Air and liquid separator for a carpet extractor

An air/liquid separator is provided in a hollow, preferably transparent, removable lid on a recovery tank of a wet pickup suction cleaner. The lid has a wall therein dividing the lid into an inlet/separating chamber and an exit chamber. Liquid and dirt entrained working air enters the inlet chamber and flows horizontally across the inlet chamber over a plurality of discharge openings passing through the lid bottom plate, such that the stream of dirty liquid and air is redirected downward through the discharge openings into the recovery tank. The plurality of discharge openings in the lid bottom plate are arranged generally progressively along the stream of liquid and air entering and flowing across the inlet chamber. The discharge openings preferably increase in size moving downstream in the inlet chamber, i.e. away from the entry into the inlet chamber. The exit chamber fluidly communicates with the interior of the recovery tank through an exit opening passing through the lid bottom plate. A vacuum is preferably drawn upon the exit chamber by an electric fan for providing the required working air flow through the combined air/liquid separator.