Best equipment for DIY gutter/downpipe cleaning

I wonder if similar equipment to Dynorod's could be used.... After all gutter downpipes are really above ground drains.... :-)

a lash up with a Karcher jet washer on a flexible hose pushed up from the spout at the bottom?

Good idea. I've got some screwfix budget drain rods so I'll see if they will support their own weight for the required height.

Try feeding a hose up the downpipe and see if a jet of water can dislodge the blockage from the bottom.

If you have a hosepipe, you could attach the end of that hosepipe to the end of your drain rods as if you are trying to thread a cable through a void with fish tape/wire?

You could also try and find a hosepipe attachment that creates a high pressure water jet from the end of the hose pipe?

This might be worth a look:

S.

Use a plumbing snake. The sort that come in a plastic housing are best.

Note that if you try and clear it when it's actually raining, be prepared for a column of water to rush out very quickly.

I would be a bit careful using drain rods on a fall pipe, they are rather rigid as they are intended for use on the more robust drain piping.

You might not need pressure washer force, you might manage with a normal "mains" hose pipe. I have a 2 inch drain from a corner of a patio (not enough height for 4 inch) which blocks with silt about once a year, I just feed the garden hose in from the gully end and turn it on. There should just about be room to use ordinary drain rods to provide stiffness up to two storeys.

Moss seems to be the biggest blocker here - and leaves

We have a Karcher accessory drain clearing attachment. The water jet is reversed to drive the tool head onwards

In message snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, Caecilius snipped-for-privacy@spamless.invalid writes

In my experience with several blocked down pipes, causing the gutter to overflow, the blockage is always at the bottom of the down pipe, and easily cleared with a straightened wire coat hanger.

The 'gotcha' is the water in the down pipe, above the blockage, which will get you, however careful you are. Much fishing with the coat hanger produces a few leaves, lumps of moss or similar until suddenly a foot or two of very wet and compressed muck shoots out, followed by a pipe full of foul water.

Be prepared :-)

The opposite of mine, usually caused by bits of nest or dead chicks at the top in the outlet.