We did our research for gutter guards on the internet and found that AsktheBuilder.com had a review of gutter guards. To make the long and short of it, he chose MasterShield for his home. We've got oaks and maples, a real problem in the spring. I remembered that my neighbor, who's an architect, put guards on his house a few seasons ago and when I asked him about what he had picked, it just happened to be the same thing as AsktheBuilder. He chose it cause it cause it had this fine microfilter made of stainless steel and liked its engineering from the rest. I figured he knew what he was talking about, and had MasterShield installed. Like that other person says, well worth the investment.

I work on ladders often so I have experience with gutter guards. Anything made out of plastic will fail. They will get crushed sooner or later by the weight of snow or warped by the heat of the sun. Gutter topper is a huge waste of money in my opinion as the gutters will often not collect the rain water or snow melt. The only gutter guards that I've seen that work and I'm not sure of the name but they are made out of steel mesh and coated with black plastic. They are only suitable with 5 inch gutters and asphalt composition roofs. In some situations they will not fit properly. Also, in general, the trees in the area need to have large leaves that will blow away and they work best if the trees are not hanging over the house. Gutters still often need to be cleaned and it can be a real headache with guards installed. Gutter guards of any type can also lead to problems such as getting water sliding behind the gutters because debris builds up between the roof and guard. This can lead to damaged soffit or fascia which are expensive repairs.

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!!!

Just to come back and update this thread, I just really lucked out and decided to manage this rental hime myself. I advertised it on Zillow and had it rented quickly to a great family who took care of it very nicely. They lived there 18 months, I Re-listed it on Zillow and had 24 applications! I raised the rent, and now have a lovely small family that lives the neighborhood. This has been a great rental home investment.