Pump quick facts
- Consumes non-lava liquid inside its tile
- Only the central 2×2 area picks up liquid
- Fully non-solid, so stray solids can block it
- Feeds attached Pipes, which lead to Liquid Vents
Fluid transport
Sandustry Pump: The Intake That Feeds Your Pipe Network
The Pump is the mouth of a liquid line. It drinks any non-lava liquid sitting in its own tile and pushes it out through attached Pipes, which is how a pool of Water becomes a steady supply somewhere else on the map.
Liquid → Pipe
Skips Lava
Central 2×2 intake
Official wiki numbers
Verified against v0.5.5 on 2026-08-20
Official source
Pull Water, Step by Step
Most Pump problems are not about the machine refusing to work — they are about a footprint that is larger than the part that actually drinks. Check each stage as you wire the intake.
Sit the central 2×2 in liquid
The Pump occupies a 4-by-4 tile, but only its central 2-by-2 squares actually pull liquid. Anchor that middle square in the pool you want to drink from.
Checkpoint: the center of the Pump sits in liquid.
Keep the intake clear of solids
Because the Pump blocks nothing, solid pixels such as Gold can fall straight into it and displace the Water. A Pump full of debris stops transporting, with no obvious warning.
Checkpoint: only liquid fills the Pump's intake.
Run one liquid per network
Pumped liquids mingle inside shared Pipes, and every connected Vent spits out whatever is in the line. Connect only one liquid type per network unless you are building a deliberate mixing setup.
Checkpoint: a single liquid travels through the attached Pipes.
Confirm flow at a Vent
The Pump alone does not finish the job; the liquid must be released somewhere. Attach the line to a Liquid Vent and watch the release point as the Pump runs.
Checkpoint: water exits at the far Vent.
When the Pump Stalls
A Pump fails silently more often than any other fluid machine. Here is how to spot and fix each quiet stall.
A solid pixel is wedged inside
Only the bottom few pixels of a Pump read as slightly transparent, so debris inside is easy to miss. Hover the Grabber over the Pump and clear anything other than the liquid you meant to pump.
The lower layers are covered
Because only the middle 2-by-2 area drinks, you can choke a Pump by burying just its lower layers. Uncover that intake and the machine pulls again.
Two liquids are sharing one line
Shared Pipes split whatever is pumped across every connected Vent. Keep each liquid on its own network unless you want the mixture.