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Gutter Helmet Review
Anyone here have gutter helmet on the gutters of your home? Does it work for pine needles? I'm tired of renting a 45 foot man lift every year to clean our gutters and am thinking of having this system installed. I've heard that LeafGuard gutters don't work well on pine needles but Gutter Helmet is supposed to work better.
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Gutter Helmet Review
Not me personally, but a client of mine, a golf course in cottage country, put it on their club house and a few out-buildings for the same reason, they sit in the middle of an old Pine forest.
It doesn't work very well on Conifer needles. Any of those caps or shields are intended to make leaves pass over top, but water run into the gutters. The problem is if the needle is being pushed sideways by rainwater, which they usally are since head-on doesn't offer enough frontal area to move them, then they go right in anyways. Then you have a real PITA since the guard is in the way to clean them out.
About the only solution I've seen that works is to use those slanted fins to redirect and break up the water coming off the roof instead of gutters. The first time the wind comes up they're clean.
Best of luck.
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Gutter Helmet Review
I have never used them but like Murf have seen them in action and agree with his comments fully.
We have lots of pines in our area. I think the gutter helment for the most part has been an idea that never grain ground here.
It seems the local gutter guys who have been here for years have gone to the large commerical down spouts to give room for the pine needles to just run down the spout with the water. If you don't have a true pine forrest around your house it seems to work.
BTW, at least some companies have pipe with elbow to use on leaf blower to clean dry leaves and it will work on dry pine needels some while on the solid ground. Has worked well for me.
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Gutter Helmet Review
I had gutter helmets on my gutters. Stupid pigeons would get stuck there sometimes and I'd have to come out at night and get the dumb birds out.
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Gutter Helmet Review
Thanks for the info. The fact that birds could get stuck in them is a new one. Since the "nose" of the gutter helmet brand product extends beyond the edge of the gutter I figured that pine needles would have a good chance of falling to the ground, but if the surface tension of the water will carry them around the nose and into the gutter it's no help at all. They guarantee that the gutters won't clog or they will come out and clean them. Problem is that's a dealer, and not a manufacturer, guarantee and dealers come and go. I guess the man lift rental fees will continue.
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Gutter Helmet Review
Ken,
A leaf blower in the bottom end of the down spout can clean them out some. The better seal around the leaf blower pipe the better job. Of course this is not a full clean out.
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Gutter Helmet Review
Many times the debris clogs the gutter somewhere in mid-run before the downspout. Maybe that's caused by the downspout clogging first allowing debris to settle in the "lake" behind the spout but when it happens the leaf blower idea won't clear the clog. And this always seems to happen on the highest gutters three stories above the ground.
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Gutter Helmet Review
Ken, I just called my client's groundskeeper to ask what they finally did to prevent the problem.
He said they got some very light aluminum expanded mesh and cut it in strips just wide enough to cover the gutter, and tuck up under the first course of shingles slightly. It is stapled under the shingles, and not fixed at the outside edge at all, just folded under slightly to strengthen it.
He claims that the needles almost always slide flat, the mesh won't let them through flat, only standing on end. Most of them get washed out onto the mid-point of the gutter by the water flow, there they dry very quickly and just blow away. He says they haven't had a problem since installation of it in the sprng of 2004. They do have to check it every spring for ice damage though, something you probably wouldn't have to worry about.
Best of luck.
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Gutter Helmet Review
Thanks Murf. I've got to rent a man lift again this year anyway to install some bird spikes and fix woodpecker damage to the chimney so they'll all get cleaned manually. While I'm at it I'll give the expanded aluminum a trial run in a few areas and see how it goes. I really appreciate you calling your client and letting me know what works. The gutter helmet is expensive at $16/ft and I'd really hate to spend $4k on it and have it not work. Another problem with them might be wasps. We have a lot of wasps around here and they would be able to build nests under the gutter helmet where they couldn't easily be sprayed.
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Gutter Helmet Review
My mother wanted gutter helmet for about 30 feet of gutter on the front of her house. I talked her into a plastic mesh similar to what Murf recommends. It is sold at home depot in 3 foot sections which snap over your gutter for only a couple bucks each. I haven't been back on the ladder to check the gutters in a year since I installed them so I don't know how they are working. Also she doesn't have pine needles around the house.
I have a massive problem with needles at my house. My neighbor has 50 foot stand of tamerack pines which shed their needles every year. They completely fill my gutters and I have to vacume every crack between the patio stone in my poolyard. I clean my gutters by hand. The ultimate solution would be one night with my echo chain saw in their back yard 
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