Quote Originally Posted by ilyaz View Post
I took the dryer apart last night and pulled a ton of lint out of it. I disconnected the vent form the dryer and can feel crud at one of the vent, but I don't think it's completely clogged.

But if I remove the trap and use a vacuum (leaf/shopvac/whatever) from the outside to suck the lint out, why would this make things worse? The joints between the vent pieces are covered by alum tape fairly well so I don't think any dust should come through those.
Kid, man, dude, bro, cuz.... If you can see that the vent piping has aluminum tape on it, pull the tape, separate the pieces, take them outside and rinse them out with a hose. Don't be lazy.