Laundry treating apparatus and method for controlling the laundry treating apparatus

A method for controlling a laundry treating apparatus, wherein the laundry treating apparatus comprises:

• a drum having a laundry storage space defined therein;
• a duct defining a channel for supplying air discharged from the drum back to the drum;
• a fan to move air along the duct;
• a heat-absorber for removing moisture from air introduced into the duct;
• a heat-emitter disposed inside the duct to heat air passing through the heat-absorber;
• a water collector for storing therein water discharged from air passing through the heat-absorber;
• a filter assembly including a first filter to filter fluid moving to the heat-absorber and a second filter fixed to the first filter to filter fluid moving to the water collector;
• a water discharger having a water storage space defined therein;
• a water discharger supply pipe for supplying water stored in the water collector to the water discharger;
• a water ejector configured to eject water into the first filter;
• and a water ejector supply pipe for supplying water stored in the water collector to the water ejector;
• wherein the method comprises:
• performing a drying operation in which the fan, the heat-absorber, and the heat-emitter conduct heat exchange between air and laundry inside the drum, wherein the drying operation is executed until a dryness of laundry reaches a predefined target dryness;
• performing a dryness measurement operation in which the dryness of laundry is measured using at least one of an electrode sensor or a humidity sensor during the drying operation, wherein the humidity sensor is configured to measure a humidity of air flowing from the drum to the duct, and the electrode sensor is configured to contact the laundry and measure an amount of moisture contained in the laundry;
• and
• based on the dryness of the laundry being higher than a first reference dryness and lower than a second reference dryness, performing a cleaning operation in which water is supplied from the water collector to the water ejector to clean at least one of the filter assembly or the heat-absorber, wherein the second reference dryness is lower than the target dryness and higher than the first reference dryness,
• wherein the cleaning operation is not performed based on the dryness of the laundry being greater than or equal to the second reference dryness and less than the target dryness.