Charcoal

[TheBrian]

7x7x4 charcoal pit, tried twice and made sure every stack was 32 at the top. Sealed correctly but some blocks were stone around the perimeter. Can the stone blocks mess up the pit if used instead of dirt or is this just a glitch? 

[Ivan Stamenov]

Mine pit walls are entirely stone (except for 1 glass block below the lantern), so I doubt stone blocks are the problem. As far as the charcoal pit (including the lit fire pit) is surrounded by full non-flammable blocks it should work ok. If you post a picture of the empty/sealed pit we may be able to spot the problem?...

[TheBrian]

Will do

[TheBrian]

The first 3 show the room and ceiling, last is entrance I dirt block off before lighting from the hole in the top and sealing

[TheBrian]

Also pics are from phone, sorry for the light blur

[Ivan Stamenov]

I don't see anything suspicious here... I am using almost indentical setup and it works fine...

If the wood burns out before turning into charcoal this means that one or more of the blocks in the walls (or floor, or ceiling) are not considered to be full blocks. Have you ever chiseled something there?

You may try to:

• Add additional row of dirt at the top of the walls (I see grass on some of the top blocks in the walls which mean that there is air above them, which should be ok according to the wiki, but you never know what's changed in the latest version), so the ceiling dirt slab is 9x9 instead of 7x7;
• Replace the obsidian with dirt;
• Split the pit into smaller sections with dirt walls and see if each of these sections function ok;
• Or just replace each and every block of the pit's walls, floor and ceiling with dirt, for example.

If the problem is that some of the wood piles are not converted into charcoal, this means that these piles are either too far away from the fire pit, or in another chunk and the firepit chunk bug is still alive and kicking...

[Maelstrom]

Nothing wrong with the pit itself.  I assume you close the two block entrance with dirt, glass or cobble (yes, I have glass blocks on my charcoal pit and it works just fine).  I wish doors (probably iron only) could be used, but current using any kind of door (wood, iron or trapdoor) will not enclose a charcoal pit sufficiently.

I'm concerned about that one block above the entrance.  Apart from that if you aren't getting charcoal, be exceedingly careful that you have a full stack for each column of firewood.

[Ivan Stamenov]

2 hours ago, TheBrian said:

before lighting from the hole in the top and sealing

Please excuse me, this is a stupid question (English is not my native language), but you do build a firepit on top of the wood piles and light it, right? You don't put the wood directly on fire?

[Maelstrom]

@Ivan Stamenov Excellent catch!  Hadn't thought about that.

[TheBrian]

I light it from the top yes lol. And the missing block on top is the center where I light it from. I thought about the obsidian maybe not playing well but not sure. Will try some in a smaller area with the obsidian.

[TheBrian]

And yes I make a fire pit, it says charcoal pit when I go to light it

[TheBrian]

So, with the pit, I made another 7x7x5 and not only did it not work but the wood inside poofed away within 2 min irl no sleeping in game.

[dakko]

None of the ceiling dirt blocks are also being used as farmland are they?

[TheBrian]

Nope, 6x6x5 pit is working just fine. I'll just use smaller pits for now 

[Umbra Resistis]

I have a same question, I made a 3 by 3 by 2 pit and have waited for 3 days but there's still no charcoal
Wood is still there

Does it not work when it rains or something, it's been raining for the past like 2 days

[Ashery]

It should work just fine when it's raining.

Someone on the Discord may have had a similar issue yesterday, and after a bit of frustration they rebuilt the charcoal bit and it worked perfectly fine the second time.

[vanthemad]

On 6/12/2023 at 10:43 AM, Umbra Resistis said:

I have a same question, I made a 3 by 3 by 2 pit and have waited for 3 days but there's still no charcoal
Wood is still there

I'm experiencing this issue with the same setup- 3x3x2, cobblestone around the sides and a dirt cap on top. the pile has been "burning" with the usually-desirable lazy puffs of smoke and no crackling sounds for four or five-in game days but nothing has converted to charcoal. I've tried three different pits of different sizes but nothing seems to be working for me. does it need to be belowground? I built a cobblestone wall structure on the surface and filled that with firewood.

[Chompyworm]

On 8/26/2024 at 9:34 PM, vanthemad said:

I'm experiencing this issue with the same setup- 3x3x2, cobblestone around the sides and a dirt cap on top. the pile has been "burning" with the usually-desirable lazy puffs of smoke and no crackling sounds for four or five-in game days but nothing has converted to charcoal. I've tried three different pits of different sizes but nothing seems to be working for me. does it need to be belowground? I built a cobblestone wall structure on the surface and filled that with firewood.

I'm also having this issue but below ground! Sooo frustrating. I will have to try again, I'll let you know how it goes.

[Thorfinn]

Should work. You are building the firepit on top of one of the stacks of firewood, right? Are you sure each is a full stack of firewood? That often happens if one of the stacks is a few short of a full block. The hover text for all of them reads 32?

What version are you playing?

And the obligatory, are you running any mods?

Edited February 16, 2025 by Thorfinn