Community Forums

carltonwd · 06-06-2018, 05:21 PM

My brother in law, who owns a 2017 Aspire, asked me if my Cornerstone of the same year ever blows out a white powder from the dash ac when first turned on. I asked if it has done this since new and it has not, but has done it twice in the past week. The unit has been sitting in his warehouse with zero use since August. Any ideas on what is going on?

Nowabeachbum · 06-06-2018, 06:08 PM

Both my 17 and 18 did! Have no idea why but it does lessen over time.

jestal · 06-06-2018, 10:19 PM

This type of thing was notice on the Classics as there is no inlet air filter on the dash HVAC. If you open the gen door and look on the dash above the gen you will see the air inlets for the cabin HVAC sitting there wide open. Any dust or dirt will suck thru the system and bow out the vents. Particularily if the generator is running and kicking up dust from the floor which finds its way under the front cap. I would have hoped Entegra would have put a cabin air filter on the units by now.........

Easy to avoid by keeping HVAC setting in MAX AC to close the fresh air intakes for bypass operation . Or use velcro strips to hold pieces of air fliter material over the openings for normal operation. Out line the holes with the male or hooked velcro and the pieces of filter material will stick to the velcro and stay in place. Use some water proof filter material as the AC condensate will wet the filters when in use on occasion.

Nowabeachbum · 06-06-2018, 10:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jestal

This type of thing was notice on the Classics as there is no inlet air filter on the dash HVAC. If you open the gen door and look on the dash above the gen you will see the air inlets for the cabin HVAC sitting there wide open. Any dust or dirt will suck thru the system and bow out the vents. Particularily if the generator is running and kicking up dust from the floor which finds its way under the front cap. I would have hoped Entegra would have put a cabin air filter on the units by now.........

Easy to avoid by keeping HVAC setting in MAX AC to close the fresh air intakes for bypass operation . Or use velcro strips to hold pieces of air fliter material over the openings for normal operation. Out line the holes with the male or hooked velcro and the pieces of filter material will stick to the velcro and stay in place. Use some water proof filter material as the AC condensate will wet the filters when in use on occasion.

As of the 18’s, (haven’t seen the 19’s) they still have not put a filter on the intake so it’s always a good idea to run max air only.
This however, is not the cause of the white dust. I think it is a byproduct of the production of the duct hose. It’s really bad when new and subsides over time. Not sure why some experience, it some don’t.

saddlesore · 06-06-2018, 11:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jestal

This type of thing was notice on the Classics as there is no inlet air filter on the dash HVAC. If you open the gen door and look on the dash above the gen you will see the air inlets for the cabin HVAC sitting there wide open.

As an aside.. when parked with that vent/inlet door open,, a real easy route for rodents to get into your coach.... a metal mesh screen over the opening will prevent the little buggars from getting in.. (short self tapping screws and fender washers will keep everything in place..)

Nowabeachbum · 06-07-2018, 06:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by saddlesore

As an aside.. when parked with that vent/inlet door open,, a real easy route for rodents to get into your coach.... a metal mesh screen over the opening will prevent the little buggars from getting in.. (short self tapping screws and fender washers will keep everything in place..)

Not sure we are talking about the same thing. When the vent is open, it exposes the evaporator coil and there is no way around it for anything to go except dust!

photraveller · 06-07-2018, 06:35 PM

We have the white dust issue as well. Talked to PJ about during a training class, and he said it was a known issue for some coaches. He thinks it's a coating that is flaking off the coils.

Since we live close to the manufacturer he tried to get the manufacturer to take a look and/or replace our coil assembly, but they didn't want to do it.

So for now it's one of the major items on our list for our two year appointment.

In our case, it isn't getting better. It seems to be the worse first thing in the morning when you run the fan when the coils are dry. I believe whatever the talcum like dust is, it collects on the coils during the day. Once it's dried out overnight it blows out like a mini snow storm first thing in the morning.

What is weird is, some days are worse than others, but it doesn't seem to based on the amount of time the A/C was running, but more based on length of time between trips.

Once you're in a middle of a trip it does seem to get better after a couple of days. Then let the coach remained parked for a period of time and snow storm again. However even on "good" days, if I or my DW wears something black, we will see flakes during first few minutes.

BTW, we've had filters on our inlet vents for over a year. We usually run in max (re-circulate) but occasionally open it up for "fresh air". When we do we usually get a quick burst of "snow" like we changed the air flow pattern in the box and stirred some up.

Steve

Houdoxi71 · 06-07-2018, 07:53 PM

Fiberglass dust?

photraveller · 06-08-2018, 06:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Houdoxi71

Fiberglass dust?

In my case no. It isn't gritty. It seems like talcum powder only finer. Put some between your fingers and it just disolves into nothing.

CS tried the fiberglass answer with me the first time I contacted them. After I sent them pictures and explanation above, they dropped that answer.

Apparently some fiberglass can get sucked up into the A/C system does kind of make sense, but that would disappear after 5-10 cleanings. This stuff continues to flake off from somewhere something. I'm going on 18 months of white powder "snow storms".

Steve

carltonwd · 06-10-2018, 05:41 PM

Thanks for all the responses. Seems like it is a popular problem!

BRex45 · 06-19-2018, 05:09 PM

Possibly another product(s) made by the lowest bidder?

brobox · 11-13-2018, 02:52 PM

Bringing this post back to life. My new 19 is experiencing the same snow storm of white flakes. I called Entegra today asking if a cure had been found yet......their answer was defective coils and the unit on the firewall would have to be replaced. Have any others come up with a solution or did the problem finally go away?

I talked with a Dutch Star owner that had the same problem. They changed his coil unit and it did solve the problem. Both of our unit are gritty flakes and not a powder. His was a 2016, seems they would have found the cause by now. He notice mine when he walked in my coach, the flakes are everywhere, and told me his story.

photraveller · 11-13-2018, 04:53 PM

Chuck, sorry to hear you got this as well.

Ours finally went away sometime this summer. Just a guess but probably sometime around the 10-12,000 mile mark on the odometer.

Not really sure if we finally got rid of everything, or if daily driving for pretty much weeks as we headed toward Alaska finally worked it out.

Totally agree that it is coil related. It at least gets stuck or forms on the coils when they're cold and wet. Then first thing in the morning when the coils are dry the snow storm happens.

Steve

photraveller · 11-13-2018, 04:58 PM

Oh by the way, our flakes were talcum like. That would just smear and dissolve between two fingers like talc. The grit is what the factory kept trying to tell me was what I had and it was construction debris.

If it is gritty then I would lean toward construction debris left in the system and you can probably vacuum it out and or it will work its way out quickly.

Steve