Patent ID: 8726460

Claim:
A vacuum cleaner comprising: a vacuum source adapted to generate an airstream, the vacuum source having a vacuum source inlet and a vacuum source outlet; a filter having a front side and a back side; a separating unit comprising a first sub-separator having a first sub-separator inlet and a first sub-separator outlet, and a second sub-separator having a second sub-separator inlet and a second sub-separator outlet; a dirty air inlet associated with an inlet nozzle; airflow passages connecting the vacuum source, the filter and the separating unit in a first configuration corresponding to a vacuum cleaning mode and a second configuration corresponding to a filter cleaning mode, wherein: in the vacuum cleaning mode, the airflow passages connect the dirty air inlet in parallel to the first sub-separator inlet and the second sub-separator inlet, connect the first sub-separator outlet and the second sub-separator outlet in parallel to the filter front side, and connect the filter back side to the vacuum source inlet, and in the filter cleaning mode, the airflow passages connect the filter front side to the first sub-separator inlet, connect the first sub-separator outlet to the second sub-separator inlet, and connect the second sub-separator outlet to the vacuum source inlet.