Patent ID: 9677217
Date: 2017-06-13
CPC Classifications: D06F,F26B

Claim:
1. A method for controlling a laundry treating apparatus having a drum configured to hold laundry, a connection duct configured to exhaust air from an inside of the drum, an exhaust duct arranged in parallel to a length direction of the drum and connected to the connection duct, a filter assembly (i) with a filter unit located at the exhaust duct and extending along a longitudinal direction of the exhaust duct, (ii) configured to filter air guided by the exhaust duct, and (iii) a brush configured to remove foreign matter from the filter unit, a brush drive unit including a brush motor fixed to an outside of the exhaust duct and configured to drive the brush in a reciprocating manner over a section of the filter unit, and a position sensing unit including a magnetic element provided to the brush and two magnetic force sensors configured to sense whether the magnetic element is positioned at a limiting point of reciprocating movement of the brush, the method comprising: supplying power to the laundry treating apparatus; operating the brush drive unit temporarily; after operating the brush drive unit temporarily, determining whether the position sensing unit senses a position of the brush or not; cutting off power supply to the laundry treating apparatus based on a determination that the position sensing unit fails to sense the position of the brush; putting an air supply unit into operation to supply heated or unheated air to the drum based on both of the two magnetic force sensors sensing the magnetic element, the putting of the air supply unit into operation to supply heated or unheated air to the drum comprising: determining whether at least one of the filter unit or the connection duct is blocked by foreign matter based on the operation time period of the heater failing to meet the reference time period during operation of the air supply unit; notifying, with a display unit or a speaker, after controlling the brush drive unit to reciprocate the brush for a predetermined time period, of a blockage of at least one of the connection duct or the exhaust duct based on both of the two magnetic force sensors sensing the magnetic element; and requesting, with a display unit or a speaker, removal of foreign matter from the filter assembly based on at least one of the two magnetic force sensors failing to sense the magnetic element.