Single tube hydro air filter with dividing wall

Claim 1

In a dump bucket for a vacuum cleaner, said dump bucket comprising: a cylindrical, closed container having a bottom wall, a top wall and a side wall, and acting to accumulate liquid therein and having its axis extending vertically; an open hollow riser tube extending upwardly from the bottom of the container and being open at the bottom to the container exterior and terminating short of the container top wall; a hollow fluid return tube projecting through a wall of the container near its top, a hydro air filter mounted to said fluid return tube within said container, extending vertically therein and comprising separate, adjacent parallel vertical first downwardly and second upwardly flow paths, and being in fluid communication with said return tube, said flow paths being in fluid communication with each other at the bottom of said hydro air filter, and at least one aperture within the bottom of said hydro air filter and opening to the interior of said container, and nozle means at the top of said hydro air filter fluid communicating the upper end of the second flow path with the interior of the container, such that liquid within the container at a level above said at least one aperture is aspirated by return fluid entering the inlet tube as the return fluid moves upwardly within the section flow path to cause a mixture of the return fluid and the liquid entering said aperture to be discharged through the nozzle means for impact against the container interior and to separate by entrainment of the liquid components thereof when vacuum pressure is applied to the hollow riser tube at the bottom of the dump bucket container, such that under vacuum pressure, the return fluid causes the liquid within the container to enter the stream of return fluid to effect filtering of the return fluid stream, the improvement wherein said hydro air filter comprises a single closed tube, a vertical divider wall plate is carried internally within said single closed tube and spanning across said tube to separate said single, closed tube into said two vertical flow paths, and means defining an opening within the lower end of said plate to effect fluid communication between said paths at the bottom of said single closed tube, said fluid return tube connects through a wall of said single tube means to one side of said plate at the top of said single, closed tube, said at least one aperture is provided within the wall of said single, closed tube on the side of said plate defining said second flow path and said nozzle means comprises at least one nozzle mounted to said single closed tube at the upper end thereof and opening into said second flow path.