The claims made by most "As Seen on TV" products seem dubious to me, but when I got a press release for a gadget that promised to "Remove lint from hard to reach places" it got my attention.

The National Fire Protection Association reports that in 2006 there were roughly 16,000 home fires in the United States that involved clothes dryers, and the leading reason was "failure to clean" - aka, lint build-up.

We clean our dryer's exhaust hose regularly. And I clean the lint trap after every load. But my dryer has an impossible-to-reach spot, below the screen. I can see tons of lint down there. Gobs of it. I just can't reach it.

And that's why the Lint Lizard - an attachment for a regular vacuum cleaner - caught my eye.

I emailed the company to ask for a sample. Two days later, it was on my desk.

Here's my report. The Lint Lizard attached easily to my vacuum. But the clear plastic hose portion that was supposed to wend its way into the nooks and crannies of my dryer seemed awfully large. I didn't think it was going to fit.

Good news: It turns out that the hose is flexible enough to be squished into the narrow slot leading to all that lint. The Lint Lizard sucked up all the loose lint easily. (And since the hose is clear, I got to watch it fly by, which was both very gross and very satisfying.)

However ... some of the lint had been in my dryer so long that it had formed a solid clump. The Lint Lizard couldn't budge it.

I found a long dowel and poked it around gingerly to loosen the lint. I sent the Lizard in again. It slurped up every last bit.