You’ll likely craft a furnace right at the start of your world and keep using it for the rest of your time in Minecraft. But the mechanics behind this essential block go much deeper than they first appear. These days there are also two specialist furnaces and a campfire, plus a wide range of different fuels to power them. The system has become far more complex and offers returning players plenty of fresh possibilities. From automatic smelters to renewable fuels — we’ll walk you through it all in this guide.
Minecraft furnaces explained: Campfire, Smoker and Blast Furnace
A furnace lets you process and smelt a variety of items. You can cook food, smelt ores or turn stone into other variants. It’s a versatile block you’ll use a lot throughout your Minecraft journey.
Most players will recognise the standard recipe of eight cobblestone arranged in a ring — it’s one of the first workstations you’ll craft. Fewer know you can also use blackstone or cobbled deepslate instead of cobblestone, and even mix these blocks in the same recipe.
A regular furnace isn’t your only option for processing items. Players often forget the campfire, which is excellent early on for grilling your food. You only need one coal or charcoal, three logs and three sticks to craft it. You can place up to four food items on a campfire at once, and after a short while they’re done. The big advantage: it doesn’t consume any fuel.
There are also two more furnaces that are easy to overlook: the smoker and the blast furnace. Both process specific item types twice as fast. A smoker is crafted from one furnace and four logs and can only cook food, but in half the time. A blast furnace requires, in addition to a furnace, five iron ingots and three smooth stone. It smelts ores at double speed, but can’t process anything else.
Specialised furnaces are a smart investment when you want to process certain items faster. And campfires aren’t just atmospheric — they’re a great way to save fuel.
Best fuel in Minecraft: How to power your furnace efficiently
Furnaces don’t run by themselves — they need fuel to process your items. Minecraft now offers plenty of choice here. Some options are particularly worthwhile if you can renewably farm them and feed them into your furnaces. Let’s look at the main materials and resources you can use.
Lava bucket: Lava is the strongest fuel in Minecraft. A single full bucket can smelt 100 items. The bucket is returned afterwards for reuse. That’s very handy, though lava isn’t always easy to access. You can collect it in the Nether or create it renewably using pointed dripstone and a cauldron. You’ll also need iron for the buckets.
Coal block: One block crafted from nine coal smelts 80 items — eight more than using nine individual coal. If you’ve stockpiled coal, coal blocks are absolutely worth it. Coal is only somewhat renewable (for example via Wither Skeletons). Charcoal takes more effort to produce but is fully renewable.
Dried kelp block: An underrated renewable energy source. You can grow kelp in automatic farms, then craft dried kelp blocks with a Crafter and feed them straight into furnaces. A dried kelp block smelts 20 items, but because you must dry nine kelp first to craft the block, your net output works out at about 11 items. Kelp grows quickly, making it very practical.
Coal: Regular coal or charcoal is the staple fuel for many beginners. Each smelts eight items. Sooner or later, switch to coal blocks to squeeze out more efficiency.
Blaze rod: Blaze rods are worth it if you’ve built an efficient farm (Build an Automatic Blaze Farm: Endless Blaze Rods and Experience Points) . Each rod smelts 12 items.
Bamboo: Like kelp, bamboo is renewable and can be harvested in bulk with an automatic farm. Raw bamboo burns quickly — you need four bamboo per smelted item. If you have huge quantities, it can still serve as serviceable fuel.
Automatic furnace in Minecraft: Hoppers, minecarts and XP farming
You don’t have to run furnaces by hand — they work with hoppers and can be fully automated for input and output. Combined with rails, you can take it further still and keep your smelters running completely on their own. We’ve covered item transport in detail here (Minecraft: Item transport systems with and without Redstone) . You’ll only need to top up fuel and supply items you want to process.
The basic setup works like this:
- Hopper on top: Feeds in the items you want to smelt or cook.
- Hopper from the side: Supplies fuel such as coal, lava buckets or bamboo.
- Hopper underneath: Extracts the finished items. Empty buckets are collected here too if you use lava.
This kind of system is also great for passive experience, because smelting in furnaces generates a small amount of XP. Furnaces store that XP until you remove items manually. Fit a lever to power and lock the output hopper so items stay in the furnace, then flick it and take one item by hand to claim the stored XP. This is especially useful in Peaceful mode to gain experience without fighting mobs.
Conclusion: Use Minecraft furnaces efficiently for XP and farms
The furnace is one of Minecraft’s most important blocks, but its mechanics are much deeper than they first appear. From smokers and blast furnaces to renewable fuels and full automation with XP, a furnace can do far more than you might think. Use smokers and blast furnaces for the right items, and experiment with campfires to save fuel. For passive XP, we recommend an automated smelter, especially in Peaceful mode.
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