Anyone try those gutter covers?

[BartmanPDX]

Just wondering if anyone has tried gutter covers (Rain Guard, Gutter Helmet, etc), which basically work by using water tension to steer the water back into the gutter while letting leaves, etc. slide off. Some typical examples look as follows:

Link Removed

This photo shows what I think would happen eventually:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

My theory is that they might work for really big leaves, like oak leaves. However, my house is surrounded by pine trees (which drop needles) and Birch trees (which drop small leaves and other crap all year long).

Basically, I'm sick of having to get up on the roof five times a year to clean out the gutters. I live in Portland, and it DOES rain here. The gutter covers are appealing, but I'm skeptical. Does anyone here have any experience with how well/poorly they work?

 

[arbitrary]

I think you should fix those titled roman pillars that are also too short on your front portch first before worrying about your gutters.




Oh Snap!!!

 

[BartmanPDX]

Thanks for reminding me that my whole front porch is collapsing. :scowl:

 

[arbitrary]

Well as soon as it collapses some more those pillars will be doing something.


Sorry

 

[v-12]

What about the grate type that snap over the top of your gutter?

 

[FL Knifemaker]

The way it rains here, they would make the gutters useless. I have big, industrial size gutters on my house and the water overflows them in a hard rain. I couldn't imagine how the covers would work I guess it depends on your location and what type of foliage you have over your home. My gutters never need cleaning, the rain washes everything down, out or over the top

 

[baba]

It's widely acknowledged that they don't work well if you have a bunch of pine trees. They're not going to work for you.

 

[BartmanPDX]

It's widely acknowledged that they don't work well if you have a bunch of pine trees. They're not going to work for you.

Thanks for the response. That's pretty much what I was thinking. The problem with Portland is we don't get those really hard rain storms too often -- mostly the all-day-long light rain kind.

Arbitrary can go eat rocks for making fun of a ~$6K major home repair I've got to find a contractor for.

 

[arbitrary]

Arbitrary can go eat rocks for making fun of a ~$6K major home repair I've got to find a contractor for.

But can we still hang out like friends do?

 

[fdeck]

I've got pine trees and other trees that spew microscopic crap from one season to the next. I tried the screens that snap on, and all they did was make the gutters inaccessible so I couldn't clean them out.

What I ended up doing was to figure out a way of cleaning out the gutters without too much effort and danger. If I think of anything that works better, you'll read about it in the patent digest.

 

[Chunk-O-Funk]

The roof guy talked me out of it. The tree side can be extra time. Anywho, they are really good at driving up the cost. Not to mention it's a two story house. None of the products out there work. Haven't tried Halett. I didn't see pearl123 as an owner. If you read the testing they all work. I would get more opinions.