US Patent 7797792 Hard floor cleaner

A floor cleaning device (10) includes a housing (40) and a container (43) removably received by the housing. A suction nozzle (18, 18′, 18″) is fluidly connected with the container and with a suction source (52) when the container is received by the housing. A filter (114) is selectively fluidly connected with the container and with the suction source. A float (170) selectively closes the fluid connection of the filter with the container. The filter and the float may be removable as a unit (42) from the cleaning device. The nozzle may be removable, allowing an appropriate nozzle to be selected according to the type of floor surface to be cleaned.