Is PVC tubes that reach to your gutters hooked to your shopvac a worthy idea

[Don Morris]

I live amongst huge oaks and other 100 fi trees that drop their leaves and seemingly prefer my roof. We've had several iterations of "Gutter Guard" systems and each one turned out to fail over time for one reason or another. I've seen several presentations on youtube where the owner used pvc tubing and a curved tube at the end, hooked to their shopvac and did a reasonably good job or removing debris from their gutters. This beats the $180.00 we've been having to pay to have someone come out and do it by ladder and hand. Has anyone out there tried it? I've certainly had to cut pic and glue it over the years, so I could build one with little problem. And it wouldn't cost $180.00 ether. Or is that also a waster of my time. Very interested in getting others opinions especially if you've tried it.

Thanks for any input.

Don M

[Bruce Volden]

That's how I do it! I do have to wait until a dry day to blow the debris out otherwise it's a real mess with "gunk" flying out and falling everywhere (on me mostly).
It is quite fast and easy to do. Takes me longer to set things up and put away when finished than the actually "cleaning" of the gutters. My shop is
36' X 60' and takes about 40 minutes to do the whole thing! AND I never am off the ground!!!! I checked the results the first time I did this and was happy
so I have been doing it ever since. Now I only get on the roof to clean out my chimney (wood heat).

[Paul F Franklin]

Before I had gutter guards installed, I had a home made version of that, but I hooked it to a leaf blower not a shop vac. It worked pretty well. As Bruce said, it makes a mess and you tend to get covered with "stuff", especially since around here the gutters never really dry out in leaf season. I just wore my rain gear. It's best to start blowing where the downspouts connect and blow away from them to avoid packing stuff into the outlet. It's hard to know that you've done a good job without climbing up to look though.

I have single story house....I don't think it would be very manageable for two stories.

[Stan Calow]

Its worth a try. I use my leaf blower (Stihl). They make long plastic tube attachments with a curve on the end specifically for this purpose. Its hard to control holding that waving tube up in the air for very long. If you point the end directly down, it has enough force to blow it self away from the gutter, so you have to aim the curved end at an angle. It works fine on regular leaves when dry, not so well on cypress or willow fronds which are my problem. I still have to climb up to clear some of the corners.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

wow, from ground to gutter behind my house is about 30 feet. The PVC would weigh more than me. Fortunately, when will built this house, I cut down most of the trees that would drop leaves near the house. I pay an Amish roofing crew to clear the gutters. $25 every year is cheap

[Roger Feeley]

The guy three doors down has gutters that flip down and dump their contents. If I had know about these thing, I would have put them in.

https://flipcleanguttersystems.com/

my neighbor says the gutters are great. It take him about 15 minutes to empty all his gutters using an extendable pole.

[Mel Fulks]

I'm in Richmond Va , the first flip gutters were made here by a family that did metal work. Few years back the local rag
did a story about them. They will still make them by referral but do no advertising. Kinda Rube Goldberg stuff now.
I bought the foam wedge gutter stuffers from Costco ,and they work well.

[Alan Rutherford]

The fringes of the latest hurricane are still outside and you're making me glad we have no gutters.

I think it would be worth the effort to add a trap close to the vacuum to grab much of the debris. Take a 5-gallon bucket or larger and put an inlet and outlet on it. It might even be easier to handle than the vac alone if you are able to carry the bucket and let the vacuum follow.