Thread: White powder from heater vents

Fine White powder coming from heater vents. Goodman gmh95, 1 year old. Ran fine through first summer and winter.

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Is there a humidifier on the furnace?
Filters clean?

When was the furnace last serviced?

"California snow"?

Originally Posted by oscar escobedo

Fine White powder coming from heater vents. Goodman gmh95, 1 year old. Ran fine through first summer and winter.

Pictures?

Originally Posted by Scott Patterson

Pictures?

How do "Pictures" come out as a white powder?

It does have humidifier, serviced a week ago. Tech had no clue. Filter is new. Working on photos

Humidifier can create a white powder particularly if you have a water softener due to salt residue as water evaporates.

In some cases even if there is no water softener you can get a powder being created due to hard water.

Photo attached, I think.

Okay photos don't tell me anything.

Is the powder crusty and turn to powder when crushed?

Still thinks its a humidifier problem.

The next step is to turn off and take out humidifier pad and pan and vacuum up powder and see if problem persists.

Larger chunks look like dandruff flakes an yes they do turn to powder when crushed. Humidifier theory sounds good I will look into posted resolution and post outcome. Thx

Probably should have mentioned this before but I have two identical heaters that were installed at the same time by same contractor. One spews white stuff while other seems to work fine. However, I did notice the drain setup on problem unit is a long run and ain't sloped 1/4" per foot.

Humidifier theory sounded promising, but unfortunately my system doesn't have a humidifier. Sorry about the bad info.

No humididifier, I assumed I had a humidifier because I found some humidifier documentation with my heater documentation. I apologize again for bad info .