Surface cleaning apparatus

A hand vacuum cleaner having a front end, a rear end, an upper end, a lower end and a longitudinal axis which intersects the front and rear ends, wherein when the longitudinal axis extends horizontally, a vertical axis that is perpendicular to the longitudinal axis intersects the upper and lower ends, the hand vacuum cleaner comprising:

• an air flow passage extending from a dirty air inlet provided at the front end to a clean air outlet;
• a first cleaning stage positioned in the air flow passage downstream from the dirty air inlet, the first cleaning stage comprising a momentum separator having an air treatment chamber, the first cleaning stage having an air inlet, an air outlet comprising a porous dirt separator, a front end and a rear end wherein, in operation, air enters the air treatment chamber and dirt separated from air flowing through the air treatment chamber is collected in the air treatment chamber and wherein the porous dirt separator comprises a first generally vertically extending screen section and a laterally spaced apart second generally vertically extending screen section;
• a second cleaning stage positioned in the air flow passage downstream from the first cleaning stage, the second cleaning stage comprising at least one cyclone, the at least one cyclone having a cyclone chamber, a cyclone axis of rotation and a dirt collection chamber wherein, in operation, air enters the cyclone chamber and dirt separated from air flowing through the cyclone chamber is collected in the dirt collection chamber;
• and,
• a front door moveably mounted between a closed position and an open position, wherein, when the front door is moved to the open position, the front end of the air treatment chamber and the dirt collection chamber are concurrently opened.