Rainhandler "dispersing" gutters?

[jah213]

Just curious whether anyone has had experience with these things.

Seems as if it would solve the gutter and downspout cleaning problem. What's the catch?

Jo Ann

[Eigenvector]

Part of the purpose of a gutter is the remove water from places you don't want it going - such as a drain field or foundation. The gutters depicted there would not do that to any great extent. If a wet foundation isn't a concern for you or you don't have a septic tank then I'm sure in practice they would work about half as well as depicted. The other purpose of gutters being to redirect water away from entryways and to prevent soil erosion from run-off.

[Oren]

I would think the disbursement of water out and away from the house would be an advantage. I've seen the ad before. I think the cleaning issue would become minimal. Maybe no catch...

-- Oren

"Well, it doesn't happen all the time, but when it happens, it happens constantly."

[Don Phillipson]

I added them in 1994 to a two-story house built in

1986 with no eavestroughs/downspouts. They disperse rain runoff well enough to prevent damage to plants below, on two sides of the house. The house was built above grade on sand so drainage is easy. Rainhandlers were not effective on the north (sheltered) side to retard rot damage to a (faultily-built) deck so I added eavestroughs there with a single downspout -- and discovered eavestroughs were cheaper than I had expected. But I am satisfied with both the eavestrough and Rainhandlers.

[jah213]

According to the info on the website, it scatters the water in a soft arc, far enough away to prevent erosion or foundation soaking problems. Also, note there is an "umbrella" thingy to install over doorways, etc., to route water to the Rainhandler, away from entryways.

Wish I actually knew someone who was using this setup.

Jo Ann

Eigenvector wrote:

[Tom The Great]

I had a person tell me their 'comments' about it:

You cannot adjust it like a regular gutter and downspout, should you need to get the water further away from the house. Plus, regular gutters and downspouts work to divert slow rain falls away from the foundation, this vane system might just let the water drip right down to the base of the house.

Just passing on what I heard, I have not, and plan not to use this system.

later,

tom @

[RicodJour]

I've seen a couple of installations and was not impressed. They're supposed to scatter the rain so it doesn't drip in one straight line off of the edge of the roof. Instead it makes several smaller parallel lines.

Water should be directed away from the foundation instead of being evenly dispersed around it. You'd be better off forgetting about the "roof sprinkler" and place some landscape fabric under the roof edge with a gravel topping (gravel will prevent dirt from splashing up on the walls). Slope the area so the water runs away from the building.

I have to echo Haller's comment about the Leafguard gutters. I've checked on some I installed ten years ago and the only thing in the bottom of them is a little dust. No leaves, no pine needles, nothing. The only drawback is that if there is a valley channeling water into one particular area that can create a faster than usual flow and it can overrun the gutter. This can lead to some big icicles in the winter.

R