The idea was that the heavy sand and sediment would be forced out of the tube during the throw. The SAD truth is that this didn't work as well as the simpler sediment hole in the bottom of the GE solid-tubs did. Several people have told me that the tubes got clogged very easily and then corroded. I noticed that the old Speed Queen that Jon Charles is working on had an almost identical tube on the side of the stainless steel tub; I wonder if he will comment.

BTW I just met somebody the other day who is having his kitchen redone and we started discussing the pro's and con's of Stainless Steel (which I don't like). He said the name came from the original marketing of the product which meant to describe a new product that "stained less" than ordinary high-nickel steel. Has anyone heard this before?

There was a trough of sorts directly underneath the sediment hole that was supposed to hold the sediment in place until the maelstrom of the spin cycle carried it out to the drain. I think it must have worked well because we had a solid tub FF at the beach and I don't remember seeing any sand leftover in the tub. In the Hotpoints, however, I've seen the sand and grit that CU talked about  ending up inside the agitator assembly.