Oxygen Not Included Guide: How to Cool Water

After discovering a water geyser in the survival, base-building game Oxygen Not Included, you were probably disappointed to learn that the water from it is too hot to use without overheating most rooms and machines. Though there is no machine with the specific function of cooling down this scorching geyser water, players have managed to figure out a few workarounds for making it usable in showers, hydrofans, etc.

Keep reading to learn how to turn this discovery into a valuable resource.

Method 1: Hydrogen Radiator

This method of water cooling in ONI works by basically running pipes of cold hydrogen through the geyser water to cool it down at the source.

Follow these steps to cool your water: 

1. Build a room to contain the water from the geyser. Keep in mind that the larger the container, the more cycles it will take to completely cool the water inside. A size of about 100 tiles squared would be appropriate.
2. Build an insulated room along with the piping necessary to pump it full of hydrogen. About 13 x 8 tiles should be sufficient.
3. Extend the hydrogen pipes to run through a thermo switch and then into a thermal regulator. Set the thermo switch to turn on when the room’s temperature is above -6 degrees C (21 degrees F). The thermal regulator will cool the hydrogen to the necessary temperatures (about -35 C), while the thermal switch will prevent it from getting so cold that gases start liquefying.
4. Place a gas pump inside the hydrogen room. Run the pipes so that they travel from the gas pump to the water room, zigzag through the water as is shown in the image below, and then end by pumping the hydrogen back into the hydrogen room.
5. Begin pumping hydrogen into the room with the thermal regulator and gas pump, making sure to leave an opening for the polluted oxygen to escape until the room is almost entirely filled with hydrogen.

Image credit: Youtube

If done correctly, the thermal regulator should cool the hydrogen down to around -35 degrees C (-31 F), the hydrogen should travel through the pipes and cool down the geyser water, and the warmed hydrogen should travel back into the hydrogen room to be cooled down and used again.

Method 2: Wolframite Stairs

This method of water cooling in ONI is a bit simpler, but it requires an ice biome and a large amount of wolframite to be feasible. The idea is to run the water over a staircase of blocks with high thermal conductivity, cooling the water as it travels downward.

1. In an ice biome, create a staircase of wolframite blocks. It should be about 60 blocks long. If for some reason you can’t use wolframite, choose the material with the highest possible thermal conductivity and extend the length of the stairs as needed.
2. Build a container at the bottom of the staircase for the cooled water to gather later.
3. Use pipes to pump the hot geyser water out and onto the top of the wolframite staircase.

Thanks to the high thermal conductivity of wolframite, the heat from the water will transfer as it travels over the blocks. The water’s temperature should drop by almost 2 degrees C for each wolframite block it travels over, so it should be usable and cool by the time it flows down the entire staircase.

Now that you have your cool water, feel free to let your dupes shower to their heart’s content! And make sure to check back with GameSkinny for more Oxygen Not Included guides, tips, and tricks.