Updated 25 October 2026. Facts on this page come from minecraft.wiki, minecraft.net and the live Artemis PvP server; sources are listed at the bottom.
Auto-Smelter in Minecraft: Hopper Furnace Setup
An auto-smelter uses hoppers to feed a furnace: a hopper or chest above the furnace drops items into the top slot, a hopper on the side adds fuel, and a hopper under the furnace pulls out what it smelts into a chest. Put several furnaces in a row with hopper chains to smelt stacks at once while you do something else.
How do you build an auto-smelter?
- Place a furnace, blast furnace or smoker.
- Put a hopper (with a chest on top) above it: items go into the input slot.
- Put a hopper pointing into the side: fuel goes into the fuel slot.
- Put a hopper under it leading to a chest: the results come out.
- Hoppers: hoppers.
How do you make a multi-furnace smelter?
Run a line of hoppers over a row of furnaces so items spread across them, and another line for fuel, with a hopper chain below collecting everything. Eight furnaces smelt a full stack eight times faster. Furnace types: furnaces and smelting.
Do you get experience from an auto-smelter?
Experience is stored in the furnace when hoppers take items out, and you get it the next time you take an item out by hand. So pull out the last item yourself to collect it. XP: experience.
What fuel works best?
Dried kelp blocks from a kelp farm make it fully automatic, and lava buckets or coal blocks last longest; see furnace fuel. Pair it with an iron farm for automatic iron; see iron farms.
Frequently asked questions
Which side of a furnace takes fuel from a hopper?
Any side; the top is for items to smelt.
Sources
Every fact on this page was checked against these pages; the wording is ours.