Factorio Forums

I may have used the logistic chests incorrectly before unlocking the later chest types. I played for a few hours with my factory outputting items into Passive Provider Chests and all bot deconstruction going into a large quantity of Storage Chests without any sorting. Now that I have Buffer, Requester, and Active Provider Chests unlocked, I'd like to empty out the central storage chests so that resources can go back into use.

For example:
1. Move all raw ore to the input of smelting arrays
2. Move all intermediate products to the start of the main bus
3. And maybe (but not required) move final products back to the production area.

I know the last example above requires me to replace all my Passive Provider Chests with Storage Chests set to filter a specific item. I think the first example requires using Requester Chests since there is only one place I want raw ore to go to. But how do I do the second example? I want some intermediate products to be in chests in various places around the factory so they can be used for production, which means a Requestor Chest would make an infinite request loop. Am I stuck just leaving these in Storage Chests until they eventually get used?


And more generally, is the following how I should have set up the logistic system to begin with so I don't end up with a mess like this in future plays?
1. Don't use Passive Provider Chests
2. Output production to filtered Storage Chests
3. Use Requestor Chests for inputs to production machines
4. Use Buffer Chests to have a central inventory of specific items in a single storage container
5. Use Active Provider Chests to take specific items from one place and force them to go somewhere else (e.g., used nuclear fuel)

An overview about the role of the logistic chests, in their most generic form of use:

• for crafting machine output, use a provider chest. A passive provider chest, if the intended output is less than one full chest. An active provider chest if the intended output is more than one chest. Items are immediately carried away from an active provider chest, so it is always empty, so the crafting machine is always free to output something and will never clog. It's required to stop crafting by some means to not overflow the network with items.
• for crafting machine input, use a requester chest. Request the ingredients you need, it will be delivered for the machine to use.
• build a good number of storage chests. Items from active provider chests, from deconstruction and from player/vehicle trash slots will be put into these. It's not required to add filters to the storage chests, it's absolutely fine to get an unsorted mess of items, because bots don't care for that mess. If an item is requested, they will find it wherever it is in the heap
• if you want items nearby available for request, but these are being produced at some distance, use a buffer chest. A buffer chest requests items from anywhere (except other buffer chests) and makes them available for requester chests, so if an item is being requested, it is being served from the buffer chest nearby very fast instead of taking a long flight from the other side of the base.

There are possible optimizations of this generic use.
Instead of a passive provider chest, you can use a storage chest and set its filter to the items it is intended to store. This way deconstructed items are being put into that chest in addition to items being put there as output from an assembler. Feasible if just one item is stored in that chest, not different items as output from multiple assemblers.

If you want to dedicate and reserve some given storage chest for a certain item, give it a filter with that item. Bots will place only that item into that chest.


An active provider chest is used whenever you want to ensure that the inserter moving items never clogs and stalls. It's some kind of bottomless chest. An active provider chest is always empty, except if there are not enough logistic robots and/or roboports for charging.

A requester chest removes items from the logistic network. They leave the network inventory.
A buffer chest doesn't remove items from the logistic network. They stay in the network inventory. It just moves the items.

About your examples:
if you want to move items, then use the items, use a requester chest. If you want to move items but keep them available within the logistic network, use a buffer chest.