BACKGROUND

Vacuum cleaners can be embodied as upright units or portable, hand-carriable units. In some instances, a vacuum cleaner can be reconfigurable between an upright cleaning mode and a handheld mode. Many recent handheld vacuum cleaners use at least one cyclonic cleaning stage. Other handheld vacuum cleaners include non-cyclonic cleaning stages, such as filters or filter bags.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

An aspect of the present disclosure relates to vacuum cleaner including a working air path comprising a dirty air inlet and a clean air outlet, a motor/fan assembly in fluid communication with the dirty air inlet and a debris removal assembly including a dirt cup, a filter assembly, and a filter interlock mechanism that physically prevents installation of the dirt cup if the filter assembly is not installed.

