Clogless gutters

[Rob Blaustein]

Does anyone have any experience with these? We live amid a number of trees and our gutters require much yearly maintenance, so I was thinking about these systems. I saw one (I think made by leafguard.com) on "This Old House" and it looked interesting, but thought I'd ask if anyone out there has actually used them.

[Joe Pelonio]

I wish I did have clogless, but we have mainly fir needles here, and no one makes something totally clogless for those. I have done a lot of signs and truck lettering for leafguard and have seen their operation and some of the work they have done. They do a great job on leaves, but needles slip through. The nice thing though is their warranty, if they should clog they will clean them out free. Expensive though.

[Jim Becker]

When I replaced our gutters last year, I considered them...until I found the price to be three times what regular gutters would be. It was also a very, very hard-sell situation and I finally had to tell the sales people to "just leave"--two different outfits, too.

I had a local roofing/gutter company recommended by a referal service I often use come out and do the work. I can live with the ladder a few times a year for necessary cleaning...

[Rob Blaustein]

Since posting I've looked around the web and it seems the jury's out in terms of how well these perform if you live under lots of trees. And, as several have pointed out, they're expensive. Maybe I'll just live with my current gutters and continue to have someone come out and clean them for $85 a visit. The tricky thing out here is you have a narrow window time-wise since you have to wait till all the leaves fall, but you want to clean them before everything freezes.

[Scott Brihn]

We had Gutter Helmet installed two-years ago. Expensive, but in our case a good value. We live on a wooded lot where gutter cleaning could almost be done daily during certain times of the year. I have checked performance during hard storms and thus far the system works as advertised.

Installation was done by the regional distributor and was the best experience we have had with a contractor. The sales pitch is a little silly if you already know you want a system. I focused the guy on price and the whole transaction took about 30 minutes.

[Rob Blaustein]

I focused the guy on price and the whole transaction took about 30 minutes.

Scott,
Interesting. Were you able to bargain with him a bit, or was the price pretty much set? Do these guys offer the "if it clogs we'll clean it free forever" guarantee?

[Jim DeLaney]

I had a product called Gutter-Loov installed earlier this year, and it seems to be working very well. It goes under your first course of shingles, and fits under the outer lip of 'standard' guttering. Cost me $7.50 per foot, installed. So far, no clogs, and no leaves, twigs or acorns from the oaks that are all around the house. I'm pretty happy with that!.

My neighbor liked the looks of mine so much that he had it installed on his house last month, too. Kinda funny, the first really hard rain we had after I'd had it installed, I looked out to see the neighbor standing in my yard, closely watching my roof to see how well the Gutter-Loov was working. He didn't really believe it'd work. Musta made him happy, though, since he got it, too.

[Phil Maddox]

My mother had "gutter helmut" installed on her house under a canopy of pine trees in the back and deciduous trees in the front. The front works great, the back, not so good.

However, this came with the "or we will clean the gutters forever" deal and they have faithfully made at least 25 trips in the last 3 years.

Pricey but better than me doing it.

PHil

[Ed Breen]

I don't know what the name was, but I tired of cleaning the gutters and picked the panels up at the blue vest store. It took two days to put them on, one end over the lip of the gutter the other end under the roof. I found that if I loosened the screw on the roofing it was easier to slide the panel under (and keep it in place afterward.) We have many maple, pecan, walnut and Hackberry trees with some pine thrown in for good measure. The gutters work well when it rains so I guess the system is okay. Been in for two years.
Ed