A conventional drum type washing and drying machine includes a cylindrical rotary drum disposed in a water tub such that its rotational axis is horizontal or slanted with respect to the horizontal direction. The cylindrical rotary drum having a bottom surface is provided with multiple drum perforations for allowing water and air to pass therethrough on its cylindrical surface and is driven to rotate. Further, formed at a front side of the water tub is a laundry loading/unloading opening, which is opened and closed with a door. After loading laundry in the rotary drum through the laundry loading/unloading opening, washing, rinsing and water-extracting processes are performed by controlling water supply and drain into and from the water tub and also by controlling the rotation of the rotary drum.
Moreover, by forming an air circulation channel for exhausting air from the water tub, running thus exhausted air through a dehumidification unit and a heating unit and re-circulating thus dehumidified and heated air back into the water tub, a drying process for drying laundry accommodated in the rotary drum can be performed. In such a way, the drum type washing and drying machine is capable of executing the drying process in addition to the washing, the rinsing and the water-extracting process. Detergent can be added into a detergent dispenser prior to starting the operation of the drum type washing and drying machine and a control panel can be manipulated as needed to set up a desired operation process of the washing and drying machine, start or temporarily pause the operation, and find out the operation status thereof.
In the drum type washing and drying machine having the above-described configuration, a lint trap filter for filtering, e.g., lint produced from laundry during the drying process is installed in the air circulation channel in order to prevent the lint from being accumulated in the air circulation channel or in a fan. The lint trap filter is configured to be attached to or detached from the drum type washing and drying machine by opening a lid plate provided on a top surface of a main body of the drum type washing and drying machine so that the lint collected in the lint trap filter can be removed at any time. By removing the lint, deterioration of air flow efficiency can be prevented (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. 2000-093697).
However, given that the lint trap filter is disposed at an upper portion of the main body and the lid plate opened or closed to mount or separate the lint trap filter is installed on the top surface of the main body in the conventional drum type washing and drying machine, the lint trap filter is typically hidden from view. Therefore, a user may forget to clean the lint trap filter, resulting in accumulation of lint in the lint trap filter without being noticed by the user, which in turn obstructs the air circulation and significantly deteriorates a drying efficiency.