Steam Machines are the lowest tier of all machines in GregTech 5. These are made during what is referred to as the Bronze Age.
Steam Machines come in two versions: the Bronze version and the High Pressure version.
Running your steam machines[]
Steam Machines are powered by steam which you can obtain from a Small Coal Boiler. Steam from Railcraft can also be used.
All steam machines have an exhaust hole which will eject "used" steam after each operation. You need to make sure that the space facing the hole is cleared. Otherwise, the machine will stop any further processing until it can eject its steam. The hole is at the back of the machine by default and its position can be changed using a Wrench with a right click.
Here is an image showing both the front and back of the Bronze Steam Furnace. Notice the square hole at the back of the machine for ejecting steam.
Note that the ejected steam will deal damage to any entities should they be in its path. Below is a side view of a Steam Furnace ejecting steam.
Steam Machines can suffer from the "Insufficient Energy Line" problem; if they run out of energy (Steam), they stop working and their progress is reset. It is extremely inefficient to allow that to happen, and should be avoided at all costs. However, if it does happen, a machine stuck in "Insufficient Energy Line" can be disabled by right-clicking it with a Soft Hammer, which will allow its internal Steam reserve to refill.
An easy way to work around this problem is to let your boilers run until they have built up a decent amount of steam (maybe 3/4 full), run your machines until the boilers are empty, rinse, and repeat. While this takes micromanagement, it can save a lot of Steam and Fuel in small factory setups.
Recipes and Energy[]
Steam Machines do not have their own recipe lists in NEI, but their recipes can be seen indirectly. All Steam Machines use the same recipe lists as their corresponding Electric Machines, with two things to keep in mind.
- Steam Machines can only carry out recipes listed to consume 16 EU/t or less.
- Steam Machines consume Steam per tick equal to 2x recipe's listed EU/t, time equal to 2x the recipe's listed time, and total Steam equal to 4x the recipe's listed total EU.
Steam Machines therefore consume at most 32 Steam/tick, with most consuming less. The Steam/tick consumed by different Steam Machines is listed in their respective pages.
There is one very odd mechanic in how Steam is accepted and consumed in Steam Machines (and not Steam Turbines. When Steam enters a machine, half of the incoming Steam is discarded. Then, when the machine tries to consume energy to carry out recipes, it consumes its stored Steam as if it was EU, at a 1:1 ratio. This input halving is where the 2:1 Steam:EU ratio is established. This also means that using a Portable Scanner to read the Steam stored within and consumed by a Steam Machine will show you only half of the actual Steam consumption.
High Pressure Machines[]
Although they are called High Pressure, High Pressure Machines do not differ much from their Bronze counterparts. There is no such thing as "High Pressure Steam" or "Low Pressure Steam" in GregTech. The difference is that High Pressure Machines consume Steam at 3x the rate of Low Pressure Machines, but operate twice as quickly, resulting in a 50% increase in total steam consumption per operation. Or, when looking at their recipes in NEI, they consume Steam and Steam/tick equal to 6x their recipes' listed EU and EU/t costs.
High Pressure Machines also require Steel which you can make from a Bronze Blast Furnace. Since the Bronze Blast Furnace requires a large amount of materials, it is recommended that you build the Bronze Steam Machines first even if trying to rush the Bronze Blast Furnace in order to obtain steel as early as possible is an option.
Other properties of Steam Machines[]
All Steam Machines will interact with Item and Fluid Pipes from many different mods to allow automated Steam insertion and automated item insertion and extraction. Be advised that GregTech Steam Machines will not automatically output items, items must be pulled from them in some way by the pipes; and again, remember not to block the vent.
Steam Machines can also be spray painted with all the normal Gregtech spray cans. This will change both the color of the machine and the GUI.