Precipitation reactions have been characterized during heating of different size fractions of atomized powders of alloys based on the systems Al-Fe and Al-Cr. Use has been made of differential thermal analysis to indicate both the magnitude of these reactions and the temperatures at which they occur. Three reactions were detected in the binary alloy, Al-8%Fe, the most important being precipitation of the phase Al3Fe at around 445°C. Ternary additions of Mo, Ce or V to this alloy did not appear to stimulate formation of other precipitates during heating; rather they served to alter kinetics so that the processes occurred at higher temperatures. Two precipitation reactions were also determined by DTA analyses of ternary Al-Cr-Zr and Al-Cr-V alloys, the lower temperature one being attributed to the phases Al3Zr or Al10V respectively, and the one at the higher temperature to Al13Cr2. In all alloys, the capacity for precipitation progressively decreased as coarser powder fractions were used.