Gutter Guard Test Results

http://www.AsktheBuilder.com host Tim Carter reveals which gutter guard system worked best on his home during his gutter guard test.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• gutter
• guard
• gutters
• guards
• test
• home
• house
• askthebuilder
• tim
• carter
• building
• remodeling
• diy
• howto

[jrogers71]

Biggest problem with any gutter guard is sediment and debris building up inside the gutter over time.. No gutter guard can prevents this and by the time the downspout is clogged with mucky debris and sediment, the gutter is overflowing, you will have to remove the gutter guard and most likely clean out all the gutters.. A giant pain in the ass, better to clean the gutters out once or twice a year than to leave them unchecked for years.

[AsktheBuilder]

@jrogers71 I've got news for you. You're wrong. There's no other home-improvement expert that's tested gutter guards to the extent I have. The micro-mesh gutter guards do NOT allow anything in the gutter except water and maybe a pollen particle that's invisible to the eye. I do agree with you that all the other guards DO allow stuff in that turns to muck.

[MarkHLowe]

So, my gutters are mounted such that I cant install the gutter guard to match the pitch of the roof. in fact, if I tuck the guard under the comp roof shingle, it would actually tilt back towards the roof. The only debris I get are pine needles and the little pine seeds - and I get a lot of it, all season long.

What are my best options for this type of situation for a DIY kind of guy? Lower the gutters (ugh), cut back the shingle? or go with an inferior solution (and what would that be)?

[AsktheBuilder]

@MarkHLowe Install them the correct way I show in the video. You'll never regret it.

[kf4wto]

The micro mesh is fine unless you live in a tropical setting like me. We have what would be called "gullywashers". Tropical storms drop huge amounts of rain in a short period of time. The water would rush off the gutter guards shown.

[AsktheBuilder]

@kf4wto I've got great news for you. The MasterShield gutter guards I used in this video have technology that actually uses the surface tension in the water to PULL it through the gutter guard. You'd be astonished how much water the gutter guard can take We had torrential downpours at this location and never did water shoot across the guard.

[houserepairpro]

I am not having any trouble with the concepts you lay out. They actually help make my case for the need of a new round of testing with the same conditions and variables for all the products you test. Is it not your responsibility as the trusted expert to assure the installation of the product is perfect? For the record, I am an expert in research methods and yours are deeply flawed. Your cliche of actions speaking volumes is apt. What does your unwillingness to run an objective test say Tim?

[houserepairpro]

This test is not objective at all. You test three different systems under different conditions including installation angle, location where we cannot see the tree cover, straight gutter lengths for some and angled configurations for others. Hardly objective. You also proclaim one an utter failure in one breath and then state that water still flows through to the gutter? By definition that is not a failure. This subjective "test" should be done again in a way that keeps the conditions equal.

[MarkHLowe]

But I need to move something in order to match the pitch of the roof. I would think cutting the shingles back high enough in order to get the guards to flash under them would be easiest (but these are thick, 40 yr comp shingles).The shingles roll over the eves below the top edge of the gutter. My other choice is to lower the gutter. I assume that the gutter flashes under the shakes also, so that doesnt seem feasible. any suggestions? thanks,

[AsktheBuilder]

@lonewolf1369 I need you to do a video in the middle of January or February after days and weeks of melting. I want you to tape where that melt water refreezes into ice. I'm particularly interested in the thickness of the ice on the ground, the burst downspouts, etc. That meltwater is going to refreeze, we just want to see where and how much.

[lonewolf1369]

@AsktheBuilder Thanks to Gutter Glove they have now released the IceBreaker, which contains a heated cable that melts the snow on and in the gutter, which prevents icicles and even allows the melted water to be collected in your rainwater reservoir! Melted snow harvesting just amazing!

[AsktheBuilder]

@TexasGardens Sure, what do you want to know? All the gutter guards I tested had issues with snow and ice. What's the big deal? You would have the same issues without gutter guards and even with no gutters. Just come to New Hampshire to see ice dams form without gutters. If you don't want *leaks* that are caused by ice dams, then install the special ice dam membranes I talk about extensively at my AsktheBuilder website. Or, starve the ice by raking the snow from your roof.