Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Do Gutter Screens Clog?

In my last post we looked at a guard (a fin with trough system) that failed and let a lot of debris into the gutter. In this post I'm sharing another screen video I found on youtube of how screens work.



Notice that the debris lays on top of the gutter guard. Now there's nothing wrong with that. You'd expect debris to accumulate in heavy debris conditions on the water collectors of any gutter cover. But the problem is how to clear that debris. It means someone has to go up a ladder and clean the debris from the gutter guards openings. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of having gutter protection? You want to stay off ladders, right?

Unfortunately the person who shot the video didn't take off the covers to see how much debris got inside to clog the gutters. But then I'm suspecting that this video was not shot during a rain storm but instead someone running a hose of water down the roof onto the gutter covers. But it does show what happens to debris that washes from the roof onto the screen type of gutter guard.

Again even though you'll find that debris in heavy debris conditions will accumulate on the water collectors (the louvers) of Waterloov, no one needs to climb a ladder to clean them, they can be easily cleaned from the ground with "suit & tie" maintenance (a telescopic pole and brush).

In the next post we'll look at how gutters after 13 years of service look inside in an ultra heavy debris environment (right under a tree that canopies the gutter) and how easy it is to clean them.

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