Patent ID: RE39304

Claim:
A portable surface cleaning apparatus, comprising: a base module for movement along a surface and having a front portion and a rear portion; a brush assembly having an agitation brush generally disposed in the front portion of the base module and a pivot arm for pivotally supporting the agitation brush relative to the base module; a first end of the pivot arm is mounted to the agitation brush and a second end of the pivot arm is pivotally mounted to the base module, whereby the brush assembly is free floating to adjust to different surface heights; a handle pivotally attached to the rear portion of the base module for movement between an upright position and an inclined position, and including a lower portion having an outer surface; a fluid recovery system comprising: a tank on the base module having a fluid recovery chamber for holding recovered fluid; a suction nozzle associated with the base module; a working air conduit extending between the recovery chamber and the suction nozzle; a vacuum source in fluid communication with the recovery chamber for generating a flow of working air from the nozzle through the working air conduit and through the recovery chamber to thereby draw dirty liquid from the surface to be cleaned through the nozzle and working air conduit and into the recovery chamber; a liquid dispensing system comprising: a liquid dispensing nozzle; a fluid supply chamber for holding a predetermined amount of supply fluid; a fluid supply conduit fluidly connected to the fluid supply chamber and to the dispensing nozzle for supplying liquid to the dispensing nozzle; the improvement comprising: an elevator assembly including an elevator arm reciprocally mounted to the base module and movable between rear and forward positions in response to movement of the upright handle from the inclined position to the upright position; a first end of the elevator arm is disposed adjacent the pivot arm and is adapted to lift the pivot arm from the surface as the elevator assembly moves between the rear and forward positions and a second end of the arm is engagable with the handle for moving the elevator assembly between the rear and forward positions as the handle moves between the inclined and upright positions; whereby pivoting the upright handle from the inclined position to the upright position is translated into movement of the agitation brush away from the surface to be cleaned.