i have never tried them. i hear mixed reviews, soem people say they work great and are happy with them. others say that they clog even quicker than before, and that water constantly pours over the side of the gutter in a hard rain. i know 2 people that got them, sorry don't know the brand, and removed them the next year due to poor performance.

I had them on my last house. I had to remove them because the gutters were plugged with fines, and I couldn't clean the gutters with them on.

My son bought a house with one of those types, I don't know the brand. The water just ran over them like they were not there in a heavy rain. He replaced them with conventional gutters. I have used the PVC gutter guards from Home Depot for the past 12 or so years and have not had to clean my gutters since. They are about 2' long and slip under the first course of shingles and then hook on the lip of the gutter. We live in New England with plenty of maple and oak leaves. I think they would work equally well where pine needles are prevalent.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gutter guards

I also used the ones from Home Depot. (but mine had the thin layer of mesh over the holes). They work well, and are really cheap. We had them up for several years until we replaced the roof and gutters. Put the same thing up again. Easy to install, they slide under the bottom row of shingles and then snap onto the gutter edge. You can cut them with household scissors at the end of the run or if you need to miter an inside corner. I have no experierence with some of the higher end products, but these really worked fine for us.

Can you see them from the ground? Do they alter or affect the look of the gutters? In other words, do they "look" bad?

You can't see most of mine from the ground. Just looks like a regular gutter. The only place you can see them at all is by my back deck. Because of the angle there, you can see a little bit of the top, (if it were not there, you would see a little bit into the actual gutter.)

I also use the homedepot/lowes inserts. I originally had the plain ones, and although they did reduce the amount of debris and the frequency of cleaning, the maple seeds and locust leaves (which are very small) still got in. I switched to the type that also have a layer of mesh on and they have worked well; now it is just the shingle granules collecting but in a heavy downpour water can still slide across and over the gutter somewhat. Oh, and the squirrels periodically knock a section off -- on purpose I think!

Hey bnicebkind,

I have tried Leaf Relief and Leafguard. Both work very well. However, debris will accumulate on the Leaf Relief guard. Some maintenance is necessary. Leafguard needs very little maintenance and it handles heavy rains very well.

we have liked Leaf Relief the best, cause you can get it in 10 ft long sections as well as 4 ft somethin sizes... It is aluminum....we installed it ourselves on our house we sold last year.... I bought that from a siding distributor... in that town

There is a good video I saw on everythinggutter.com .. (no afflliation). just homeowner DIY mostly, here...)Those take a screw in the back too.... But "Leaf Relief" does not.

For this old house bought "Sure Flo" It is cheaper from the manufacture. I just bought a whole box . UPS just delivered it. Each pc is about 4ft 6 inch...

50 pieces come in a box the web site said. only SOLD by the box.... I ordered it with a check thru the mail... came pretty fast too. we saved several dollars for each sections rsther than go thru a dealership driving 30 miles each way...

Not sure if it will work on our standing seamroof we had installed over a year ago. The yahoos( a certain religious group member that dont drive) that did the work, did not quite put it up right...

we did not know but the guy used us as guinea pigs... He had never installed that brand before.. My husband had to watch him closely. he wanted to put screws thru the face of the roof.... Because he did not order enough or the right starter strips...etc....

the roof mfg guy told us not to let the roofer do that.. He came in a truck, rolled out the pieces here in the driveway....

Boy was that scarey. cause the guy( roofer) had to go out and buy a big hay tarp to cover the roof overnite after the regular shingle tear off. and rain was expected...Course we had to insist too...

so we might just have to end up and use "Gutterbrushes" like we had years ago at former home.. (Uh, we sold those to our brother -in law... LOL)

cause the roofer did not leave the same edge that goes into the gutter... not even...DUH....

In some places Hubby had a time ,reinstalling the gutterguards that were here with the old regular shingled roof...He said he could barely get his hand in between the roof edges and gutterboard in places. Of course the Yahoo did not tell us that reinstallin the gutterguards was not part of his job...

Just a saying yall

jean

If you live somewhere with heavy rains, get ones that have plenty of holes or mesh to allow water into the gutter. Water may shoot over the solid plastic ones and miss the gutter.

I have some cheap black plastic ones from Menards with tons of round holes. They work OK but are not real heavy duty. I came across a few expanded metal mesh ones at a garage sale and plan to try those out. More expensive if you buy them new but they sure look durable.

I use these and have been very happy with them, cannot see them from the ground. You do have to clean them every year, but in my case, I was having to clean the gutters out 3 or 4 times a year

http://gutterstuff.com/guttering/k-style-gutter-guards/

I am so glad I don't have gutters. Best move I've ever made.

Ichabod-

Hopefully, the water that comes down off the roof and is not channeled away from the house will not damage your siding over time from splashback, or cause foundation moisture problems for you.