In Bedrock Edition, when you activate a dropper that contains items and is pointed into a lava cauldron, the dropper will destroy a random item (as if it is pushing the item into the lava inside the cauldron and destroying it). This feature was not included when lava cauldrons were added to Java Edition.
Steps to reproduce
Place a dropper.
Place a cauldron on the face of the dropper.
Put lava in the cauldron.
Put an item in the dropper
Put a button on the dropper and press it.
Expected result
The item inside the dropper gets destroyed.
Observed result
The dropper ejects the item, which glitches out of the lava cauldron.
Attachments
Comments 3
I can confirm this behavior in 22w42a but it's important to note that this issue does not occur all of the time. Items will mostly get destroyed by the lava cauldron but occasionally they will glitch out of it and not get destroyed. Here's a video demonstrating this behavior.
[media]
As of 1.21.4 this still happens sort of, so facing a dropper straight into the lava cauldron does make the items be destroyed eventually, but item entities are still made unlike what seems to be the behavior in Bedrock Edition.
Hoppers under the Cauldron can pick all items dropped, or most of them, which could be related to MC-203815 on the hopper side. But if no item entity was created hoppers wouldn't pick items up.
Impact: this feature is useful for compacting "trash can" contraptions that get rid of unwanted items, and also for reducing lag because it destroys the items without creating item entities. It is possible in Java to surround the lava cauldron with blocks so that the ejected item stays in the cauldron and burns up, but that provides no compactness or lag benefit over using plain lava/fire/cactus for a "trash can".