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All Gutter Guards and Leaf Guards utilize gravity. The more advanced
ones use surface adhesion.
Essentially there are six different types of gutter protector devices:
1. Screening systems made of wire, metal, or plastic; they work simply
with gravity. Debris falls
on them. Their small openings are supposed to keep the debris out of the
gutter. However, the
debris dries, becomes brittle, and is knocked into fine pieces by rain
fall. Gravity then takes
over and the fine debris works it way into the gutter. They require
routine maintenance to remove
them, clean the gutters, and replace them. It’s common to notice plants
growing from them.
2. Brushes, Membranes, and filters, installed in or on existing gutters.
They too try to pass
themselves off as gutter protectors, but are basically screening devices
working with gravity
alone. As debris falls upon them it accumulates and becomes like a paper
mache (a barrier to
passing water). Basically they are no more effective than screens but
because some of them get
glued into the gutter, it becomes impossible to clean them.
3. Solid top with rounded front nose--fin type. These gutter covers work
by the principle of
gravity and surface adhesion. Rain water adheres to the rounded front
nose as gravity carries it
downward into the gutter. Unfortunately a significant amount of debris
also adheres to the surface
and enters the gutter. This device--because there is only a single
fin--does not discriminate the
size of the debris. This means full sized leaves can enter the gutter
along with the rain water. To
understand how surface adhesion works, fill a cup with water and slowly
pour the water—you’ll
notice much of it trickling down the side of the cup.
4. Flat solid top with rounded front nose and a trough--fin type with
trough. This type works much
like the fin type just discussed. The only difference is that there’s a
trough with sieve openings
to keep the debris from entering the gutter directly. Yet it doesn’t
take a graduate from MIT to
see that the debris will still either clog the sieve openings and render
that part of the gutter
guard ineffective causing overflow or break down and enter the gutter
clogging it causing the
gutter to overflow.
5. Flipping type gutters and rain dispersal systems. The flip clean
system simply works with
gravity. The gutter accumulates debris and the homeowner unlocks a
mechanism that allows the gutter
which is on a hinge to flip and dump the contents onto the ground. In
theory it works, but can you
imagine standing under the gutter as you flip it with all the dirty
leaves and putrid water
dropping downward toward you?
The rain dispersal system operates via the rain water having sufficient
kinetic energy to be
dispersed when it hits the dispersal unit which has to be located at the
right position to work.
However, in slow rain-fall conditions, there is insufficient kinetic
energy to disperse the rain
water causing soil erosion around the roof line.
6. Flat solid top with rounded front nose and a louvered vertical
surface such as the Waterloov®
Gutter Protection System. Waterloov works on the principle of surface
adhesion and gravity much the
same as the fin type systems. The big difference is that instead of
having one longitudinal fin
collect the water, Waterloov has two rows of interspersed louvers
collecting the water. The amount
of debris that can enter the gutter is greatly reduced keeping gutters
in the heaviest of debris
conditions clean and free flowing after twenty years.
Because the collectors of Waterloov are located on the front vertical
surface as opposed to sieves
in a trough as in the fourth type of gutter guard, any debris that
accumulates on the Waterloov
collectors is visible from the ground and can easily be removed by the
homeowner from the ground
using a telescopic pole and brush. Waterloov calls it “suit and tie
maintenance” as it’s not a
dirty job. Only a small percentage of homeowners need to ever do this
and it’s usually done in the
amount of time that it takes to walk the length of the gutter.
Waterloov is the one effective gutter protector that makes any gutter
self cleaning.
To find out more about advanced gutter protection--self cleaning
gutters--please visit
http://www.waterloov.com
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