A vacuum cleaner having a vac-motor and a dust separator for separating out dust particles entrained in an airflow drawn through the separator by the vac-motor. The separator is a multi-stage separator incorporating a cyclonic primary separation stage, a non-cyclonic secondary separation stage which is downstream of the primary separation stage and a cyclonic tertiary stage which is downstream of the secondary stage. In accordance with the invention, the secondary stage includes a flow bend for changing the direction of the airflow thereby to separate out dust particles entrained in the airflow. The vacuum cleaner also includes a primary dust collector for collecting dust particles separated out by the primary separation stage, a secondary dust collector for collecting the dust particles separated out by the flow bend and a tertiary dust collector for collecting dust separated out by the tertiary separation stage.