Gutter vac

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

I'm taking too much risk at the top of my ladder cleaning gutters, at least twice each year. So, I'm considering one of the gutter vacs. Looks like 2.5" pvc conduit with a bend at the business end, and a strong shop vac. Anyone use one of these that can offer an opinion and/or advice?

 

[PaulOinMA]

I use a blower, rather than a vacuum: Leaf Blower Gutter Kit for my Stihl blower/vacuum. Works very well.
https://www.stihlusa.com/products/blowers-and-shredder-vacs/blower-accessories/gutterkit/

 

[PaulOinMA]

Good call about looking for looking for an easier way to do it. My FIL went to Tulane with Max McGee. McGee caught the first TD pass in a Super Bowl. He died after falling off his roof cleaning gutters.

http://www.espn.com/nfl/news/story?id=3072476

"I just lost my best friend," former teammate Paul Hornung told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "[His wife] Denise was away from the house. She'd warned him not to get up there. He shouldn't have been up there. He knew better than that."

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

Good call about looking for looking for an easier way to do it. My FIL went to Tulane with Max McGee. McGee caught the first TD pass in a Super Bowl. He died after falling off his roof cleaning gutters.

http://www.espn.com/nfl/news/story?id=3072476

"I just lost my best friend," former teammate Paul Hornung told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "[His wife] Denise was away from the house. She'd warned him not to get up there. He shouldn't have been up there. He knew better than that."

Thank you for the encouragement. I'm not going to like the post, because that would be morbid.

 

[johneh]

After you get them clean install gutter guard
I use it and have not had to clean my gutters
for 4 years

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

After you get them clean install gutter guard
I use it and have not had to clean my gutters
for 4 years

Which one, please? Cedar scale, white pine needles and tulip poplar seeds have defeated all the ones I've tried so far. Thanks!

 

[zrock]

i would recommend the blower option above... i can see with a vac the long tube getting plugged and spending more time then its worth cleaning it out

 

[begreen]

Which one, please? Cedar scale, white pine needles and tulip poplar seeds have defeated all the ones I've tried so far. Thanks!

We've had the best luck with a fine mesh screen style. The gutter helmet style were worthless for fir and hemlock needles.
(broken link removed)

 

[johneh]

I use the fine mesh keep out maple seeds and pine needles
When it drys after a rain the collected seeds leafs needles blow away
The wife likes the fact it keeps me off the ladder

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

Just to follow up with this and share my solution- I ended up getting a long hose for my big orange shop vac, and a long extendable aluminum pole (a swimming pool brush/net handle. I zip tie and/or duct tape the hose to the pole, and made a bend at the end in the hose to point it down, using a heavy aluminum wire to hold the bend (more duct tape). I plug the hose into the exhaust port of the vac, and blow the gutters out, 100% from terra firma. Works great.

I will get an appropriate sized bend attachment to replace my "rigged" bend.

Now I only climb the ladder to check them, and I'll be replacing that ritual as soon as I get a bike holder for the smart phone, that I can put on the end of the aluminum pole.

I was inspired by the $3000+ pricetag from 4 different gutter companies to replace the old style round gutter with new larger gutters with and without the guards.

All in, takes about an hour of moderate labor, and I'll need to do it 3 times per year.

 

[PaulOinMA]

Great!

 

[DickRussell]

I think the usefulness of either a vacuum or gutter guards depends a lot on the type of tree debris that collects there. In my case, I get a lot of dry pine needles all year long, stuff related to pollen activity in the spring, leaves in the fall, and long (4-5") pine cones any time a strong east wind blows out of the east. Some of the smaller stuff sits there for months, regularly wet by rain, and not necessarily dry when I get a good weather opportunity to clean it all out. Heavy rain tends to wash the pine needles toward the downspouts, where they collect and eventually plug the downspout, resulting in gutter overflow during a downpour. Part of my roof is two stories up, and I really don't want to be at the top of a ladder doing cleanout.

I get up there twice a year with the gas leaf blower, moving carefully along a couple of feet at a time, leaning away from the edge and being careful about stepping on anything but roof. For most of the way around, that blower blasts the gutter clean, right down to metal. Anything in there, wet, dry, clean, dirty, even any puddled water, gets blasted up and out. In most cases, those long pine cones initially get pushed along the gutter for maybe a foot, then mix with other debris and get lifted up and out. Occasionally, a pine cone or a twig pruned by wind will jam sideways, or at a downspout I'll encounter a mass of wet, rotted pine needles plugging the opening tight enough that the blower won't dislodge it. Then I have to shut down the blower, rest the end of the outlet tube against the gutter lip, get down on my side with the edge of a foot against the gutter, and reach down with my arm to grab whatever is causing the problem. It's scary, I'm almost 76, and I can see the time when I'm old and won't want to get up there anymore.

One problem with a vacuum is that it probably won't get close enough to get anything wet, or that wet stuff will just plug the tube. Also, without a (future option?) fiber optic connection for visual view of the gutter, one just hopes an adequate job has been done. Same for a long tube connected to a blower. Thus the success of standing on the ground with a blower/vacuum and long tube really would depend on the nature of what's in the gutter. YMMV, so to speak.

 

[begreen]

We have a lot of large trees, both softwood and hardwood, so lots of needles (hemlock and fir), seeds (maple and elm), and leaves. I just had all gutters cleaned. First time in 5 yrs. The gutters with the fine stainless screens were the cleanest by far with little accumulation other than some roofing granules. There were no drains clogged with this style cover. On the back of the house there is a gutter helmet style cover and one drain was clogged with debris. Needles mostly + plus maple seeds. The garage gutters with no covers were plugged. I never wanted gutters on the garage but the county made it mandatory in order to pass inspection. I just put the ss screens on them too.

 

[Hogwildz]

Depending on what kind of gunk is in the gutters, blowing it can be very unpleasant as you may be wearing some foul smelling shat while blowing it all over the place.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

We have a lot of large trees, both softwood and hardwood, so lots of needles (hemlock softwood and hardwood, so lots of needles (hemlock and fir), seeds (maple and elm), and leaves. I just had all gutters cleaned. First time in 5 yrs. The gutters with the fine stainless screens were the cleanest by far with little accumulation other than some roofing granules. There were no drains clogged with this style cover. On the back of the house there is a gutter helmet style cover and one drain was clogged with debris. Needles mostly + plus maple seeds. The garage gutters with no covers were plugged. I never wanted gutters on the garage but the county made it mandatory in order to pass inspection. I just put the ss screens on them too.

The Achilles' heel of the stainless gutter guards is ice, according to the reviews on the Costco website. Once they ice over in the winter, no more gutter until they thaw.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

Depending on what kind of gunk is in the gutters, blowing it can be very unpleasant as you may be wearing some foul smelling shat while blowing it all over the place.

This is true. Fortunately my pole is long enough that I can stand to the side and blow away from myself. I do wear a hat and safety glasses to shield myself somewhat. Better to get a little nasty on the ground, than take the risk of the ladder, at least for me.

 

[Wooden Head]

I've used many of the clean gutter solutions and found only 1 that works. It's not perfect, but I find that even when I get up there every 3 years to pull off the pine needles that when I check under, in the gutter, the only thing I find is some fine dirt. This isn't plugging the gutter. The solution is Foam Gutter Guards. This is used on my house with a 12/12 pitch and on my pole barn with a much lower pitch.

 

[blades]

I've used many of the clean gutter solutions and found only 1 that works. It's not perfect, but I find that even when I get up there every 3 years to pull off the pine needles that when I check under, in the gutter, the only thing I find is some fine dirt. This isn't plugging the gutter. The solution is Foam Gutter Guards. This is used on my house with a 12/12 pitch and on my pole barn with a much lower pitch.

how do these work out with the snow and ice in our lovely climate? as I have been intrigued by them vs the more traditional styles I have had in the past . Got the gamut from pines to big leaf stuff. Not been real happy with previous items as I still had to screw around cleaning stuff every year, and/or replacing sections and just a general pia to deal with.

 

[Wooden Head]

how do these work out with the snow and ice in our lovely climate? as I have been intrigued by them vs the more traditional styles I have had in the past . Got the gamut from pines to big leaf stuff. Not been real happy with previous items as I still had to screw around cleaning stuff every year, and/or replacing sections and just a general pia to deal with.

Here's what I've learned. When I first put them in I split the foam at the Gutter supports. This had made it easier to install. I didn't have to push the foam under the support. DON'T DO THIS! What happened is when the snow came sliding off the metal roof it brought the foam along with it. When I retrieved the foam it was one solid length of ice. So I found out how much weight there is in the gutters when the ice builds up. The next Spring I added supports every 24 inches. Hope this helps.

 

[blades]

Thanks for the reply, sorta figured it would freeze solid. more research need i guess

 

[begreen]

The Achilles' heel of the stainless gutter guards is ice, according to the reviews on the Costco website. Once they ice over in the winter, no more gutter until they thaw.

Could be, though a very rare problem here, if ever. Wondering what happens in the gutters without the screen. They fill up with ice, right?

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

Could be, though a very rare problem here, if ever. Wondering what happens in the gutters without the screen. They fill up with ice, right?

Yep, depends on the location. Here in the Mid-Atlantic, we have a ton of opportunity for this to happen, and I suspect the "helmet" style fill right up, too. I suspect open gutters fill up with ice as well.

I am very happy with my solution- shop vac in blower mode, with the long hose and handle, 4 times per year.

We have a smart phone bike mount ordered, so I can mount the phone in video mode on the pole, and take a movie from the ground, to inspect the gutters (maybe even use a video conferencing app with the two phones, or one phone and the tablet). Also, need to get a 100' 12 gauge extension cord, to reach the barn (or get around to rewiring the barn) and improve the connection system on the hose, so less duct tape and zip ties are used each time.

 

[semipro]

Gutter inspection is one of the many uses I've found for my drone at our home. Parts of my roof are quite high so I can't help but smile when I check gutters with my feet on the ground.
Unfortunately, they almost always need cleaning so I still end up climbing.

I also have a pole barn with a rain water harvesting system fed by gutters. I've yet to find a decent solution that doesn't require periodic cleaning with our mix of pine, cedar, and deciduous trees. I've tried just about every type that's commonly available other than the surface adhesion type. The last few years our rains seem to have transitioned to short, more intense events that I pretty sure would overwhelm the surface adhesion type.

 

[blades]

guess i back to what i have been using which is basically strips of expanded metal apx 1/8 holes with one edge shoved under the shingles and the other in the lip of the gutter. fairly cheap and easy to replace as they do get bent up at times. Easy to straighten out by driving the lawn tractor or something similar over them if not to badly deformed.