Hi Dan, I can describe the one we use at work.
First and foremost, as I said in my previous post, the wall outlet consists of a standard wall plate, with a two and a half inch hole in the center, topped by an electrical receptacle, with two holes to accept two nipple style prongs. The whole works is covered by a spring loaded flap, which swings down to cover the outlet when not in use. The flap also has a lip at the end, which is supposed to latch onto the back of the end of the hose that connects to the outlet, keeping it pretty stable from being yanked out of the wall. As I said previously, this can be a blessing and a curse. In terms of the hose, the one end that plugs into the outlet is fairly round, with a squared end that houses the two nipple style prongs that plug into the electrical receptacle. The nipples are at the top of the end of the hose, so you always know which end is up when you plug it in. That's basically that end, until you move about 50 feet down to the other end, which has a gun type handle, albeit a space age gun type handle, which encircles your hand. On top of the handle, right where the thumb can access it, there is the power switch that turns the system on and off, and which feeds the carpet attachment power. One flick of the switch, and you simply get suction. Two flicks of the switch forward, and you provide power to the carpet attachment. This is done for two reasons, primarily since you don't always just do carpets with the carpet attachment, and secondly, because there is a plain floor attachment that can be used with the unit, and is what we use here at work. Further down the handle, or, at the site where one would find the gun barrel, is exactly that, a gun barrel. Smile. The pipe if made of chrome, and is about an inch, to an inch and a half wide, and extends about three or four inches out of the handle. Recessed underneath and back to where the pipe protrudes out of the handle, are two nipple style prongs that will plug into the carpet attachment to provide electrical power to the unit. This is also the primary delivery source for any power that the attachments use. I can't rightly remember if the central vacuum is a wet/dry vacuum system, but it is powerful, nonetheless. Hope this describes it ok. Victor Gouveia
