All leaf guards, gutter protectors, and gutter guards will clog with debris. But wait a minute. It’s true that most of them will clog in a place that makes maintenance a problem, but one will not. Only one clogs where it is easy and safe to maintain.

First, the terms leaf guards, gutter protectors and gutter guards are basically interchangeable. Sometimes you’ll find gutter screens advertised as gutter guards and that’s just a misnomer. Gutter protectors, gutter covers, leaf guards and gutter protectors all characteristically all have a solid top surface.

For the record, all gutter screens—even the ones that have steps and troughs clog. They accumulate debris on the top surface or in the trough. Someone has to climb a ladder to clean not only the screen but also the gutter beneath the screen.  The dried debris on top of the screen often is pummeled into the gutter by rain water making a messy sludge. The maintenance is often more work than just cleaning the unscreened gutters would have been.

Gutter protectors, gutter guards, and leaf guards all have a solid top surface. In order to keep the water from over shooting the gutter, there is a downward front curved surface that leads the rain water into the gutter. Most gutter guards are basically nothing more than one long longitudinal fin or louver. The truth is that tree debris also adheres to the downward curved surface and enters the gutter in sufficient quantity to clog the gutter.

Maintenance can often only be done by calling the company that installed the covers and having them send a service crew. They remove the leaf guard, cleaning the gutter and downspout, and reinstall the guard. If you can’t find the installing company, it’s not a pleasant or safe task for the homeowner to have to do. Since many of these gutter covers are nailed into the roof making the cleaning even harder and your roof susceptible to leakage.

A slightly more advanced gutter guard couples the downward curved surface with a trough. Rain water flows downward from curved surface into a trough. The trough has sieve type openings. As before, the debris adheres to the curved surface resulting in the trough clogging or enough debris passes through the sieve opening to clog the gutter. Once again, maintenance is a big problem. The trough has to be cleaned out first before the cover can be removed.

A far more advanced design couples the downward curved surface with two rows of louvers. The two rows of louvers deliver the water into the gutter. Because the louvers are only 3/4″ in width, only the smallest of debris can enter the gutter–never any thing large enough to clog the gutter. Only in heavy debris conditions are the louvers susceptible to clogging. Since the clogged louvers are on the front vertical visible surface they are easily maintained from the ground (no ladders needed) by using a telescopic pole and brush to clean them.

No longer is the homeowner at the mercy of the installing company to service the gutter guards, neither does he have to climb a ladder to clean the gutter protector. The product is known as the Waterloov® Gutter Protection System. Since it is not a dirty or dangerous job, it is advertised that the homeowner can wear a suit and tie to do the brushing. The Waterloov® gutter covers can generally be serviced in the time it takes to walk around one’s home–no need to change clothes or get out the ladder.

With this distinct advantage of the Waterloov Gutter Protector design, you would wonder why anyone would ever select any other product.

Richard Kuhns B.S.Ch.E. President and CEO of R.K. Industries manufacturer of the Waterloov® Gutter Protection System.