January 12, 2010 3:43pm by admin | 
Wow, I stumbled across a site called PissedConsumer.com today and was quite amazed at all of the complaints against Leaf Guard.
Check it out for yourself!
Sample of some Leaf Guard complaints from PissedConsumer.com
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Professional gutter installer Rusty Shackleford offers some comments and advice for gutter guards in general. Some interesting thoughts here: Here’s the skinny kiddo’s. The reverse curve system DOES NOT WORK! I’ve been a gutter installer for six years now, the last three have been working with leaf protection systems, in particular, K-Guard and Leaf Slugger. Since November of 2006 I have subcontracted all of the warranty/service work for a couple of the big leaf protection devils… er, dealers…yeah, dealers. In less than a year, I have been to over 600 houses to service protected gutter systems… mostly K-Guard but also topper systems that install on existing ogee style gutters. They all clog! Yes Joe, K-Guard does let in debris, but it does not flush them out! Have you ever taken the time to watch a gutter drain? There is nowhere near enough velocity in the water to flush the gutter. There is not enough room on a facia board to pitch a gutter enough to push debris out, most of it settles on the bottom of the gutter around the downspout outlet, starting the clogging process. Most of the companies that sell these products are a bunch of crooks! They are companies owned and operated by SALESMAN, NOT TRADESMEN! They sell their systems for upwards of $40+ a foot! They justify it with a bogus lifetime warranty. All they are doing is selling a lifetime cleanout contract. Yeah, they will clean your gutters… when they feel like it! Oh Yeah, reverse curve systems overshoot in a moderate heavy rain and do not work well on metal roofs or steep roofs. I have tested several systems out there and there is only one style that works… stainless steel micro-mesh systems. There are only four companies that I know of that produce these systems… they are Leaf Solution, Leaf Filter, Gutter Glove and Mastershield. Leaf Solution, in my opinion has the smartest design. The one thing that these companies have in common is that they will all refund your money if your gutters ever clog. If these systems are installed properly, they will not clog. You can pile leaves and debris on top of them and they still take in all of the water. Take it from me, I have seen it all and tested it all, my mind really is in the gutter… week in and week out. Reader Ted submits a short field report of his experience with Gutter Guardian:
Here is what Gutter Guardian looks like: (from www.gutterguardian.com) I’ve had professional gutter leaf protection system installers tell me I’m crazy for eschewing their $3000 offerings and going for the $50 Do-It-Yourself options from Home Depot. Don’t fall for their crap! I’ve had the Home Depot options installed on my gutters for 1.5 years and here are the photographic results so far.  Fall 2009 - all leaves have fallen, this is what the filters look like Photo #1 (above) – This is a section of gutter that have been protected by the Home Depot do-it-yourself option for 1.5 years. After the three big overlying Oak trees have shed their thousands of leaves, this is the result. The wind really does keep the filters clean! At this time of year, without filters, the gutters would have been absolutely stuffed with leaves and debris. Note that we’ve already raked the back yard over there. If we hadn’t, it would be a solid carpet of leaves.  Some of the culprits that conspire to fill my gutters! Photo #2 (above) – Looking up, we see two of the three very large Oak trees that bury us with leaves each Fall. Notice that all the leaves are gone.  Peering into the gutter from Photo #1 Photo #3 (above) – Here we can see inside the gutter protected by about $20 worth of materials. No leaves or any organic debris. There is only a very fine layer of grit from the roof shingles. Nothing at all to worry about.  Another section of DIY protected gutters - untouched Photo #4 (above) – This is another section of our gutters being protected by another $20 worth of materials. This was the first section to be installed, and I didn’t do such a great job. You can see how much of a scoop there is to the material after the first section. Big deal though! Even though I didn’t do a great job, this is how the filter looks 1.5 years after installation and at the end of Fall! Surprisingly, there are no piles of leaves stuck to the filters. Only a few small sticks and seed pods.  Inside we find only a fine layer of grit. Photo #5 (above) – Inside, the gutter is virtually pristine! Only a fine layer of shingle grit. Do you need to spend $3000-$4000 to have gutters that look like this? No. Don’t fall for the professional leaf protection installer’s sales pitch. Joe chimes in with another Reader Report, this time we get a little expert advice and then an endorsement of the GutterMaxx Leaf Protection System. Here is Joe’s lengthy report:
 Roof Line Gutter Damage (Image above courtesy of Gutters911.com)
 GutterMaxx in Action
 K-Guard in Action - so this is identical to GutterMaxx?
Wow! There’s some interesting history there. We can now begin to see how these product are all connected. We’ve got downspouts that are permanently connected to underground pipes, so if GutterMaxx really is designed to allow some debris into the system, it may not work for us. We need a system that will not allow leaves or large fragments into the downspouts. We are back with another Reader Report – this time it’s Joe talking about his experiences with the Leaf Filter gutter system. Things didn’t go too well for Joe. Read his report:
Leaf Filter in Action
Is this just one person’s bad experience? If you use Leaf Filter, please let us know what you think. Leave a comment. Today we have another Reader Report from Kim, a Gutter Club reader, recommends Gutter Helmet, and here is her story:
 This is what Gutter Helmet looks like installed
Unfortunately Kim never mentions the total price for the project, but it was undoubtedly in the multiple thousands. If you’ve got that kind of money to spare, this appears to be a ringing endorsement of Gutter Helmet. I installed those cheap, plastic gutter filters from Home Depot on our gutters a little more than one year ago. They are doing a fantastic job at keeping out gutters clean! I know that no professional gutter system salesman wants to hear this, but so far it’s the truth. Since installing those white plastic filter covers, my gutter maintenance has dropped to near zero. Here is a picture of the leaf guards I am using right now.  This is the Home Depot leaf guard I currently have installed I live beneath 3 giant oak trees and one medium maple. They DUMP leaves on my house at this time of year. In the past, I would have already cleaned out my gutters a couple of times by hand while struggling with a tall ladder all around my house. So far I haven’t cleaned anything this year. Sure, the leaves are currently piled up on the filters, but seriously, it only takes a week or so of breeze and weather to virtually clear them of loose debris. I predict that I’ll only have to casually climb up there at the end of December to remove any leaf pieces that have become stuck vertically in the mesh… which is very few. I’ll report back then. [originally posted a few years ago, but let's use it to kick off The Gutter Club] I’ve spent a lot of time lately attempting to find the best solution for keeping leaves and plant material out of our gutters. We currently have *no* gutters on the house due to the renovation. I don’t simply want to install open gutters and leave it at that, because the house is so tall now that I have no way to reach the gutters for cleaning. So I’ve been investigating solutions. There are TONS of them. Everyone seems to either love or hate any one particular solution. And most people agree that none of them work perfectly… and some don’t work at all. Here are a few that I have looked at. Leaf Guard We had Gutter Maxx come out and give us an estimate. GutterMaxx is like the next generation of LeafGuard. It looks like a quality product, but the price is ridiculous. For the ~100 feet of gutters (with all the pipes, downspouts, etc.) and the GutterMaxx topper, they wanted $4500. We talked them down to $3600, but that is still way more than our original open-gutter-only complete quote of $1200. Today I had the local representative for Alcoa Leaf Relief come out to give an estimate. I wasn’t please by his unprofessional appearance and the fact that he seemed to work out of a station wagon packed with work stuff. I think that the Alcoa product is exactly what we need, but I’m wary about working with this particular guy. No estimate back yet, but he indicated that Leaf Relief “isn’t the cheapest solution on the market.” Great. According to many other sources, this product *should* cost about $5-7 per linear foot, bringing us to $700 for installation on top of $1200 for the gutters themselves… for a total of $1900. Let’s see what he comes back with. I predict that it will be in the $3000 range. If so, I will laugh in his face. Oh, and I did some research regarding the Alcoa 10-year No-Clog guarantee. It’s basically useless because it only kicks in if the INTERIOR of the gutters clog. If you’ve seen the product, it will be obvious that this isn’t its weak point. I have no doubt that the interiors will stay clear. The potential failure point of Leaf Relief is debris piling up on top of the perforation such that water runs off the top of the gutters. Sure they aren’t clogged, but they aren’t working either! There is NO guarantee that this won’t happen. === UPDATE === 1.5 years after posting my thoughts on gutter leaf protection I went to Home Depot and paid $50 for a stack of Do-it-Yourself gutter guards. I installed them in about 1 hour and here it is, a month later, and they are working absolutely fine. The bottom line is that the gutter protection “industry” is not worth your time and money. Just do it yourself. === UPDATE 2 === I’ve now had my Home Depot DIY plastic gutter filters installed for about 8 months and they are working flawlessly! Seriously. The leaves and debris just blow off my roof and filters. I’ve lifted the filters off of the gutters and looked inside. Totally clean with the smallest amount of grit that doesn’t even require a thought. Why oh why didn’t I install these things from day one? At The Gutter Club, we will discuss and review the benefits and shortfalls of all of the major (and minor) systems created to protect your gutters and downspouts from leaves and other residue. This is a mini-industry that is fraught with exceptional claims and poor results. We intend to get to the bottom of it, with your help. Thanks very much! |
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