The Folly of Gutter Guard Inventions - Part One

Most gutter guard inventions have been pretty silly; I know because over twenty years ago I began my manufacturing career by trying to market and sell one of them.

The first device I started with was installed in the top most portion of the downspout. Water flowed over several rows of louvers which captured the water and rejected the debris onto the ground. A running water display that I built actually convinced (as I was convinced) several homeowners that it would solve their clogged gutter problems. I also installed it to test it on my own home.

Guess What? As much as I wanted it to work, it was a miserable failure. It did keep the downspout from clogging but did nothing for portions of the gutter more than four feet from the device. In other words my gutters still clogged.

It was a reminder of the disappointment I had experienced a few years earlier when I first installed screens on my gutters. Much to my surprise, eighteen months later, I noticed corn growing from my gutters. Ripping out the screens to clean the gutters was a night mare. I should have used gloves to protect my hands from all the cuts and lacerations.

Now, after manufacturing gutter guards for twenty years, I've seen every type of screen imaginable and they all clog. One of my customers actually invented his own with three layers of the finest mesh he could find--his gutters still clogged with pine needles, Now he's had my system for fifteen years and hasn't called once--more about my system later. It seems that every year or so some ingenious inventor modifies the size openings or adds steps or troughs to the screen convinced that the results will be different. But isn't that the definition of insanity--doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result?

This is the first of a three part blog series. If you would like to read the article in its entirety. Click on Gutter Guard.
See you in a few days.