The present invention is a vacuum cleaner (10) and accessory attachment assembly (27) including a vacuum cleaner and an accessory attachment. The vacuum cleaner includes a motor (18, 118), a housing (12) enclosing the motor (18, 118) and a fan (17) driven by the motor for producing a vacuum. The vacuum cleaner also includes a canister (14) removably attached to the housing (12) for reception of air and foreign matter into the canister (14) in response to the vacuum produced by the fan (17). The vacuum cleaner further includes a plurality of batteries (22, 122) electrically connected together and electrical wiring (26, 126) interconnecting the batteries (22, 122) and the motor (18, 118). The accessory attachment is removably mounted to the vacuum cleaner and includes a motor (28, 128), and means (26, 126) for electrically connecting the motor (28, 128) to the vacuum cleaner. The vacuum cleaner includes means (24, 124, 59, 159) for allowing the speed of the motor of the vacuum cleaner to change while allowing the speed of the motor (28, 128) for the accessory attachment to remain constant.