Mechanical Pipes and Pressurized Tubes are the two Mekanism pipes for liquids and chemicals, with Mechanical Pipes carrying fluids like Water and Lava, and Pressurized Tubes carrying chemicals like Hydrogen and Oxygen. Both are crafted from two 
Steel Ingots, with a 
Bucket in the middle for pipes or a block of 
Glass for tubes, and each recipe gives you eight.
Neither of them will take anything out of a tank on their own, which is the part that catches most players out. You’ll need to switch that side to Pull with a 
Configurator, unless the block at the other end is pushing into the pipe itself, like most of the chemical machines do from their output side.
How to Make It
A 
Basic Mechanical Pipe recipe takes two Steel Ingots with a Bucket between them, and a 
Basic Pressurized Tube swaps the Bucket for Glass. You’ll get eight pieces either way, so a single stack of Steel goes a long way.
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8Higher tiers are crafted by placing eight of the tier below around one alloy, with an 
Infused Alloy for Advanced, a 
Reinforced Alloy for Elite and an 
Atomic Alloy for Ultimate. Tubes follow exactly the same pattern as pipes, and the alloy recipes are on the Alloys and Control Circuits page.
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8A line that’s already placed can be upgraded without breaking it, by right-clicking any piece with the alloy for the next tier. Each alloy upgrades up to eight connected pieces, starting from the nearest, so it costs the same as crafting them would have done.
How It Works
Each side of a pipe or tube that touches a tank or machine has its own mode, which starts as Normal and can be changed to Push, Pull or None. Sneak and right-click the side with a Configurator to cycle it, and you’ll see the new mode in chat.
On Normal, a pipe will hand over whatever it’s carrying, but it won’t pull anything out. A side has to be on Pull for the pipe to drain the block it touches, and it’ll then take up to its tier’s pull rate every tick, as long as there’s room left in the line.
The valves on multiblocks like the 
Dynamic Tank and the Thermal Evaporation Plant never push into a pipe at all. Machines that make a chemical, like the 
Electrolytic Separator, will push it out of their output side by default, whereas the rest need auto-eject turning on in the Side Configuration tab. If a pipe is connected and nothing is flowing, set that side of the pipe to Pull.
All of the pieces in a connected line share one buffer, so a longer run or a higher tier is able to hold more at once. A line of Mechanical Pipes will only hold one kind of fluid at a time though, so you’ll want a separate run for each fluid that you’re moving.
Tiers
Mechanical Pipes
The tier sets how much each piece holds and how much a Pull side is able to take every tick. The jump from Advanced to Elite is the big one, as an 
Elite Mechanical Pipe pulls eight times as much as the 
Advanced Mechanical Pipe.
| Tier | Holds per Pipe | Pull Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | 2,000 mB | 250 mB/t |
| Advanced | 8,000 mB | 1,000 mB/t |
| Elite | 32,000 mB | 8,000 mB/t |
| Ultimate | 128,000 mB | 32,000 mB/t |
A machine with auto-eject on will push 1,024 mB every tick, for fluids and for chemicals. That’s about four times faster than a Basic pipe is able to pull, so early on you’ll usually get more through a line by letting the machine push than by setting the pipe to Pull.
Pressurized Tubes
Tubes hold and pull more than pipes at every tier, as chemicals are moved around in much larger amounts later on. A line of the 
Ultimate Pressurized Tube is what you’ll want for the Steam between a boiler and a turbine, or for the Sodium loop on a big reactor.
| Tier | Holds per Tube | Pull Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | 4,000 mB | 750 mB/t |
| Advanced | 16,000 mB | 2,000 mB/t |
| Elite | 256,000 mB | 64,000 mB/t |
| Ultimate | 1,024,000 mB | 256,000 mB/t |
The gap is small at the bottom, as a Basic tube only pulls three times as much as a Basic pipe, but it opens right up from Elite onwards. An 
Elite Pressurized Tube pulls 64,000 mB every tick, whereas an Elite pipe manages 8,000 mB, so it’s worth saving your Reinforced Alloys for the tubes first.
Radioactive Chemicals in Tubes
Pressurized Tubes are able to carry the radioactive chemicals, like Nuclear Waste and Spent Nuclear Waste, which a normal Chemical Tank will refuse. That makes tubes the only way to get waste from a Fission Reactor to a 
Radioactive Waste Barrel or into the machines that reprocess it.
You’ll want to be careful when you’re taking one of those lines apart, as breaking the last tube of a network that still holds a radioactive chemical will release it into the world as radiation. It’s safer to let the line drain into a 
Barrel first, and the Radiation page explains what happens if it does leak.
Upgrades and Automation
Pipes and tubes don’t use energy and they don’t take upgrades, so a faster line always means a higher tier. A plain right-click with the Configurator also toggles whether a piece reacts to redstone, which lets you shut a line off with a signal.
There’s nothing that filters fluids or chemicals in Mekanism, as the 
Logistical Sorter only works on items. To keep two fluids apart you’ll need two lines, and to stop a pipe joining a machine it passes, set that side to None.
Mekanism doesn’t have any covers or facades for its pipes and cables either, so a line can’t be hidden behind a panel. The fluid that these pipes carry usually ends up in storage at one end, and the Fluid Tank page goes through the tiers and how to empty them again.
FAQ
A Mechanical Pipe only drains a tank when that side is set to Pull, which you’ll do by sneaking and right-clicking it with a Configurator. Otherwise the block has to push into it. Most chemical machines do that from their output side by default, whereas a multiblock valve never pushes, and other machines need auto-eject turning on in the Side Configuration tab.
Mechanical Pipes carry fluids, like Water, Lava and Brine, whereas Pressurized Tubes carry chemicals, like Hydrogen, Oxygen and Steam. They’re crafted and upgraded in the same way, but tubes hold and pull more at every tier, and they’re able to carry radioactive chemicals as well.
Mekanism doesn’t add covers, facades or panels for its cables, pipes or tubes, so they can’t be hidden inside another block. The only option is to route them behind walls or under floors, or to use 
Structural Glass around a multiblock, which is a casing block and not a cover.
Fluids and chemicals can’t be filtered, as there’s no filter block for Mechanical Pipes or Pressurized Tubes. Items are different, as a Logistical Sorter is able to filter what goes into a Logistical Transporter, and each filter can be given a color to send it down its own branch.
