A surface cleaning apparatus includes a controller coupled to a sensor or a set of sensors that collects and transmits data to a remote computing device. The surface cleaning apparatus can use wireless or networking technology with a protocol for wireless communication with the remote computing device. The remote computing device is configured to identify an event at the surface cleaning apparatus and/or a change in the cycle of operation of the surface cleaning apparatus based on the transmitted data. Sensor data can be transmitted from the remote computing device to a different surface cleaning apparatus.