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Todd's advice on this question and in this forum has been very sound - go with it!

if you are inquiering for professional service is because your vent are not accesince you are worried ssable if your dryer vent is easy to get to you are better off replacing it and creaper. if you live in a complex multi apartment building ask your mangement to see asbout cleaning your dryer vent since you are worried about a vent flash fire.

Raymond Gonzalez

Source: http://koolrayheatingandair.com

I looked again and it's a flexible line and quite short. What's a good way to clean it? I've also noticed a lot of lint that's "escaped" the lint screen and fallen down underneath it (inside the dryer). Can I just vacuum that out or do I need to clean further in?

the lint inside your dryer is alot more dangerest then the lint in the duct. If you have a regular dryer and not a hi capacity dryer you should be able to take the back cover off f you do that then with a wet vac clean your dryer and then change the flex vent dsince it is completly clogged and it is not worth having it clean out

Raymond Gonzalez
koolray heating and air

Source: http://koolrayheatingandair.com

Replace the flex line this time. In the future stay on top of it, judging how often to clean it out by how much use it gets. For a family of four every 6 months should be ok. More people, clean more often and visa vera. For the dryer a brush through the channel from the lint screen in the dryer to the exit port at the back will clean the caked up lint. There shouldn't be any lint in the case of the dryer if the duct line was attached properly but since there is look for damage while that back cover is off. Clean the lint filter inside the dryer with every load to keep excess lint from traveling into the duct and help the dryer run as efficiently as possible.

Todd Shell
Todd's Home Services

If the pipe is not exposed do not do it ,good luck I have seen a lot of rusted pipe. and a lot of over- ran pipe this only aides in lint clogging up your pipes and the first few feet of pipe ran into your house should be insulated and use no flex plastic pipe! look up dryer fires on internet.

The company that services your heating and cooling system may be a good source of advice. You may also want to contact professional duct cleaning service providers and ask them about the services they provide. Remember, they are trying to sell you a service, so ask questions and insist on complete and knowledgeable answers.

Source: http://www.canaduct.com/Toronto-Duct-...

I move the dryer forward (disconnecting vent pipe and electric cord while doing so), and use the shop vac to clean behind and under the dryer and in the duct bends behind the dryer and up in the exhaust tube from the lint screen, then tilt the dryer up so I can reach in the open bottom and vacumn all that, then carefully (so as not to puncture or tear loose the exhaust duct) run the shop vac hose as far in as I can into the in-floor exhauset duct.

Then I run a loose swap like a swifter brush on a string through the vent pipe/hose - a swab that is close to but slightly less than the vent hose size, so it does not jam up in it - this knocks the adhering lint off the duct walls and bottom.

Then I duct-tape a piece of ABS or PVC pipe that is similar sized to your vacuum hose to the flex hose on your shop vac, so you can reach further in the vent pipe (assuming it is a straight run to the dryer). If not a straight run, then you need a long enough vacumn hose - you can duct tape on a second vac hose, or a piece of workshop central vac flex tubing that you can buy at your hardware store. That way I can reach in from outside for 10 feet with one pipe length, and vacumn out all the lint the swab knocked loose. If the vent is really linted up , vacumn BEFORE swabbing so the swab does not pile up a big pile and get stuck, then again after swabbing.

I just vacumn only every year, then swab about every 10 years and it stays quite clean in between, with a 20 foot duct run to the outside louvers.

There is a LOT of discussion regarding whether round metal or plastic ducting or corrugated flex tubing is best for dryers, although in some areas the building code mandates one or the other. For my money, a straight pipe like ABS or round ducting seems to build up a lint coating MUCH faster - I changed over to flex tubing and the resulting flow turbulence really cut down accumulations.