An upright vacuum cleaner includes a housing, a nozzle opening in the housing and a dust collector carried on the housing. A suction fan is also carried on the housing. The suction fan draws air, dirt and debris from a surface to be cleaned through the nozzle opening to the dust collector. The upright vacuum cleaner also includes a first rotary agitator and a second rotary agitator, both carried on the housing. A drive motor carried on the housing drives the first rotary agitator through the bel...

A floor cleaning apparatus such as an upright vacuum cleaner, an extractor or a powerhead for a canister vacuum cleaner includes twin agitators that are operatively connected together by means of a worm gear drive assembly.

An agitator includes a high strength, continuous metal axle, a pulley held on one end of the metal axle and a sleeve of lightweight plastic material received over the axle. The agitator is manufactured by molding a pulley body onto an underlying metal support or D-nut, fitting an axle into the pulley, molding a sleeve around the axle and securing a cleaning structure on the sleeve.

A floor care apparatus includes a housing having a nozzle assembly with a suction inlet and a canister assembly. A dirt collector and suction generator are carried on the housing. The apparatus further includes a wand having an inlet opening and a sealing element for sealing that inlet opening when the wand is held in a storage position. Additionally, the apparatus includes a valve and an airflow conduit system. The airflow conduit system provides fluid communication between the suction inlet, t...

A bagless vacuum cleaner (10) includes a nozzle assembly (16) having a suction nozzle for picking up dirt and debris from a surface to be cleaned and a canister assembly (18) including a cavity (32). A dust collection assembly (12) is received and held in that cavity (32). The dust collection assembly (12) includes a filtering subassembly (100) and a dust container (102). The dust container (102) has an open top (104), a bottom wall (106), a first cylindrical sidewall (108), an inlet (110), and ...

A floor care apparatus has a nozzle assembly housing an agitator. A motor couples to the agitator to drive it at two or more speeds and constant suction power. A user indicates their mode-of-operation preference by positioning a switch. An agitator motor control circuit, responsive to the switch, effectuates motor control by supplying either a fixed duty cycle signal or a substantially constant voltage signal. The fixed duty cycle signal includes a waveform with a substantially constant voltage ...

A vacuum cleaner is provided including a housing, a nozzle inlet, a suction generator carried on the housing and a dirt cup. The dirt cup includes a dirt collection chamber, a chamber inlet, a filter cavity and a chamber outlet. A filter element is received in the filter cavity. Air is axially directed into an interior chamber of the filter element and then radially discharged from that chamber.

A nozzle assembly housing includes a first wall, a second wall and an access opening in those walls. A locking tab receiver is provided on the first wall adjacent the access opening. A notch is provided on the second wall adjacent the access opening. Finally, a separate, removable panel closes the access opening. That panel includes a locking tab on a first edge that engages the locking tab receiver and a hinge lug on a second edge that is pivotally received in the notch.

A vacuum cleaner is provided including a housing, a nozzle inlet, a suction generator carried on the housing and a dust box carried on the housing. Additionally, a partition is provided dividing the dust box into a coarse particle dirt collecting chamber and a fine particle filtering chamber. Further, a filter assembly including a support frame and a filter element is provided. The support frame holds the filter element in the filtering chamber.

A tool holder is provided for a floor cleaning apparatus. The tool holder includes a body having both a wand receiver and a cleaning tool receiver.