My mom got one of those when I was still in grade school. Mid 60's I suppose. Worked kind of. For a while. Failed pretty short lived. Mom got a washer dryer combo to replace it. Same story as yours essentially. Was the latest and greatest of the time and in our 800 square foot lower part of a story and a half house with six kids (but the two girls already married and moved out), area was at a premium so she liked the small size of a single unit (prior was a wringer washer in the basement and hanging clothes out on the line). But it didn't work great and didn't last long. 

We will see how this one works out. Hopefully they have improved the design. It does have a very fine lint filter in it at the top. We will see. Wish me luck!