Why is there no way to manipulate liquids? I have a large 60L tank full of water, but I can’t get the water into pots or any other containers to boil it to make it drinkable! I can’t be hauling this huge thing over to my fire (which is inside) all the time.
The stationary tanks have faucets and can dispense water, but you can’t get water into them, as they won’t accept a funnel, which makes no sense!
How do people manage this, it’s so frustrating!
Alright, so to start, pots and other containers that aren’t “resealable” can only be filled with liquid if they’re wielded in your hands or set on stable (not a vehicle) ground. They would work poorly just loose in your backpack.
To pour water into a stationary tank or otherwise transfer it from one container to another you must (U)nload and select the container you want to be the giving container, it will then prompt you for what container you want to be the receiving container.
To boil water you don’t have to put it in the pot. Have an empty or partially empty container in your inventory or nearby and open the crafting window with “&” you need the water within a couple tiles and a fire or other heat source, but select “clean water” in the crafting menu, and once crafted chose what container you put it in.
And thus you can avoid dying of dysentery and/or dehydration.
I’d definitely recommend looking up starting guides or tutorials to help you get a feel for the game. Once you’ve got the basics the rest comes naturally.
No, none of that is useful to me, I already know all of the basics. My issue is a failure in common sense functional mechanics.
The only reason I use pots to cart water from place to place is that they carry 8 units of water, and they’re quite common, and they fill with funnels. They also seem to be prioritized if you left more than one thing in a square with a funnel.
My issue is that there is no way to take water that I am NOT using in a recipe, i.e. “clean water recipe”, and move it into another container. If I have that 60L container, the water is effectively trapped in there forever, because I can’t unload it because I cannot inspect it, because it is not in my inventory. I have to “wield” it, and pick it up, thereby removing it from the environment.
I should either be able to just dip the pot in it by activating the damn pot, or have to attach a faucet to it and be able to dispense from it like I could a stationary water tank.
Now on to the tank issue, which I already explained, they’re useless. I can disassemble them and reassemble them elsewhere. But you can’t put a funnel on them (why?! no good reason). And you can’t fill them reasonably because you’re limited to what you have in your hand, and that’s a tiny amount of water that you probably want to drink, so why would you ever fill it by hand? It’s ludicrous.
I know about sealable and nonsealable containers, and I don’t care, it makes no difference to this problem whatsoever.
I also know how to boil the water, it has nothingto do with this problem. I did not ask how to boil water. I quite clearly specify manipulating liquids, as in carting them around in some reasonable fashion.
The advanced inventory screen lets you see the contents of an item, and indeed see water, if I’m *wielding an item that can hold water I should be able to move the contents in that screen if nothing else, into that container. I’d go even further and say I should be able to bail liquids from one container to another if I’m wielding a container. None of this makes sense.
TL:DR I am not asking how to make/get clean water; I am criticizing the inventory systems blatant ignoring of the need to manipulate liquids.
So I just created a new test world, spawned in a 60L container and filled it to the brim with water out of a nearby shallow water source that I edited into the starting shelter. Then I wielded a copper pot walked up to the 60L and [U]nloaded it into my copper pot. (without picking the 60L tank up)
As for filling standing tanks, one of my current characters has a setup with two 32L clay jugs with funnels that can collect far more unpurified water than I can ever use which I then store in a standing tank underground to purify for drinking or cleaning clothes.
My entire base is built around 60L containers and standing tanks holding fuel and water so I’m very used to moving liquids around and I’m not fully grasping what exactly your problem is, here, sorry. 
My apologies. Based on your post it seemed like you were trying to fill pots with water in order to boil the water. As for the rest of that, MamaLlama explains it well above. Just (U)nload the 60L tank that’s on the ground while standing above or near it, and select the receiving container. The 60L tank doesn’t have to be in your inventory.
Standing tanks and kegs are hardly useless. For static people they’re ideal for storing booze since you can just stick it next to a fermenting vat and move the 100s of units of alcohol.
Filling it by hand is actually pretty easy with a large container. Just pick up the 60L tank of clean water and dump it in. If you’re only wielding it for a second it’s not going to hassle you too much. Or when you craft clean water simply choose the keg as the receiving container. Similar to what MamaLlama posted with the 32L containers.
The issue of not being able to use a funnel is simply because it’s a construction rather than an item and funnels aren’t really coded to fill construction containers. You’re welcome to try and fix it, but I’m not sure how you would get it to recognize constructions as a valid container.
@MamaLlama, how? This doesn’t work for me, it I try it and it tells me I can’t do it with liquids, but if I wield the stupid thing it somehow works…
I assume you’re just wielding the pot/container and hitting “U” and choosing the 60L container on the ground? So not sure why I am getting different behaviour. I’m suddenly reminded of the zombie slave knife issues, but there’s no qualities here that could be different.
@Trigon, I also apologize, I ranted a bit there and you’re just trying to help.
Maybe it’s a mod or something, though I only choose ones from the in game menu. Maybe I’ll try a shot without it and figure out the debug menu and try to make it work.
And I figured that was why funnels didn’t work, it just seems like a silly way of doing things, if things, constructs or items, have a particular tag they should be able to work, so long as they’re outside.
I assume vehicle tanks can have funnels after all, right?
Yes. Vehicle funnels are built onto the roof from the regular vehicle menu rather than placed as per typical use. I always place them over the tank I want to be my dirty water tank but I can’t remember how exactly they work otherwise since I’ve always done it that way out of habit.
How old is your save? There was a bug related to liquids freezing that made them unusable until they froze and thawed again after it was fixed and that was fairly recent so you might have some leftover issues from it.
@MamaLlama like a week old I think? So maybe. I just started up a new game with yesterdays latest update, so maybe it’ll be better.