Charcoal Pit Not Working

[Yoshifizzle 0]

I am using the latest version of TFC (78.16) and I cannot get charcoal pits to work.  I light the firepit and seal up the pit and I see smoke particles coming through the top of the pit as expected.  However, when the smoke particles stop many hours later and I open up the pit, I do not find charcoal.  Most of the log piles in the pit are untouched and the log pile above the firepit is gone.  I have tried about 10 different charcoal pit configurations both with dirt and building a permanent structure with bricks and a door.  I have even tried the simplest charcoal pit of a firepit with one log pile above multiple times.  I have never gotten any charcoal from any of the pit designs I have tried.  Addtionally, I have noticed that the firepit sometimes lights itself on fire automatically.  The firepit is cold and no logs in it, but when I try to place a log pile above it the first log falls into the firepit and it will start a fire before I can close the pit.  In this situation I did not light the firepit with a firestarter, but it started itself of its own accord. 

 

Please help me.  I love this mod so far, but this bug is driving me crazy and is incredibly frustrating.  Everything else seems to work as it should from the wiki and from Youtube videos except the charcoal pit.

[mrmorse 3]

For what it's worth I had a charcoal pit glitch on my first go around in b78. I tried it again and made sure I put a few logs in the fire pit (left side column in firepit GUI) after getting it lit. My thinking was that maybe it just went out prematurely, and it worked. I always use the same design that is outlined in the wiki guide too. Hope that helps. 

That said, sometimes I get a log or two with my charcoal when it's finished, so maybe 4-5 logs in the firepit is overkill. Or maybe I'm completely off and it was just dumb luck.

[TomatoThief 53]

First, 78.17 is the most recent version at the time of your posting, although I never had any problems in 78.16.

 

Sounds like you've troubleshot it fairly well. The smoke particles should (I think) indicate success. Here the configuration I commonly use which worked as recently as last night:

 

I hollow out a 3(deep)x2(high)x3(wide) space inside a surface boulder, with a wood door cut into one side. I fill the back wall with 6 full log stacks (1x2x3). Then fill the middle with 6 full log stacks (1x2x3). Then, the first step into the boulder house, I place two full stacks on the left (1x2x1), and two full stacks on the right (1x2x1). I then light a fire pit on the first step inside, and cover it with a full stack. Shut the door, wait, profit.

 

But update to .17 before anything else.

[Kittychanley 1,002]

I'd suggest throwing a few logs into the actual firepit UI before closing everything up to make sure the pit has enough fuel to finish. Other than that, make sure that you're actually putting relatively full log piles above the fire pit. If you're only putting 1 or two logs in that log pile, and no logs inside the firepit itself, it's likely that the firepit is sucking those 1 or 2 logs in from the log pile above it and emptying it since you didn't fill it properly in the first place.

[TomatoThief 53]

I actually didn't know the firepit needed logs. Maybe mine were just small enough not to matter (I guess they feed from the pile above the pit?).

[Kittychanley 1,002]

Correct, so if the pile above the pit only has 1 log inside of it, when you cover the whole thing up, obviously it wont' have enough fuel.

[Yoshifizzle 0]

Yeah, I just noticed that there was a newer version available when I posted.  I have always used logs in the firepit (although I think you only may need one from what I have read), but it doesn't work whether I use one log or multiple logs to fuel the firepit.  Also, I always use full log piles in every charcoal pit I construct.  Must the firepit keep burning throughout the 18 hour charcoal production period?  I thought that it only need one log to get started and then started a timer for 18 hours assuming all other conditions for the charcoal pit were satisfied.  Could it be that the full log pile above the firepit doesn't keep it lit for the correct time period as might happen if I were to use a very quickly burning wood type?

 

I will first attempt to update to the latest version and try again.  Thank you all for the quick responses.  I hope I can get this working.

[Kittychanley 1,002]

The fire pit only burns for as long as it takes for the structure to realize that it is indeed a charcoal pit, which is about 20 seconds. After that point it does not consume any more fuel from the log piles around it.

[Yoshifizzle 0]

Success!!!!  I updated to the newest version and filled every slot in the firepit with logs just in case and I have charcoal.  I don't know which fixed it, but I have charcoal now!  Thank you all so much for your help.

[Peffern 94]

Basically, the firepit needs to keep burning throughout the entire length of the charcoal burn time. The firepit will pull logs from a log pile directly on top of it, but if that log pile is only partially full, it may run out of fuel. Again, putting an additional 4 logs in the pit itself can help buffer.

[Kittychanley 1,002]

Basically, the firepit needs to keep burning throughout the entire length of the charcoal burn time.

 

No. Read my above post

 

The fire pit only burns for as long as it takes for the structure to realize that it is indeed a charcoal pit, which is about 20 seconds. After that point it does not consume any more fuel from the log piles around it.