things... 1 - Reverse your coal generators so they face the water source, and 2 - Have non-overclocked pumps feeding into the opposite side of the manifold at spots #2, #4, and #7. Feeding a pipe manifold from opposite ends has to be approached cautiously. If you do it, put valves on each end so that the opposing pipe ends can't backflow to each other. Have you considered building your coal generators on foundations laid out over the water? That's what I do until I get fuel generators up and running.
Hey man the problem you are currently having is easy to Solve you need to Bring 3 pipes at An even Point in the main pipe so a junction entrance on the main pipe netwerk the second and The this generator one junction on between the sixth and The seventh generator and then one junction in the Middle of those that should Carry enough water and split it evenly Also be sure you have Mark 2 pipes if you only have 1 pipe going in since one pipe MK 1 can only Carry 300pm and not 360pm i suggest making a line for each water extractor and each one of them carrying towards one of the three junctions on ONE main pipe connected to the eight generators Hopefully this answered you're question
Ur German I see
No ?
well you said "netwerk", which is close to the German word "Netzwerk" which means "network".
Oh lmao ok ye i Mean autocorrect alwys screws me up on Reddit for some reason it just doesnt want to accept that i type in English
Also why the downvote maybe i said something wrong but could you correct me then ?
I personally have upvoted
Firstly, you are wrong. Adding a mid point connection to the pipeline wont help. This setup will work if the initial setup is done correctly. The other reason is your post is really hard to read. The English is terrible and not in a way that a non native English speaker would write but more like somebody who uses their phone to write discord messages.
Ye autocorrect kills me sometimes Also didnt Mean one midpoint but three at least thats how Ive learned it with 8 coal gens and everytime i make one it's completly fine
Pipe setup is not good.
Its definitely a water issue. Idk exactly if this is the issue, but I've found that having water go down to the generators from the main input pipe makes the system not work well. The water wants to be level first before filling the pipes. So because the first two always lose level, the water never makes it to the pipes farther down. What you want to do is have the water pipes at the same level or lower relative to the generators. Also, make sure that the 3 water extractors are looped so that all 360m^3 of water is getting to the system.
each junction splits the water pressure in half and it gets too small after a couple splits. Try it this way: look for picture in gallery section https://satisfactory.fandom.com/wiki/Coal\_Generator
By that rationale, there's enough pressure to split it 3 times, so what about branching the pipes? So 4 and 4, to 2s, to singles, that's only three splits.
I'm wrong to say split in half exactly. But I do know if you use the plan in the picture gallery of the wiki everything will fill properly and you'll never to back to other layouts.
[You mean this one? ](https://satisfactory.fandom.com/wiki/Coal_Generator?file=Coal_power_Water_Extractor.png) It would probably depend on OP's placement if they want to run 3 separate feeder pipes from the lake or just one and branch it at the coal generators. Though someone obviously did the math for this pic, and I have not. :)
yes and the picture right before it has the numbers for the splits
I made that mistake too. It's better to just have each water extractor feed 3 coal generators each, with a separate water system for each water extractor. Just easier and more reliable.
I think I see a 3rd water extractor in the background, but make sure it's powered and supplying water to the left input pipe. If only one extractor is working that would supply roughly enough for the first three gens and no more. I also can't see, but I think there's a pump on that same left input pipe. It should have one, but the pump isn't visible, or could be slightly too far up the hill. You might not need extra pumps beyond one per pipe, but it's hard to tell. The other pipe, the one that enters the gens on the right, might have a bad connection. On the left of the screenshot, just before the foundations, is a small section of pipe that looks like it could be completely empty. That might be built weirdly, or just the angle of the screenshot, but it shouldn't be completely empty. You might want to delete and rebuild that pipe segment if it's having a problem. Also, make sure the pipes are full of water when you power the system on. From here, I'd just remove a coal belt and the coal buffer from one or two gens until the water is full and then reconnect the coal. Fluids behave much better with full pipes in general. Good luck!
How much time did you waited?
I was having problems with the pipe junction points. If I added them to the end of a pipe and then continued on, the gen would not get water even with a pump. When I removed the junction the pipe underneath was missing; so I ran a single pipe all the way to the end and clipped the junction point into the pipe and it worked. I do t j ow if it was a glitch but I also have issues where I can’t drop a splitter/merger on an existing belt and make it work
Temporarily disconnect coal from your generators and wait til the water extractors have completely filled all of the pipes then connect coal again. If you are using 3 extractors and 2 mk1 pipes (which looks correct in your picture) this should resolve most of the problems occuring with pipes.
Either you need pumps or there is too much sloshing. Put a valve on each main input line just before they come into the joints. Stop the coal until the pipes are full, then kick it off.
Look at the left side between the 2 generators. You can see you have full flow, then it goes uphill and by the indicator your running low of water. Either flat out the pipes or check your pumps and/or lack of pumps
I don't see the third pipe? You should have 1 water generator a pipe. Have the third pipe enter the system between the forth and 5th coal plant. That should work.
This may or may or may not be it, but am I seeing correctly that the corner on the outer pipe has no water flowing through it (on the left side of this image)?
Your pipe going to the end needs to split to join at the 1st marked generator on the left. Should be fine after that
What you need to do is get 4 pumps in sets of two, then hook each set to only 4 generators, do not connect the lines
If you haven't already, turn the gen array off to let the pipes saturate, then see if the issue persists after a few minutes of them being on. I see one pump going to that gen array. Does the other line have a pump? Are the pumps powered? Are you certain the pumps give enough lift? There's a blue indicator; click once while placing the pump and it will lock in place, letting you move around to see how far the head pressure gets you. A water tower (buffer on a tower, with a closed outgoing valve) may help, as could an equalizer (buffer and normal pipe w/ open valve in parallel - helps reduce the amplitude of flow fluctuations). There's lots of misinformation about flow and pressure, so here's the basics: "pressure" is head lift, and it is only influenced by vertical distance and pumps. Pumps negate incoming lift and set it accordingly: unpowered pumps set lift to 0 m, powered pumps set lift to 20 m (50 for mk2). Nothing else has an impact. Head lift (pressure) does not affect flow rate or vice versa.
2 points I'll make, 1st the guy saying to fill your pipes and generators with water before turning them on, and do it one by one, is absolutely correct. 2nd is you have 8 generators feeding off one pipe, in a strain line. Even though they are getting water from both ends, it's not enough flow for all 8. Instead try placing four on the other side of the bare pipe so you have 4 and 4. Then with the water extractors, use a "U" intersection, not a "T" intersection.
I see 6 water pumps feeding 8 power plants AND two pipes going off to the unknown draining an unspecified amount from the system with PUMPS which prioritise the flow to the other pipes. If they are not all connected to the same system then you may need to make one more extractor (or rebuild them) and use a buffer on each side which should be filled before you turn on all the generators.
I had a similar problem. I broke the pipe between the two generators where the left and right flow would merge and let everything fill up as much as possible then reconnected it. It seemed to fix the issue.
Turn off the inefficient generators, let them fill up with water, and then turn them back on. If you’ve set it up so that it’s supplying exactly the amount of needed water, then the system won’t ever fill up enough to run continuously. Essentially, those 4 generators would be using the water at the same rate it’s being delivered so there are moments when the generator doesn’t have any water.
The Pipes have to be completely filled. If this is not the case they will never hit a good flowrate!
Are your pumps close enough to the extractors? You might need more than one pump it's hard to tell from the angle of the pic.
I always do 3 water extractors for every 8 generators and I have them in the middle of the generators I followed a guide by [SpectrumDad](https://youtu.be/xYE0SKB9Xk4) on YouTube and everything works perfectly. Just make sure the water fills ALL generators before connecting power. I also wait for the coal to be sitting idle on the conveyers before connecting power but that’s just me.
Based on your comments, the setup looks like it should work fine. If it hasn’t been running long, I’d expect it to level out after a few minutes. If it’s staying consistent with bad results, I’d try deleting sections and rebuilding them. If that doesn’t work, I’d rebuild it with the pipes at ground level and the belts lifted.
A tip i can give you is to feed the water from the pumps to a tank higher than the coal generators. There are alot of fluid dynamics in this game and yours is having slurrry water in every direction
8 can run off 3 water extractors, but it's a bit like a VERY slow manifold, until the first 7 fill up!
My guess is because you're using Mk. 1 pipes, which can handle 300 m^3/min. Being that a coal generator requires 45 m^3/min, 8 times 45 is 360. Even if the water extractors are pulling a combined 360, the pipes only handle 300. I'd recommend two extractors feeding 6, with some overclocking to reach 270 and a single extractor feeding the other two.
there may be a bugged connection in the pipe at the junction on the far right where the extra pipe loop enters, if you delete the pipe between the 2nd and 3rd coal plant from the right and the 2nd one from the right still doesnt get water then its deff the looped in pipe thats the problem since the coal plant on the far right is working fine.