As long as you are not talking about the french drain around your foundation! I have used screens, plastic gutter caps, downspout screens- I just have not been happy with the performance of any of them. Especially in corners or where higher downspouts drain on the roof to the lower gutter. After some experimentation and and research I have concluded, as have some others that these thing do not work in many application involving anything other than a simple straight roof line. If you roof is fairly simple with no inside corners then these systems can work. I tried an experiment using 3 foot gutter caps like the Leafgaurd design from Lowes. They are plastic and only cost about $1 or so per linear ft. They did seem to work reasonably well on the long straight sections, but failed miserably at sections where upper downspouts were draining onto the roof and inside corners. When I took them off there was still debries in them-mostly asphalt from the shingles. I would reccomend a similar experiment before investing in a gutter cap system. Leaf Gaurd is outragiously expensive- there are better alternatives. As for me, my roof is not a steep pitch so I will now be walking the roof to clean my gutters monthly. By the way, a leaf blower works great for me to clean the roof and gutters! What ever you do, GET THAT WATER AWAY FROM THE HOUSE!!!

I know of two families here (the home of pine trees and all sorts of horrible oaks with strings of pollen-y things) who have had the Englert's Leaf Guard system for several years. Not one single problem. In one case trees overhang the house. It puts an end to cleaning out the gutters.

One man I know got this brand after falling off the ladder while cleaning his gutters. He said it beat that broken ankle.

We have one neighbor who had Gutter Guard brand installed about 2 years ago; I checked back with him and he's had no problems.

We're putting Englert Leaf Guard on our new house.

There's another discussion on this over at the remodeling forum.