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.
Cauldrons in Minecraft: Water, Lava and Powder Snow
A cauldron is a block made from 7 iron ingots that holds water, lava or powder snow. Fill it with a bucket and empty it with an empty bucket. Water cauldrons wash dye off leather armor, banners and shulker boxes, and refill glass bottles. It is the leatherworker's job block. On Bedrock it can also hold potions and dyed water.
How do you fill a cauldron?
- Water: a water bucket fills it; each water bottle adds a third.
- Rain: it slowly fills with water in the rain, and with powder snow during snowfall.
- Dripstone: a pointed dripstone above it, under water or lava, slowly drips that liquid in; see dripstone.
- Lava: only by bucket or dripstone; a lava cauldron gives light 15 and burns anything inside.
What is a water cauldron used for?
- Washing the dye off leather armor and the patterns off banners, one layer at a time; see banners.
- Removing the color from dyed shulker boxes.
- Filling glass bottles, three per full cauldron.
- Putting out a burning player who jumps in.
What extra can Bedrock cauldrons do?
On Bedrock a cauldron can hold a potion, so you can dip arrows to make tipped arrows cheaply, and it can hold dyed water for coloring leather armor. Witch huts there spawn with cauldrons one third to completely full of a random potion. Tipped arrows: arrows.
Where do you find cauldrons?
An empty one in every swamp hut, and one two-thirds full of water in every igloo basement; see igloos. Mine it with a pickaxe, but whatever is inside is lost. Powder snow: powder snow.
Frequently asked questions
How many iron ingots make a cauldron?
Seven.
Sources
Every fact on this page was checked against these pages; the wording is ours.