Rain Flow gutter filters?

[jerry]

Does anyone have experience with Rain Flow Total Gutter Protection -- a fiber filter that keeps stuff out of your gutters? Tnx.

cheers, jerry

[cshenk]

"jerry" wrote

Not that specific brand Jerrry but we've tried several things all to no avail. Leaves just clog up on top of it all.

What works for us is a simple tool we got at Home Depot. It's an extendable metal tube that has a crook-neck and a hose attachment. It's about 12ft long fully extended. Has a little 'claw' you can 'scoup with'. With this, Don doesnt need a ladder except at the very end of the run. He can just walk along and clean that way. Easy and fast.

[JimT]

They had something similar at Costco and I decided against it. I asked about it here and we/I came to the conclusion they would just clog up eventually. I ended up with these:

Sort of a pain to install but the price is right. I got a few extra so I could experiment with corners. I'm sure they won't work on all gutters but you can just take them back if they don't work. I had to use some needle-nose pliers to reshape the edge that they clip into on some of the gutters. After lots of cussing I got them in and they seem to work just fine.

[ShadowTek]

I bought some of those in brown, and they warped all to hell in less than a week.

Fortunately, HD accepted the return.

[Nonny]

We had a home with a 10/12 pitched roof in NC. Since NC is heavily forested with long leaf pines, we had many of them in our lot and close enough to the house that our gutters were almost continually plugged after every rainfall. A fellow in NC, as I recall, decided that he could solve the problem using the same principle where water flows down the side of a glass, rather than pouring off the lip: surface tension. He invented the Gutter Helmet

and we had it installed on our house. 6 years after it was installed, I needed to repair some fascia and lifted the Gutter Helmet up in the area to remove the gutter. The gutter was as clean as the day the Gutter Helmet installer cleaned it out. The stuff works great and I heartily recommend it.

[willshak]

cshenk wrote the following:

...and wear a raincoat. I have one of those. Start from the downspout and work backwards so the debris is clear in front of the next batch to push to the downspout.

[JimT]

I used the white ones. My neighbor has the brown ones and they were holding up well. I think they have to be installed correctly or they'll warp. When the roofers re-did his roof they refused to reinstall them and now they are warped. Prior to that they looked fine. If they are in a really hot area they may not be a good choice.

They are not as easy to install as the literature would lead you to believe. They were an 8 on the curse-o-meter and I don't like spending that much time on a ladder.

[Jeff The Drunk]

Filters or specialized gutters don't work if they work at all on roofing of any higher pitch than say a ranch style house roof. In a heavy rain when you need the gutter the most the rain will just run right over. Best is manual cleaning conventional gutters like i have as many times as it takes and to slope the ground around your house away from the walls.

Been there, done that. Watched a neighbor's Leaf Guard gutters on a 40 pitch roof during a moderately heavy rain. Water ran right over the edge like there was no gutter. I suspect the same would happen with gutter screens.

[mm]

I don't understand the filter part. The little particles never clog the gutter, do they? It's the leaves. Doesn't filtering out the little particles just leave one with a clogged piece of filter so the water can't get to the gutter?

>

[willshak]

>

My thoughts exactly. I think they would work better without the filter. It's the big stuff that clogs gutters, the small stuff that gets into the gutters can be flushed with the rain easier than the big stuff. Every type of gutter covers have their own problems, whether it is the covers that do not allow debris in the gutters, but pile it up on top of, or in back of, the covers so that the gutters don't work at all , or heavy rains that just roll over the gutter cover and onto the ground. And those screen type inserts that go into the drop outlet hole are the worst of all. They block the large debris from going down the downspout and just pile it up like a dam, preventing even the small stuff from getting to the downspout.. The best way to keep the gutters clean is to cut down all trees taller than the gutters for about 100' feet from the house :-).

[mm]

Strangely, I have trees 10, 20, maybe 30 feet higher than my house on two sides, and close to the house IMO, and yet there are never leaves in my gutters. I thought when they dried out in the fall they could be carried pretty far by floating on a breeze.

[ShadowTek]

I don't see how they can be installed "incorrectly." It's just a one piece unit.

They only choice that I had was whether or not to tuck them under the shingles, which I didn't do since the pictures showed them laying *on top* of the shingles.

[JimT]

And that's what did it. My neighbor's warp right after they refused to tuck them under the shingle. I was very hesitant to use them for that reason but I came to the conclusion (hopefully correct), that tiny amount couldn't hurt. I researched them and you are supposed to tuck them under. It's part of the reason they are almost freakin' impossible to install. The distance between the edge of the gutter and, the space to tuck them, has to accommodate them. I had to trim them to fit. Especially in the corners.

Where did you see a picture of them laying on top? I found something (somewhere) that shows exactly how to install them. I'll admit it's hard to decipher from looking at the product.

Check out the PDF file at Amerimax.....Clearly tucked under per mfg.

[JimT]

Man you're lucky. We have huge live oaks that shed their leaves around March that will clog up the gutters every year. I first tried just putting screen near the down spout but that only helped a little. I'm not sure I completely understand wilshak's question but, I think it has to do with the gutter angle. If they are like mine the water won't flow fast enough to carry the small particles out so they accumulate like river sand. I really need a whole new gutter system but this is going to have to do.

On another subject: One poster said something about only needing a place for the water to run off. In heavy rain areas you need both but, in my case I also have a pool in he back and we don't want the water running off the roof and into the pool, also.

Jim

[JimT]

heh....the missing link:

You may have confused the plastic gutter guards with theses?: These clearly would never warp. I tried them but I couldn't get them to work with my gutters.

[ShadowTek]

It must have been the pictures on the box. I clearly remember thinking that it might be a better idea to tuck them under, but I decided to go with what was pictured instead.

Regardless, the warpage of the plastic suggests that it wouldn't last many years, at least not the dark color ones, and not under the direct sunlight here around my house.

There were no instructions included with the boxed set, and the pictures were misleading, so it's odd that they have taken the time to compile a manual without either distributing it *or* indicating its presence on the package in some way.

Oh well, it's their loss.

[ShadowTek]

No, those are the ones that I'm using now. I *did* tuck those under the gutter, and I haven't had any problems with them.

I had to do a lot of fiddling with the clips, but they all finally went on well.

[JimT]

I agree. I thought it might be a liability issue. I know if I asked my roofer he'd prefer I didn't use these. I just couldn't resist due to the price and what seemed like the ease of installation, We live in Austin (Central TX) where we have hellacious summers. My neighbor's brown ones held up fine until he got his roof re-done last spring. That summer they started warping because the roofers just placed them back on the gutters. He's since had someone come out and fix them for him and they went right back in and the warp doesn't seem to matter. I'd of done it for him if he wasn't such an ass.

He had his up for 6+ years prior and I didn't notice any problem at all. In fact they look sharp. I get a good view cause he's downhill. So the jury is still out on how long they'll last. I can attest to their strength because I had to really fight to get them in and not one of them broke. So it's very tough plastic. I had to push hard to get them to clip properly. If they are installed properly they look very professional. I recommend them with the installation caveat. The price is right. I did about 55' for about $35. Maybe 8 hours of hard labor.

I have doubts roofers would approve of the metal ones either as they rest on the shingle. They have a more visible profile too. The plastic ones lay flat so, on my house, you can't see them at all from the street. I'm "pleased" with the results. If their was ANYTHING wrong with them SWMBO would make me do it over. I'm well trained that way.

[ShadowTek]

I beat those metal ones flat so I could tuck them under the shingles.

It looked pretty obvious stuff would pile up behind it if left bent, and I not longer had faith in the manufactures recommendations, so I just did it the way that seemed best.

[JimT]

FWIW: I'd be concerned about the shingles being lifted too high. Could develop a leak near the edge. I went with the plastic ones because they barely lift the shingle.