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.
Best Furnace Fuel in Minecraft: Every Fuel Compared
The longest-burning furnace fuel is a lava bucket: 1,000 seconds, enough to smelt 100 items, and you keep the bucket. A block of coal smelts 80, a dried kelp block 20, a blaze rod 12, coal or charcoal 8, a boat 6, and logs or planks 1.5. A normal furnace takes 10 seconds per item; smokers and blast furnaces are twice as fast but burn fuel twice as fast too.
How long does each fuel last?
| Fuel | Burn time | Items smelted |
|---|---|---|
| Lava bucket | 1,000 s | 100 |
| Block of coal | 800 s | 80 |
| Dried kelp block | 200 s | 20 |
| Blaze rod | 120 s | 12 |
| Coal or charcoal | 80 s | 8 |
| Any boat | 60 s | 6 |
| Log, wood or planks | 15 s | 1.5 |
| Stick | 5 s | 0.5 |
Which fuel is best?
For big jobs, lava buckets from a lava lake or dripstone farm; for steady use, coal blocks or charcoal from a tree farm; for automatic smelting, dried kelp blocks from a kelp farm, which are fully renewable. See kelp and coal and charcoal.
How do you avoid wasting fuel?
Fuel burns even when the furnace runs out of items, so match fuel to the job: one coal for 8 items, a kelp block for 20. An auto-smelter with hoppers keeps fuel and items flowing; see auto-smelters. Furnace types: furnaces and smelting.
What else burns?
Most wooden items, wool, carpets, bamboo, scaffolding, and wooden tools; chiseled bookshelves, looms, lecterns and cartography tables each smelt 1.5 items. They are rarely worth burning except to clear junk.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best fuel in Minecraft?
A lava bucket: it smelts 100 items.
Sources
Every fact on this page was checked against these pages; the wording is ours.