Pump

Pumps moving oil, water and lava.

Pumps are devices in BuildCraft that are capable of gathering liquids. They were first introduced in Buildcraft version 2.2.0.

Pumps actually take more than just directly around them, so when pumping oil that is surrounded by water, it is wise to have two tanks, (one for oil, one for water) or the water will get stuck in the pipe and no more oil will be able to be pumped.

Another method of separating the water and oil involves building a wall of gravel/sand. Use a Lily Pad to drop sand/gravel around the main oil spout, cutting off the water. This method is perhaps best for oil deposits at sea as without doing so the pump will extract a very large quantity of water (likely filling any secondary water tanks, stopping oil extraction) and leave a big hole in the sea.

Recipe

Note: This recipe is for the newest version of Buildcraft. The recipe was changed from the old recipe (1 x Mining Well with 1 x Tank on top of it in a crafting table)

Ingredients:

• 2 x Tank
• 4 x Iron Ingot
• 1 x Bucket
• 1 x Iron Gear
• 1 x Redstone

Produces: 1 x Pump

See: Crafting Guide

Crafting Guide (An External Page) and the Setup Demonstration use the old recipe.

Setup Demonstration

A short video guide on how to use Pump.

Power usage and outputs

A pump uses 10 MJ per pumped block. Max filling rate is 20 buckets / sec, on 10 MJ/tick, from 2 Combustion engines running on fuel (fuel equals 6 MJ when used in a Combustion engine, so 2 Combustion engines will actually provide 12 MJ). (Information may not be accurate)

Note that a single pipe won't hold the load of a maxed out pump, nor will 4 Gold Waterproof Pipes as they all provide 4x1.6=6.4 buckets / sec, a little more than a third of the capacity needed. Therefore it is advised to place a tank directly next to the pump.

Filling rate

Steam Engines will fill a block of Stone Waterproof Pipe per revolution. Combustion Engines will fill a single block of Gold Waterproof Pipe per revolution. A pump can take up to 4 Steam Engines or 2 Combustion Engines burning oil or 1 Combustion Engine burning fuel without causing an explosion.

If you are using redstone engines, 10 running at max heat will fill a stone waterproof pipe.

Draining lava

A pump working on lava will empty it because lava does not replenish blocks the way water does.

Infinite Water

Place a pump above a 3 x 3 x 1 deep pool of water for infinite water. The pump must go above one of the four corners of this pool and can be powered by any set of engines you like - the pool will refill itself faster than it will drain, even at maximum pumping speed to empty Gold Waterproof Pipes.

A 2 x 2 x 1 deep pool will not work, as the pump will occasionally remove more water than the pool can generate. Larger non-square pools will run out as the pump will eventually take water from a block that won't refill itself properly, and this cycle will repeat until the pool is empty.

Pumps will not take water from unconnected sources. Make sure two sources of water are not connected nor touching diagonally to prevent remote-drainage.

Water Supply for Combustion Engines

NOTE: The following information may be outdated, unreliable and/or inconsistent. (See the Comments section of this wiki page for player accounts.) Refer to the next section for further precautions you can take to protect your Combustion Engines from explosive overheating.

• 1 Pump powered by 4 Redstone Engines should supply enough water via gold waterproof pipes for 4 Combustion Engines.
• 1 Pump powered by 1 Steam Engine should supply enough water via gold waterproof pipes for 8 Combustion Engines.
• 1 Pump powered by 1 Combustion Engine should supply enough water via gold waterproof pipes for 16 Combustion Engines. (However: Due to the increased rate the pump extracts source blocks, it may occasionally drain an infinite water source. Thus, it may be preferable to use multiple Pumps over separate water bodies than a single Pump operating at such high efficiency.)

Further Precautions to Avoid Explosive Overheating

Monitor the water supply in your Combustion Engines after your setup has had time to run. If the water supply is falling while the engines are operating, they are not receiving sufficient water, and will explosively overheat if left unattended. Consider one or more of the following:

• Make sure each engine is receiving "equal attention" from the Pump, by ensuring each engine is the same distance from the Pump (i.e. water from the Pump travels through an equal number of pipes before reaching each engine).
• Increase power to the Pump with more and/or better engines.
• Add an additional Pump, positioned over another water source.
• Reduce the number of engines being cooled by the Pump.
• Keep your Pump, engines, and water pipes in the same chunk, so the engines' water supply is not cut off by inconsistent chunk loading.
• Use higher-capacity Gold Waterproof Pipe instead of Cobblestone Waterproof Pipe or Stone Waterproof Pipe.

As a final precaution, consider placing your Combustion Engines behind an Obsidian wall, to protect the expensive equipment they are powering in the event of an explosion.