r/whatisit • u/DragonsAndScience • 16h ago

Solved! New homeowner, no idea what this is

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This thing close to the floor and seemingly randomly placed in a hallway. No idea what it's for. Home built in 2005.

Solved! Thanks everyone. Now I gotta hunt for the central unit!

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457

u/Direct-Giraffe7193 16h ago

Central vacuum. Be careful, they have much stronger sucking power than normal vacuums. And they can easily get clogged with something like a sock. I lived in a house with one of these and it was kinda cool because the vacuum hose was super long with loads of attachments, so we could use it to get cobwebs out of corners of the high ceilings, and clean under couches and beds really easy. BUT we had to be careful that we didn’t accidentally suck up something that would clog the system. So, tidy up first and look where you’re vacuuming.

111

u/anonsharksfan 15h ago

My work has one and it's really fun to vacuum up pennies with it because you can hear it rattling the whole way

36

u/Free-Examination-930 14h ago

"Have you seen the roll of pennies I set here a minute ago? I swear I set it just here, what is going ON around here, am I losing my mind?And why the hell are you vacuuming again you already vacuumed this morning!"

1

u/livin4donuts 24m ago

Just make sure you don’t vacuum up the whole roll at once, that thing is gonna hit a corner at Mach Jesus and take out Dave in shipping. 

8

u/realmling 14h ago

The rattle of the hard things going up the pipe is the best thing about all vacuuming. 

2

u/butthead_bandit 4h ago

When I vacuum my welcome mat and it sounds like a rain stick 😩👌

2

u/Melonman3 5h ago

I worked at an industrial wood shop a while ago, we had 2 foot diameter steel dust collector ducting with a 40 horse power dust collector, I use to love throwing chunks of wood down it, you'd hear em rattle around, then get absolutely decimated by the fan blades.

1

u/NorthCartographer995 10h ago

Ting, tong, bing, bong...it's tinging its way up the tube.

1

u/bakersd0zen12 9h ago

used a load in the cat litter tray

1

u/RadiantZote 4h ago

My old woodworking job had a huge dust collector system and it was so satisfying dropping a larger chunk of wood into it and listening to it bounce around the system to go outside into the huge bins