Smelting Fuel Reference
The burn-time table plus the one crafting trick that gives you 11% more fuel for nothing.
BFCBrilliance · bfcbrilliance.com/tools/minecraft-fuel-calculator
Burn times — ticks and items
- One smelt
- 200 ticks = 10 seconds
- Lava bucket
- 20,000 ticks = 100 items (returns the bucket)
- Block of coal
- 16,000 ticks = 80 items
- Dried kelp block
- 4,000 ticks = 20 items
- Blaze rod
- 2,400 ticks = 12 items
- Coal / charcoal
- 1,600 ticks = 8 items (identical)
- Wooden planks
- 300 ticks = 1.5 items
- Stick
- 100 ticks = 0.5 items
- Bamboo
- 50 ticks = 0.25 items
- ⚠ 9 coal loose
- 72 items
- ⚠ 9 coal as a BLOCK
- 80 items — 8 free smelts, 11.1% more
- Blast furnace / smoker
- twice as FAST, same fuel
Plan a smelt
| What | Items | Fuel chosen | Units needed | Wasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Getting the most out of a furnace
- Coal crafted into BLOCKS before burning — 11.1% more, free and reversible
- Fuel matched to the job size, so the leftover is small
- Lava buckets saved for full 100-item jobs
- Charcoal used where coal is scarce — they are identical
- Sticks and bamboo saved for large automated feeds
- Blast furnace used for ores, smoker for food — twice as fast
- The furnace filled before walking away, not topped up in ones
The nine-coal trick
Nine coal burned loose smelt 72 items. The same nine crafted into one block smelt 80. Eight extra smelts, from one crafting grid, fully reversible. It is the single best fuel decision available and almost nobody does it.
Fuel keeps burning after the items run out
A furnace consumes a whole unit and burns it to the end regardless of whether anything is left to smelt. Twenty items on a lava bucket throws away eighty items' worth of the best fuel in the game. Match the fuel to the job — that matters more than picking the strongest fuel you have.