You will probably craft a furnace right at the start of your world and use 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 more furnaces and a campfire, plus a whole range of different fuels you can use to power them. The system has become much more complex and opens up many new options, especially for returning players. From automatic furnaces to renewable fuel sources, we will walk you through it all in this guide!
Minecraft furnaces explained: Campfire, smoker, and blast furnace
A furnace is used to process and smelt different items. You can cook food with it, but also smelt ores or process stone. It is a versatile block that you will use a lot during your time in Minecraft.
Most players know the standard recipe for a furnace: 8 cobblestone in a ring. It is one of the first workstations you need to craft in Minecraft. However, many do not realise there are more ways to craft one. Instead of cobblestone, you can also use blackstone or cobbled deepslate, and you can even mix these blocks.
A standard furnace is not the only way to process items. Players often forget the campfire, which is especially useful early on to sizzle your food. You only need one coal or charcoal, plus three logs and two sticks. You can then place up to 4 food items on the campfire to cook; after a short while they are done. The advantage: it consumes no fuel.
There are also two more furnaces that are often overlooked: the smoker and the blast furnace. Both process certain items twice as fast. The smoker is crafted from a regular furnace and four logs. It can only process food, but in half the time. For a blast furnace, you need a furnace, 5 iron ingots, and 3 smooth stone. It smelts ores twice as fast, but cannot smelt other item types.
Different furnaces are a great investment if you want to process specific items faster. And campfires are not just atmospheric; they are also a great way to save fuel.
Best fuel in Minecraft: How to power your furnace efficiently
A furnace does not run by itself; it needs fuel to process your items. Minecraft now offers a lot of choice here. Some options are especially worthwhile if you can harvest them renewably and feed them into your furnaces. Here is a look at various 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 at the end and can be reused. That is handy, but lava is not always easy to obtain. Either get it in the Nether or use dripstone and a cauldron to produce it renewably. You will, of course, also need iron for the buckets.
Coal block: A block made from 9 coal smelts 80 items, which is 8 more than smelting with 9 single pieces of coal. If you have collected a lot of coal, coal blocks are absolutely worth it. Coal is only marginally renewable, for example via Wither skeletons. Charcoal is more effort to produce, but it is renewable.
Dried kelp: Kelp is an underrated renewable energy source for your furnaces. You can grow kelp in automatic farms, then craft it with a Crafter and feed it directly into furnaces. A dried kelp block smelts 20 items in general, but because you must first dry the kelp, the net result is only about 11 items. Kelp grows quickly, making it very practical.
Coal: Regular coal or charcoal is the go-to fuel for many beginners. Each smelts 8 items. Sooner or later, you should switch to coal blocks to get more value.
Blaze rod: Blaze rods are only worthwhile if you have built an efficient farm (Build an Automatic Blaze Farm: Infinite Blaze Rods and Experience Points) . Each rod smelts 12 items.
Bamboo: Like kelp, bamboo is renewable and, with an automatic farm, can be gathered in huge quantities. Unprocessed bamboo burns quickly; you need 4 bamboo per smelted item. If you have lots of it, you can still use it as fuel.
Automatic furnace in Minecraft: Hoppers, minecarts, and XP farming
You do not need to refuel furnaces manually; they also work with hoppers and can be loaded and unloaded automatically. Together with rails you can push the automation even further and let your smelters run completely on their own. We have already covered more on item transport in a separate article (Minecraft: Item Transport Systems With and Without Redstone) . You only need to keep enough fuel coming in and supply items you want to process.
The basic setup works like this:
- Hopper on top: Input the items you want to smelt from above.
- Hopper from the side: Feed the furnace with fuel from the side, such as coal, lava buckets, or bamboo.
- Hopper underneath: Extract the finished items from below. Empty buckets from lava also end up here.
This kind of system is also great for passive experience, because smelting items generates a small amount of XP. That XP accumulates in the block and is granted when you manually remove smelted items. Place a lever to power and lock the relevant hopper(s) so you can stop the automation and collect the stored XP. This is especially useful in Peaceful mode to gain experience without fighting monsters.
Conclusion: Use Minecraft furnaces efficiently for XP and farms
The furnace is one of the most important blocks in Minecraft, but many of its mechanics are much more complex than they first seem. From smokers and blast furnaces to renewable fuels and full automation with XP, a furnace can do more than you might think. Use blast furnaces or smokers for the right items and experiment with the campfire. For passive XP, we recommend an automatic smelter, especially in Peaceful mode.
Rent your own Minecraft server from us right now and discover the best ways to use furnaces from the very start. They pair wonderfully with many other automatic farms to build a smooth, integrated setup.
