Twin cyclone vacuum cleaner

A vacuum cleaner including a housing, a nozzle base having a main suction opening, said housing being pivotally mounted on said nozzle base, an airstream suction source mounted to one of said housing and said nozzle base for selectively establishing and maintaining a suction airstream from said nozzle main suction opening to an exhaust outlet of said suction source, and a dirt cup selectively mounted to said housing, said dirt cup comprising:

• a first centrifugal chamber having a first longitudinal axis, said first centrifugal chamber including a first cyclone assembly, wherein said first centrifugal chamber forms a first cylinder;
• a second centrifugal chamber having a second longitudinal axis, oriented parallel to said first longitudinal axis, said second centrifugal chamber including a second cyclone assembly, wherein said second centrifugal chamber forms a second cylinder wherein said first and second cyclone assemblies act simultaneously to initially remove at least some contaminants from the airstream;
• and,
• an air manifold including:
• a dirty air inlet in direct fluid communication with said main suction opening for receiving a contaminant entrained airstream from said main suction opening,
• a pair of dirty air outlets communicating with a respective one of said first and second centrifugal chambers, wherein the dirty air inlet directs the contaminant entrained airstream received from the main suction opening directly into the pair of dirty air outlets,
• a pair of cleaned air inlets communicating with a respective one of said first and second centrifugal chambers, and
• a cleaned air outlet in fluid communication with an inlet of said airstream suction source.

A dirt container for a vacuum cleaner comprising:

• a dirt cup;
• a first cyclonic flow chamber located in said dirt cup;
• a second cyclonic flow chamber located in said dirt cup, said second chamber being positioned adjacent to and parallel to said first chamber, wherein said first and second chambers are oriented generally vertically;
• a first perforated tube and a first separator cone extending in said first chamber, at least a portion of said first perforated tube being disposed within said first separator cone;
• a second perforated tube and a second separator cone extending in said second chamber, at least a portion of said second perforated tube being disposed within said second separator cone, each tube including a plurality of small holes disposed in a side wall of said tube, each tube further including an outwardly flared end wall for retarding an upward flow of dust that has fallen below said end wall, and
• an air manifold disposed on an upper portion of said dirt cup, said air manifold having a dirty air inlet, wherein dirty air from a main suction opening of the vacuum cleaner flows into the dirt cup through the dirty air inlet, and wherein said air manifold directs dirty air to each of said first and second cyclonic flow chambers for initial separation of dirt and dust from the airstream, and wherein said air manifold directs a flow of cleaned air from each of said first and second cyclonic flow chambers to a suction source of the vacuum cleaner.