"If the ADP coil is causing the problem, then Lennox is probably not going to offer any help. This is another reason third party coils should be avoided."

• You might be 100% on that but I've got reservations. If the coil was delivered in a box labeled Lennox,are you saying Lennox isn't responsible for defects and therefore customers must deal with the coil manufacturer? Are you suggesting consumers should know who manufacture's components of their purchases? Are you farther suggesting that consumers should go as far as knowing about ADP problems and the information is easily available to consumers? It's well known Cummins build's engines for Dodge Ram,it say's so on both front fenders. I wager few know who manufacture's components from which Cummins assemble's their engine.

I always thought installers use third party coils to save money. If this coil is a Lennox product manufactured by ADP then Lennox needs to take responsibility. When you have more than one manfacturer you open the possibility of finger pointing. The consumer relies on the installer and manufacturer to resolve the problem in my opinion.

Thanks for the clearification Mike. When you put it like that,I agree.

The top square says ADP on it.

I just sent Lennox a pretty strong email, and I got the 'automatic reply email' with a case number.\

I will make sure I let you guys know what the problem was, when/if I ever find out..!

(I thank you guys very much again for your time and help. and please keep sending any info or ideas that you might have.)

Third party coil is separate from major manufacture. So what ADP does is typically beyond Lennox or any other major manufacturer.

With that said, the ADP coil that was used was probably bought from Lennox where the Lennox equipment was bought. Nearly all major manufacturer's carry these third party coils for a myriad of reasons.

ADP coils are almost certainly cheaper than Lennox brand coil. But this isn't always the reason they are used. I've used off brand coils when other coils I want are not available. Manufacturing quotas are a guess, there is no way to know for sure how many you will sell... so this is another reason why 3rd party coils are used.

No manufacturer is going to pay for hotel stays or anything outside of giving your contractor a part in exchange for the defective part. You're kidding yourself if you think you are entitled to that. (In fact read the fine print of your manufacture warranty and it will tell you in black and white print.)

If there is rust or other blemish (fading) after short time span that doesn't affect the operation of the unit there is no recourse by you. This is why if you live in coastal regions you should do the best you can at buying a unit that was designed for such conditions.

If you elect to sue them, you can bet your bottom dollar they will raise this point against you.

Are you sure Lennox sells ADP coils?

Wouldnt solve the problem but solve the symptoms, how about a large filter on the supply side to catch said debris? Replace filter same frequency as return filter.

Either that or filters at all the registers (which would take a lot more time to replace them all).

I wonder if a local college chemistry professor would be interested in trying to figure out what the substance is with his class. Using it as a teaching tool.

Heck for all we know its drywall dust...?

Ok, after sending a very strong email to Lennox Corp., the rep called me the very next morning. ( just FYI, in a civil case I have the right to a jury trial. Explaining the hardship that I have gone through, as well as exposing my wife and son to talk to chemicals, I think I would have a very strong case that they would have to settle out of court. [My sister is a civil litigation attorney.] Also, if this is a common problem, it could be filed as a class action lawsuit.) Anyway, my local Lennox rep. said he had the exact same problem in his house last November.!

He said it was from when they attached the coil or something, The heat can mess up some of the metal to where it oxidizes or something. He said it is zinc oxide. He also said he would get the part I needed to replace, and pay my HVAC guy to install it.

"He also said he would get the part I needed to replace, and pay my HVAC guy to install it."

I'd call that good return for a little tit twisting. I'm sure you will sleep better tonight than since this began.

I will have them explain to me exactly what the problem was again, and I will re-post it more clearly..

I really do appreciate all of your responses, it really helped me get through this, like I wasn't all alone through this.

Thank you all very much..!

Wish yal well; I'll post exactly what the problem was soon.

Are you sure Lennox sells ADP coils?

no, I've just been buying various coils for my own company nearly the past 10 years. No I'm not sure about anything.

Where else would you buy one, Do you know for sure? And how far would you drive for it, wasting $2+ gallon gas and mileage on your poor little service vehicle. Remember you got the trip there and back to consider... so $2+ a gallon there and back.

But hey I understand everyone thinks my fuel and mileage are free and don't add to the financial burden of running a service company.

Taking one of these to court is a waste of time. Lennox recently settled defective coil battle almost 3 years ago now. It was class action and settlement didn't really amount to anything significant. The lawyers get paid, other than that good luck.

I will have them explain to me exactly what the problem was again, and I will re-post it more clearly..

If I had to guess I think it's probably the breakdown of the chemicals / material they use to seal the joints in the aluminum tubes on the ends of the coil of the hair pin bends at the end of the coil where the connections come thru the end of the coil to the line set.

When it comes to aluminum there are special processes manufacturers use to:

1: meld / fuse copper to aluminum so that the copper end is used to attach to lineset.

2: seal the hair pin bends to the rows of aluminum tubing that travel thru the coil.

Aluminum melting point is very low so I believe they may use a chemical reaction paste of some sort to seal the hair pin bends. They may also use a combination of that as well as some brazing / soldering techniques.

I say this because to me the connections on the aluminum coils I've seen look pasty with a greyish white pasty like substance... outside of that I don't know.

Problem is if this stuff is breaking down / flaking off the coil will most like start leaking refrigerant at some point.

Austin Air,

I will have them explain to me exactly what the problem was.

This is what they told me, and also what my HVAC guy agrees with, too:

Austin Air, "If I had to guess I think it's probably the breakdown of the chemicals / material they use to seal the joints in the aluminum tubes on the ends of the coil of the hair pin bends at the end of the coil where the connections come thru the end of the coil to the line set.

When it comes to aluminum there are special processes manufacturers use to:

1: meld / fuse copper to aluminum so that the copper end is used to attach to lineset.

2: seal the hair pin bends to the rows of aluminum tubing that travel thru the coil."

In the first picture, the pan was full of that white powder stuff.! The second picture is the new coil which apparently doesn't have any copper..

I do want to say Thank You again to everyone who replied. I really did learn something from everyone of your guy's posts..

Wish yal well!

Oh ya, the Lennox rep. told me that it was zinc oxide. Does anyone know if that's what the white powder stuff is, for sure?

google images :P

also says its used in diaper rash paste, so... you should be ok in that aspect lol!

It looks like the old ADP coil may have been copper coil? If that's the case that kind of surprises me.

Let us know in 6 months - 1 year how the new Lennox coil holds up.

I want to make sure I understand how this was resolved. The original ADP coil was causing the flaking problem. The Lennox representative, which I assume is a HVAC distributor, agreed the coil was defective and replaced it with a Lennox coil. The parts and labor were all covered by the warranty. Is that what happened?

The Lennox rep said he would take care of the installation costs. My HVAC guy installed it on Saturday, and asked me to contact him to make sure he gets paid.. So, I hope he follows through.\

also, yes the ADP coil had copper tubes/pipes. The new 'Lennox' coil is all aluminum.

I'll let you guys know what happens with the rep/$

Hope that made sense...

i am going to call the Lennox rep again tomorrow because it has been a holiday wknd. I am going to try to make sure the Lennox rep pays my HVAC guy for installation costs..

Doug, did you ever get an answer to the white flakes? I have a place in Florida with a 6 month old Trane unit. I did’nt use the heat or AC for 2 months (Jan & Feb). When I returned earlier this month, I turned the ac on and had the same white flakes come out of my vent. It happened every time the AC when on. I took the cover off the inside part of the unit and found that the flakes where inside the coils. Any clue why this is happening?

I believe it comes from copper coils, maybe something about the welding temperature or something when they are made? But once we replace the coil with an all aluminum coil, The problem is fixed..

So the problem was having a copper coil instead of an aluminum one.

Thanks. But I believe my coil is aluminum. I will have to call Trane to find out.

Make sure it doesn't say ADP on the upper unit.\

Doug, a family member is having a similar problem to yours. It's been a while since you posted. I am curious if your problem has reoccurred or if replacing the coil was the end of the problem?

I have whitish yellow coming out of our heat ruins and it leaves a terrible taste in your mouth would any know what that might be and is it haz to breath

Hello! Need help we just recently built a new home and the white flakes are all over our house too. The HVAC guy said he does not understand. Did you ever find out what causes this? I can also smell a chemical type smell sometimes and I really get headaches. I vacuum and the flakes just come right back. Need help. Thank You!

I do not subscribe to the theories above. I had a furnace that was plagued with this issue. It was white soot in 80% furnace due to incomplete combustion. The way I could tell: IF you took a b-vent off and there was a lot white flakes inside. My personal guess was incomplete combustion reaction with moisture and may be traces of sulfur and aluminum parts. (flame did not look right) adjusting flame did help. (we did change the coil as well)

so, unfortunatly, I'm really unfamiliar with HVAC systems and I am trying to learn as we go....what might cause incomplete combustion? Is this something my HVAC installer may have done wrong? The white flakes look like dandruff for a lack of a better comparison. ....Also, the flakes and smell ONLY seem to occur when it's colder than around 35 degrees...which means I must have a some type of dual auxiliary system that comes on? However, makes no sense because I do NOT have a gas or propane line into the house....perhaps the auxiliary is some type of other secondary electrical heater which may have been installed into the air handler system? Maybe this secondary system is causing the flakes and smell, is what I am guessing. The flakes and smell did NOT come out of the vents when the AC ran over the summer. The house is about 5 months old.

Sounds like you have a different situation: presumably you have a heatpump (may be) and electric heat strips.

Ok. Thank you for your help. Much Appreciated! I have contacted my builder (Schumacher Homes) and they could seem to care a less. I really think they should be more concerned. I hope I will be able to figure it out....it's driving me crazy, because the smell is horrible. Thanks again.

Having the same problem in Atlanta,GA. We see the white flakes that looks like dandruff when both the AC and gas Furnance run. Would the coil trigger the problem for both the AC and the furnance? The flakes are too fine to be able to gather and send to a lab. If you inspect the coil, will there be white flakes visible in the pan or on the coil?

Yes, I am curious to these questions too. I don't really know if the white flakes come out when the AC runs because we moved into the house in late summer....did not really need to run the AC....I dont even really understand what a coil is....but after reading everyones posts I seem to think its definitely something to do with the coils. Just curious David B do you experience strange smell ever? We do.

I am so glad to find this thread. I have the same problem too! I’m in Florida and it just started a few days ago when it got really cold here and I turned the heat on...I hope someone figures it out. Here is a picture of a table underneath a vent. This is happening all over my house! :(

Hello Betsy! Did you see my last post, yesterday....I'm pretty sure it's the coils. :) The HVAC manufacturers cut corners to save money and starting installing aluminum coils instead of copper.

hello,i am the maintenance technician for a school system we replaced everything in our high school in the summer of 2019 which was 68 new air handlers and chiller and boiler we started seeing this problem when we switched to heating this year from about 75 percent of our units,same white dust there is no duct work the air handlers have eather hot water in lines or cold water,we dropped the drip pans and they were covered in same thing ,because the moister on the coil washes the powder into the pan in summer,we are having trouble with this on a massive scale,have had reps from the company that installed them to reps from company that sold them to reps from company that made them,one says it is from chemecals we use to clean the school to things in the air,but they all say it is from the breakdown of coating used to protect the aluminum on the coil,all said that no matter what we do once the breakdown has started the only fix is to replace all the coils with ones that have a coating to protect the coating,yes right I said it,so it seams that coils that are installed in places where there is salt water or a better chance of this happening are recommended ,they also said that breakdown could have started even before units made it here since they were made in some part in mexico,so doing a air test on building does nothing,so here we are with system that cost over a million dollars to install blowing this in the air not going to cut it,still trying to figure out who is going to cover this,but that is what we have learned from the dust , say it is not harmfull but aluminum oxide caused by the breakdown of coating over coil,and we are in central ky long way from salt water

I am relieved to find this thread as well.....I have the same problem. I am in Toronto, Canada, and have lived in my house for six years with the same problem of this fine white dust. The house was a new build, and I am the only owner. We have had this problem since moving in. I have tried everything to solve this problem....duct cleaning several times, duct sealing (which made the problem worse), installing a HEPA filter system. It would make sense that if the problem was the heat exchanger, none of this would help, since the HEPA filter is on the return air portion.

It is a Carrier furnace--I have contacted Carrier but they have told me contact my vendor. Has anyone replaced the heat exchanger and has this solved the problem?

I have a Lenox system that is 3 ½ years old and from day one, we had the problem with the white powdery dust. The problem seems to be with only the further ducts in our house. The ducts are located in our ceilings. I contacted factory representative for Lenox and he recommended replacing he duct leading to the 4 farthest vents. We did that and we did not have the dust for about a week. It has since returned to two of the ducts. I then sealed the outside of the ducts where they connected at the ceiling level with 3m special tape and that didn’t seem to make the difference. At night we normally run the HVAC at 65 and my NEST is set to kick the furnace on at intervals of 68 then 71. I tested that the HVAC come on in intervals of 1 degree each hour starting at 3 am. There was no change, same about of “dusting.” Last night I only lowered the furnace by only 1 degree and this morning we had a very small amount of dusting. I’m going to get with the factory rep again and ask him to contact Lenox. During the initial inspection, he check the tubes and said they are cooper. It’s curious that the dusting only comes from vents that are farthest away. To answer a previous question, there is no order.

I have the same problem with the white dust particulate. I put a Petri dish inside the vent that blows out into the room with tape ends stuck upside down leaving the sticky part of tape pointing up into vent so the dust blowing out would collect on the tape. I sent the Petri dish with tape to a lab and it is aluminum oxide along with some fiberglass.
You may want to collect a sample and send it to a lab.

Now that you know what it is, how do you stop it?

When I run my furnace, a fine white powder comes out of my vents. 4 HVAC companies have inspected my furnace, no one knows the source of the problem. the white powder is inside my furnace & ducts. Does anyone know what causes the powder? How do I fix it?

Could be snow flakes.

I live in AZ.

Had white flakes blow out from ceiling vent 1 year after HVAC replaced. Checked everything, nothing obvious, thought they may have gotten something in the vent. A year later same thing, friable flakes from tiny to 1/2”. HVAC folks came, removed ceiling vent and discovered overspray ceiling paint inside the vent that after 23 years had decided to shed, so some of you might want to check and see if painters got paint in your vents.

HU-208226435 - That's what ended up happening to my parent's house too. We had the tubing and vents replaced...voila, fixed the problem.

Connie, what did you do to fix the problem after you got ypur lab results?

Connie T. - What lab did you send you send your sample too?

Connie-i live in the bullhead city area of AZ.. ive had this white dust problens for 2 years. ive been in my house longer than that. ive had 8 HVAC techs come to my house & had dust tested. no one knew what is was or what caused it. all of the techs cane to my house & didnt believe me when the dust was everywhere. in my closet, on my shoes, clothes clothes, jewery, furniture, i had my ducts cleaned snd cermetical clean and testt. the problem started again this last fall. help i need this problem solved bcuz i have terrible sinus issues. the white dust is not AZ dust. the dust got on my silverware & glasses, tupper Tupperware which were in drawers & closets

I too have the same problem and have had the problem since day one in a new house that was built with a Lennox System. You'll get no help from Lennox, they could care less about the issue. I'm working with a HVAC Company that is a factory representative for Lennox. Our furnace is located in the attic and I've had my ducts clean first, then had my ducts replaced and my Evaporation coil clean and nothing changed. (I've also verified the coil is one from Lennox). I checked with at least 10 labs and was quoted a price of between $600 and $2000 to get testing done. I've also resealed around all my duct vents to prevent any insulation contamination. Nothing I've done has reduced the problem.

My gas furnance is in my attic too

Doug Renick Can you please let us know if everything worked out for you. Was the problem fixed?