Better Smelters for Minecraft: Tier Up Your Furnaces

Created by Dorios Studios

Better Smelters is a Minecraft Bedrock addon created by Dorios Studios that replaces your standard furnaces with a full lineup of upgraded versions. Each tier smelts faster and burns through fuel more efficiently, giving you real reasons to craft something better than the vanilla furnace you've been using since day one.

If you've ever stood in front of a furnace watching ore cook, wishing it would just move faster, this addon is exactly what you're looking for. The tiers range from basic wood versions all the way up to nether star furnaces that process items at lightning speed.

Photos by Dorios Studios

How the tier system works

The furnace progression in Better Smelters mirrors a crafting tree. You start with an oak wood furnace and work your way up through copper, iron, diamond, netherite, and eventually reach the nether star furnace at the top. Each step up increases both smelting speed and fuel efficiency. The jump from one tier to the next brings real differences in how fast your ores turn into ingots.

The oak wood furnace runs at 1x speed, which is the same as a vanilla furnace. From there, the upgrades keep climbing. A nether star furnace operates at 25x speed, meaning it finishes a full stack in a single smelting cycle. That's the kind of acceleration that makes large-scale smelting projects actually fun instead of tedious.

Fuel consumption scales down at the same time. An oak wood furnace still needs the same amount of fuel per item as vanilla. But push all the way to nether star, and you're only burning 1% of the fuel, a nether star furnace uses just 0.01 fuel per item instead of 1.0. For big operations, that savings compounds fast.

Two ways to operate your furnaces

You can run these furnaces manually, just like you're used to. Throw stuff in the top, pull results out, manage it all by hand. The behavior is identical to a vanilla furnace, so there's no learning curve if you just want to use them casually.

But the real power comes from automation. Set your furnace up with containers feeding it. The left container supplies your smelting input, the top feeds fuel, and the right outputs finished items. The furnace pulls from each automatically, turning it into a passive smelting station that runs without you touching it. This is especially useful if you're bulk smelting ore or wood.

Special furnaces worth knowing about

A few tiers have quirks that change how you'd use them. The netherrack furnace requires no fuel at all, it just smelts whatever you feed it, which makes it perfect for when fuel supply is your bottleneck. The nether star furnace completes a whole stack in one cycle, making it absurdly fast if you can afford the crafting cost. And the netherite furnace is made by combining an amethyst furnace with a diamond furnace, so you don't need a new crafting recipe to get there.

One odd detail: oak wood furnaces disappear after they've been used for a while. It's a short lifespan, so don't expect them to be your long-term solution. They're more of a stepping stone to better tiers.

What makes this better smelting for MCPE and Bedrock

For mobile and console players, smelting efficiency matters more than it does on PC. Waiting for ore to cook eats into your play session faster when you're sitting down for 30 minutes rather than an hour. Better Smelters cuts that wait time dramatically, especially once you reach the mid-tier furnaces. Even just jumping to a copper furnace or iron furnace speeds things up enough to feel real.

The automated operation mode is a huge win for Bedrock too. You don't need to set up complex redstone or hopper chains. Just place containers next to your furnace, and it handles the rest. That simplicity is especially good on console where building intricate systems takes more time.

The best minecraft smelting setup with these furnaces

For a casual survival world, an iron or diamond furnace paired with automated input and output does everything you need. You'll process ore fast enough that you're not waiting around, and the fuel savings mean you don't burn through your coal or wood supply as quickly.

If you're running a big mining operation or building something that requires thousands of blocks, a nether star furnace, if you can get the materials, becomes your MVP. Feeding it a steady stream of ore turns it into a materials factory. Just set up your input containers and let it run.

For most players, though, settling somewhere in the diamond or netherite range hits the sweet spot between effort to craft and practical benefit. You're not farming nether stars, but you're also getting dramatically faster smelting than vanilla.

Feature highlights

• Eight furnace tiers from oak wood to nether star, with smelting speeds from 1x to 25x
• Fuel consumption drops from 1.0 down to 0.01 as you climb the tiers
• Automatic upgrade system to boost a furnace to the next tier without scrapping it
• Netherrack furnace smelts without any fuel cost
• Nether star furnace completes full stacks in a single cycle
• Automated mode pulls input from left, fuel from top, and outputs to the right
• Manual operation works just like a standard furnace

How to install Better Smelters

This addon comes as a .mcpack file. Download it, then open it from your file manager or downloads folder. Minecraft Bedrock will recognize it and ask you which world to apply it to. Select your world and confirm. The furnace blocks will be available immediately in creative mode or once you craft them in survival.

If you run into any issues or have questions about specific tiers, Dorios Studios maintains an official wiki and Discord server with detailed documentation and community support.

Common questions

What is the fastest smelter in minecraft with this addon?

The nether star furnace is the fastest, smelting at 25x speed and completing a full stack in one cycle. It also burns fuel at just 0.01 per item, making it extremely efficient if you have the materials to craft it.

Can I upgrade furnaces without breaking them?

Yes. The addon includes an upgrade system that lets you improve a furnace to the next tier in place. You don't have to destroy and rebuild it.

How do I use a smelter in minecraft with automated input?

Place a container on the left side to feed input items, a container on top for fuel, and a container on the right to collect output. The furnace pulls from each automatically once you turn on automated mode.

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