The Gutter Club » report

Straight Talk about Leaf Filter from Allen

Team — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:41:43 +0000

A reader submitted the following information that seems especially helpful for those thinking about Leaf Filter. Allen is an installer in the Northeast United States. In his own words…

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I would like to share with others what I have learned about LeaFilter since becoming a dealer in 2006. Note, I am not going to claim to have installed an unrealistic amount of the product like others. But rest assured it is a fact that I have installed thousands of feet of the product on customer homes in the Northeast. When I discuss this product with my customers, I always attempt to point out both pros and cons that I have learned. I want them to make an educated decision before moving ahead with an installation. We do NOT pressure our customers.

So that being said, here are the facts. Once the LeafFilter has been installed and the stainless steel (Zela) screening becomes wet, it will catch the majority (99%) of the rain water. If you have valley areas on your home (where two roof fields join together making an inward angle) you will need to have the valley screen (different from the normal Zela screening) installed. The valley screen is able to handle more water flow which occurs in valley areas. If the installer does not use valley screen, then it is very likely you will experience water overflow. In some cases we have had to install diverters even when using the valley screen. So this is dependent on the size of the valley and roof pitch. I would NOT recommend LeafFilter for pitched metal roofs. Reason; the runoff is too fast for the screening to absorb water and I know this to be a fact.

A DIY alternative to Leaf Filter

When installed properly, LeafFilter will keep debris from collecting in the gutter. However, debris is likely to collect on top of the LeafFilter. This is what the product was designed to do. This is NOT a maintenance free product like some claim. Because LeaFilter sits directly on top of the gutter, at times it may act as a shelf for the debris. The higher the roof pitch, the more accumulation. LeafFilter was designed with a pitch so debris will in most cases eventually run off, but it may take time and several heavy rains to do so. You may need to spray or brush debris off in some areas. If it bothers you and you don’t want to wait for the debris to shed naturally, then you will need to clean it off. I have also had situations where mold and moss have grown on customer roofs and then onto the LeafFilter. The stainless steel screening will clog when this occurs. This is more likely to occur on areas that get no sun. I have had to clean the LeafFilter off with either a house cleaner such as Zep, Jomax or products similar to Clorox Cleaner with bleach. Usually we just have to spray, wait ten minutes, rinse off and the mold is gone. I always suggest having your home washed at least once a year and when doing so, wash off the LeaFilter and this will help deter dirt and mold growth.

Another issue I have ran into in the past. The stainless steel screening has a natural bend to it. The installer needs to insert the screen into the PVC base with the bend down. If not, then some rain water will likely roll over the screening. I learned this the hard way. When the screening is adhered to the PVC base, the installer must use GeoCel 2320 as specified by the manufacturer. This is one of the best construction adhesives on the market and does an excellent job at locking the screening into place. I have seen pictures online of screening coming away from the PVC base. All I can say is the installer must have used an inferior adhesive or not enough. In six years, we have had no issues in regards to the screening coming away from the base because we always use Geocel and a lot of it.

I give LeafFilter 4 out of 5 stars.

What else? When the installer screws the PVC base onto the front lip of the gutter, he must make sure not to attach the base too tightly. Being PVC, the material naturally expands and contracts depending on the season. The PVC base will appear to be wavy if not installed properly. There are reasons why this product should NOT be sold to do it yourselfers. The installer needs to know what he’s doing for a successful outcome. I have been installing gutters for 27 years. I can tell you there is no perfect gutter protection product on the market. I give LeafFilter 4 out of 5 stars. The PVC base will not last as long as aluminum because of stresses put on it by both cold and hot weather. Do not install this product in real cold weather. Reason; it will crack when being cut.

Well I hope you find this information helpful and good luck.

Purchasing Leaf Filter is like buying a Time Share

Team — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 17:32:00 +0000

Just one time, my wife and I attended one of those Time Share presentations in exchange for a free mini-cruise and hotel stay. That day was one I will never forget. The pressure to buy was immense, but we both kept saying NO. Throughout the day they passed us on from person to person. Each new person we met would lower the price by thousands of dollars!

At the beginning of the day the original price was somewhere around $25,000 and people were buying at that price. By the time we met with the last person after saying NO all day long, the price had dropped to around $6,000. I felt incredibly bad for those poor chumps who bought at the $25,000 level for the EXACT SAME PRODUCT.

Well, a reader submitted the following story about Leaf Filter that evokes that same feeling as my Time Share experience:

I had the Leaf Filter “Field Manager” over to give the demo, etc. I have 134 feet of gutters all straight, no turns. I was amused while watching him labor over 5 minutes with pencil and calculator arriving at a price. He came up with $4,225.00! The flyer had a coupon for $250, and he immediately threw in another $250 “senior discount.” It still seemed very high to me ($3,725), so I said that I couldn’t do it. He then came up with another tactic – mine was a small job, he could fit it on when the crew was down, but I had to be on alert for a “last minute call” to install. Now the price was $2,750!

He immediately got on the phone and called a crew manager, and arranged for an actual date – after having said that they would call me when time freed up(!). I signed a contract, which allowed for cancellation within three days.

Finally, I read these posts on the internet, called the 800 number. They told me that they could do nothing and that the Regional manager would have to call me. In the meantime I sent the contract back with CANCEL written over it (certified mail), as the field manager originally had said I could do.

The Regional manager finally called 5 days later. He expressed disappointment in my cancellation and then offered to do the job for $1,300! This must be indicative of how they lead customers into getting the highest inflationary price from them at first. Who really knows what a real price is?

What kind of company that claims they’re number one uses tactics lower than that of used car salesmen? This turned me off more than the false product claims.

This is simply amazing.

Leaf Filter Homeowner Reports and Reviews

Team — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 16:17:04 +0000

Here are a couple of recent Home Owner reports about their experiences with Leaf Filter and their local installers. First up is Keith who is not having a good time with his recent Leaf Filter installation:

Courtesy of Leaf Filter

Keith writes:

(5/27/2011) – I had Leaf Filter installed a little less than a year ago (for what I consider a hefty price) after the sales person sold me on it. While they were installing it I saw them cutting pieces of ordinary insect screen in addition to the micro-screen that keeps the small grit out. He explained they put it at only the corners to deal with heavy water flow. OK, fair enough though a little slippery of the sales guy who took over an hour of my time demonstrating the stuff not to mention this limitation. Upon departing the installer remarks “don’t worry if it runs over – it takes awhile for the oil from the manufacturer to wear off the micro-screen”. Hmmm… sure enough at the corners where the water flows heaviest it shoots out like waterfalls – a year later! I have 6-inch gutters. This product is simply flawed and misrepresented by sales staff. Don’t believe what they say.

More recently, Keith continues his story:

(6/9/2011) – First, I left a post a in [May] 2011 explaining my bad experience with my Leaf Filter install – deceptive sales pitch, untruths spoken by the installer, still pours over the gutters one year later as if the gutters are not even there. [Strange that] I got a call from a somewhat perturbed dealer telling me to chill out and they would contact me soon. Two weeks later I have not heard a word and am sitting on my front porch during a shower enjoying the waterfalls eroding my landscaping. Thank you Leaf Filter for wasting $2200 of my money.

As is typical, we get a lot of poor reviews of gutter protection products. Angry people tend to write more than satisfied people. I’m sure that we can all understand that. It would be nice, however to get some detailed positive reviews of the various gutter protection products out there. Anybody?

This Old House Gutter System Review

Team — Tue, 17 May 2011 15:32:24 +0000

Here’s a video we came across on YouTube where This Old House does a tiny review… overview… really of some unnamed gutter systems. I have a few problems with this video.

It sounds like they are all half asleep, especially the host.
Their “test” of the various systems is ridiculous at best.
They seem to be pushing gutter systems as the “obvious” choice.

But I suppose, what are you going to do in a 5 minute television segment? The only one of the bunch who doesn’t appear to be pandering is the woman. At least they mention the ridiculously steep price of these gutter systems. They didn’t bother mentioning the price of the Do It Yourself option (which is our pick!).

Seriously, with the DIY option you really only have to go up to clean the gutters once every 3 to 5 years… and the cleaning is simple. I’ve only ever found a thin layer of gravel-muck. Spending $4000 to $8000 for a gutter system that *might* work is just retarded. As many others have experienced, you might spend all that money and be worse off than when you started.

Anyway… here’s the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWLV_iJBaYM

Cheers!

Leaf Guard Review and Field Report

Team — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 22:09:12 +0000

Sherry writes to tell us that LeafGuard is not performing well with all of the winter ice and snow. Hopefully she will keep us up to date with any resolution from LeafGuard.

I had the leafgurad gutters put on my house in April and all seemed good, until this winter with all the snow and ice and now I have water dripping into my basement from the gutter system. Two calls to them and a returnn call from leafguard and still no one has been out to check them and the problem.

I am not happy with them right now and I will call them everyday until someone comes to address the problem and fix it. Right now I am sorry I put their gutters on my house I should have kept my old ones on I never had this problem with them. Leafguard states they stand behind their product, as of right now I do not see that!!!!

Leaf Filter gets professional praise

Team — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 16:39:40 +0000

A thoughtful gutter protection professional by the name of Jay has offered some thoughts and advice from his experience with different manufacturers. He writes:

I first off would like to say thanks to everyone who has left a comment on this web site. I think that everyone needs to have a place to put their experiences in dealing with any product. It not only helps people make an educated decision, but also gives the company a chance to make changes to better deal with complaints.

I have installed many types of gutter protection and have found good and bad with all of them. Unfortunately most of these systems are at the mercy of the crews who install them. Leaffilter is no acception to this rule. But in my experience Leaffilter is by far the best product I have ever installed and had the pleasure of servicing(extremely little service).

Every company I have ever worked for (gutter helmet, hallet, clearwater, leafguard, etc) has had so many complaints and services that they had to hire a service tech( myself) to keep up with them. I am not saying that Leaffilter doesn’t get service. But when we do,we take care of them promptly.

As for complaints dealing with a charge for service. Perhaps we as consumers need to do our homework on the laws dealing with contracts before we make blanket statements about companys taking advantage of people when charging service fee’s. I don’t know about all states laws, but where I live companys only have to service their work for 1 year before they have a right to charge a modest fee for services rendered.

Thanks very much for the comments, Jay.

We would always like to hear from professionals in the field. Just reply to an existing post or use our Contact Us form. Cheers!

Leaf Filter Review and Field Report

Team — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:21:48 +0000

Reader, Mary Beth recounts her personal experience with Leaf Filter and her local installer. She isn’t very happy with the result.

I also had the Leaf Filter installed on my house in the winter of 2009. I live on 5 acres of pine trees. So I thought this would take care of the pine needles. IT DID NOT!. The pine needles do not blow away because it is too cold and wet all winter. I live in the Olympia, Washington area.

I called the company because the system did not work on my house. So they sent out someone to look at them. The day he arrived, we had a cold spell and everything was frozen. So he took pictures. He said he would talk to his boss. I told him I wanted them taken off and I wanted a refund because they did not work. Never heard from them.

So I called them again. They told me that they only guarantee that the gutters will not clog. They do not clog, now they do not work at all. Now all the water just runs over them. So now I have to have them taken off so my gutters will work again. I am now trying to figure out what to use that might work better.

This “no clog” guarantee is quite common with all of the various gutter guard technologies. It’s a guarantee that they can easily make and keep. The problem for home-owners is that the guarantee is almost completely useless! A gutter can be completely clog-free and still not work. A gutter is not working if the rain water is cascading over the top.

When they make a “no clog” guarantee, they only mean the INTERIOR of the gutters. If the filter, screen, curve, or whatever is on top of the gutter clogs up and causes the gutter to utterly fail… this doesn’t count.

On my own gutters, I installed this product years ago and it works extremely well. I can’t remember the last time I had to climb a ladder and clean out my gutters. And it can be installed for pennies on the dollar compared to any professional gutter system.

Cheap and Effective

Gutter Guardian – Field Report

Team — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:06:44 +0000

Reader Ted submits a short field report of his experience with Gutter Guardian:

We had Gutter Guardian installed on our gutters in 2004 and have had no good result. The perimeter of the house below the gutters has a groove in the ground from rain merely rolling off the gutter guards and gouging out a trench in the ground.

Have called the company many times in a vain effort to repair or correct the problem. Almost want to take the guards out of the gutters and go back to just removing the leaves each Fall. This product is very unsatisfactory. Any comments on what I could do here would be appreciated. Thanks.

Here is what Gutter Guardian looks like:

(from www.gutterguardian.com)

Do it yourself Gutter Leaf Filters from Home Depot

Team — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:25:34 +0000

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.

Review of Leaf Filter Gutter System

Team — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:34:34 +0000

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:

Hello everyone. I had Leaf Filter installed on my gutters. My experience was completely horrible with Leaf Filter and I had to work with my local BBB to get the Leaf Filter manufacturer to compensate me for having their product uninstalled from my gutters.

Leaf Filter in Action

They would not give me a full reimbursement for their product, but I was able to get about 1/3 of what I paid. Every time I see the Leaf Filter being demoed at the home shows by a
certified installer, I approach them and tell them what a disappointing product it was for me. I have a metal roof and I live in the northwest. We get a lot of rain here and it is constantly moist. The mesh filter kept getting clogged with mildew and moss. I tried
to bleach the filter and scrub out the mesh – but I found out from other disappointed Leaf Filter owners that you have to also scrub out the underside of the mesh too. Which means, you have to uninstall the mesh entirely to clean it because it gets clogged from the outside in and the inside out.

In addition, leaves would pile up on the gutter. Because of all of this, water would run right across Leaf Filter and never get into my gutters to being with. Not a good situation for me – especially because my house has a basement.

The Leaf Filter manufacturer told me that their product should NOT be installed on a house with a metal roof because the filter cannot keep up with the velocity of the water (I have a 6/12 roof pitch, which is not extreme). The installer told me that they never knew about this. The installer also told me that they have had so many complaints about Leaf Filter that they will no longer install it and have chosen not to be the regional Leaf Filter installer.

Maybe Leaf Filter is just not for folks that live in wet climates – so I guess your mileage may vary if you live in a drier climate, don’t have a metal roof, and have a roof pitch that is less aggressive than mine (6/12 is the standard where I live).

I would much, much rather clean my gutters twice a year rather than spend the extra money on gutter protection systems. I will never buy another gutter protection system… and when I get too old to clean out my gutters, then I will pay someone else to do it for me.

Is this just one person’s bad experience? If you use Leaf Filter, please let us know what you think. Leave a comment.