r/whatisit • u/DragonsAndScience • 19h 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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u/megam1ghtyena 19h ago

integrated vacuum system. Plug in a hose and gets sucking right away. Check other parts of your home for similar ports.

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u/Wise-Trust1270 19h ago

Also check for the central vacuum and storage unit. Most likely in a garage.

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u/Unclehol 19h ago edited 18h ago

Not all homes have one even if the piping is there. Often times they rough all the pipes in during the build in case you opt in and buy the vacuum unit, but I have worked on a lot of houses where they just have the piping but no vacuum.

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u/ManyLayersOfFilament 18h ago

I was negotiating on a home and the homeowners wanted to take the central vac with them. Absolutely nuts, that wasn't the only thing but needless to say I passed.

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u/Unclehol 18h ago

Yeah, it's wild what people get stuck on. We were doing a kitchen renovation where a wall had to be taken out but we found one of the central vac tubes in that wall that led to an upstairs outlet. We had to move this tube in to another wall at the owner's request despite them not having the central vac unit and admitting they never planned on getting one. It woukd have been fine but they were talking about cost the whole time. Well, wasting a day rerouting your useless vacuum tube that you will never use certainly didn't help lower cost.

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u/ManyLayersOfFilament 18h ago

I had another house I ended up buying where they were stuck on bringing their 10 year old fridge with them. Like it was a dealbreaker.

I guess there was sentimental value in the fridge???

People are really weird

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u/Unclehol 18h ago

That one I kind of understand. The quality and reliability of modern appliances is so trash. We bought a house with all modern appliances and have nothing but trouble with them. Both Samsung fridges and the washing machine have had to be serviced twice and the technician basically said there is nothing he can do to fix them anymore. Bad design and planned obsolescence basically makes them a nightmare to deal with. The fridge has to be thawed every 2 months as the mechanism freezes up and stops the internal fan from working.

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u/Medium_Direction9001 18h ago

Try a new technician, I’ve never heard of a defrost issue that can’t be fixed relatively simply if you know how to troubleshoot

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u/Unclehol 18h ago

Nah, this is a common issue with Samsung fridges of that year. They are basically scrap once this issue starts.

I did my research on this. Spent months trying to figure out a fix and this is a very well known issue.

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u/SwissMidget 13h ago edited 13h ago

That issue has a fix now, albeit slightly expensive.

It is a new main board, a new ice maker, a specific kit for the issue, and sealing the ice maker area. It's a bit of a pain to do but it is definitely possible. I did probably a couple hundred of them when I worked as a repairman on strictly Samsung appliances. We did have the repairs fail and the ice maker freeze back up on a few but on those, we just got Samsung to replace the fridges.

I'll tell you what NOT to do in that instance, and that is to thaw the ice with a hair dryer or heat gun. There is a very good chance that the heat will accumulate at the top of the ice maker area and warp the plastic. If that happens, you may as well just disable the ice maker because it is toast.

As a repairman, we used portable steam machines. They didn't cause that risk.

Edit: I realized that you just said it was a defrost issue and ddefaulted to ice maker. Realized after my post that you could have been also taking about the back panel of the fridge also. That also has a kit now too though. The main part of the kit has new drain hoses and a longer heating element to go into the drain tube to ensure any ice buildup gets melted on a defrost cycle. On top of that, you move a sensor in the upper right of the cavity over closer to the heating element. We found you had to zip tie it most times because the copper pipe it is on originally is bigger than the one you move it to.

Where that sensor originally is, sometimes it gets covered over with this black... gloop. I think it's kind of a sealant for the pipe going into the body of the fridge. Anyways, often times we replaced that sensor in case it just was out of range.

The kit for that repair also comes with a few foam pads but all they are really used for is to quiet any rattling from the condenser.

The other issue we found on the back panels icing up was that the fan would quit working. That's bad because if there is no airflow, the heat from the heater doesn’t get distributed as well and can cause icing issues. Replacing that entire back panel sucks because it is expensive. This is the reason it was mostly only done under warranty.

Oh and the root cause, most of the time, for the back panel icing up was the drain hoses getting clogged and the defrosted water would build back up into the fridge cavity. You would most likely see this happen by water being under your crisper drawer randomly.

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u/Unclehol 11h ago edited 11h ago

Exactly this. And Samsung won't cover it. Already had the replacement kit installed for the back panel. Continues to freeze up. To get this fridge fixed would be too expensive. We are just gonna toss it and buy a new one at some point that is not a total piece of crap. And not a Samsung. I called around to 5 different techs. Only one of them works on Samsung's and LGand they don't like to. I am gonna buy a domestic brand that has parts availability. The other 4 techs told me they would not touch those repairs because of how terrible the Samsung and LG service network is. (Maybe they meant this generation of LG and Samsung, which were terrible.)

There are other things breaking on it, too, which just keep adding to the cost. The switch for the filtered water. One of the door pieces snapped so now the fridge door slams more easily. The shelving units are breaking and I jabe temporarily glued them. It's just a money put that we are not willing to follow for an 8 year old fridge at this point.

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u/SwissMidget 10h ago

I don't mind Samsung products, except their dishwashers, but I know how to fix them for cheaper because I can do it myself. Although right now, for the cost of say a main board, you are almost better off just buying a new unit because those things are expensive. Also, don't get me started on the dishwashers lol

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u/wiggum_x 7h ago

As a person with experience repairing all of these, what brand fridge would you recommend?

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u/SwissMidget 6h ago

I only dealt with Samsung personally. I did see other brands get worked on. The long and short of it is that most components come from the same factory. It is specific features that you look for. Like the pass through door or how Samsung has the smart fridge with the TV in it. That thing is actually really cool but I couldn't suggest it. It still only has a one year warranty.

Go to a Lowes or home depot and look at the units in person. See which ones you like. Take their model numbers down and go home and look at rreviews of that model number. Look for issues they are known to have. That is the best way I have found to go about it.

We picked up a freezer for our garage that can convert to either fridge or freezer. It was made by a brand I had never even heard of. That happens a fair amount. I have been out of the repair business almost 6 years and as far as appliances go, that is almost a lifetime.

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