Evaluating Gutter Leaf Protection Systems

[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
Gutter Maxx
Leaf Filter
Gutter Filter
Gutter Stuff
Gutter Brush
Alcoa Leaf Relief
DIY options

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?