Is there a way to get a better Furnace

[Garry Green]

because me and my friend recently started playing this and we dont know if theres a better furnace since the first furnaces are slow and inefficient

[AlexMBrennan]

Yes. Do look for "advanced material processing" and "advanced material processing 2" research

[Garry Green]

aight thanks man

[Emmote]

Yeah, you start with Stone Furnace, then you move onto Steel Furnaces and then Electric Furnaces.

[Malecord]

Beware that stone and steel furnaces are 2x2 whilst electric furnaces are 3x3 (and use no fuel ofc)

[Garry Green]

damn thanks for the info

[NimrodAbsolution⁧⁧98]

Later in the game you can put speed modules in electric furnaces for even faster smelting
also be aware that steel furnaces double the speed of smelting compared to stone but have the same fuel effeciency (so double the work for the same amount of fuel)

[Emily Howard]

If you are okay with mods you can try this mod for more and earlier electric furnaces: https://forums.factorio.com/viewtopic.php?f=93&t=13528
they are a bit hungry but you can shove your coal into the heaters for your steam generators and don't have to deliver the coal through your complete factory. The later furnaces are slightly better but more expensive.

[Luofu]

and you can ALWAYS solve the "too slow" problem with quantity. ;)

just "go big or go home".

[Vimpster]

I never use the electric furnaces myself. I always go with the steel furnace. Not only are they more compact, they are the same speed as electric if not using speed modules and the electric require huge amounts of electricity. Considering how many furnaces a person is likely to have I would guess that electric furnaces would probably account for around 30%-50% of your power consumption. Much better in my opinion to just use coal.

[Angelo Dante]

Pollution is the big issue with coal. So if you are trying to minimize your pollution, you want to go electric. If biters aren't a problem, then go with coal.

[Vimpster]

I tend to always have a map with lots of trees which seem to soak up the pollution before it reaches any far out nests. And closer nests I took out. So yeah pollution is not much of an issue. Besides which the furnace pollution pales in comparison to the electric minning drills. I think it is like 3.6 pollution from steel furnace and 9 from electric mines.

[Angelo Dante]

It is. Efficiency modules help with the dirty industries. My electric furnaces give off like 0.39 pollution with them, and the drills are well under 3. Also, use the decider combinator feature in smart inserters to run assemblers only when you dip below a predefined amount. It helps a lot.

[frumple]

I allways skip the steel furnaces and go straight to electric. They may be 3x3 but they do not require a coal belt, or fiddly coal+ore on one belt setups.

[Emmote]

Often easier to power furnace layouts with solid fuel than it is to build more solar to cope with the extra power need, and very easy to expand.
Though, I'd only do that if I didn't care about pollution.

[Zaflis]

I never actually tried, but i'm assuming the solid fuel from oil processing would work on furnaces too?