How Gutter Guards and Leaf Guards Work

Gutter Guards and Leaf Guards (except for screen devices) work by the principle of surface adhesion.

You'll notice that all gutter covers or gutter protectors have in common a solid top through which nothing passes. And this top usually sits some distance above the gutter itself.

Somehow the water that flows from the roof onto the top of the gutter guard or gutter cover must get into the gutter. Reason says that the water would come to the front of the gutter cover and just fly off into space. And if the gutter cover were simply flat from front to back, that would be the result.

To keep this from happening, the manufacturers of gutter covers designed a curved (arcurate) surface at the front most part of the gutter cover.

If you've ever poured water from a pitcher and had it trickle down the side of the pitcher instead of pouring into a cup or some vessel, you'll know what I'm talking about. The surface tension of water causes it to stick to the curved surface.

Thus as the water flows from the back to the front of the flat surface of the gutter cover, it adheres to the downward curved portion of the gutter cover and into the gutter.

Obviously there needs to be a space between the edge of the curved surface and the front edge of the gutter otherwise there wouldn't be room for the water to enter. This space is usually a quarter to three-eight's of an inch in width.

In the following explanation of how these systems work please forgive me for using the abreviations for the product names as opposed to their registered trademarks as I do not have permission to use the trade marks. G as in GH and GT stands for "gutter" and H stands for "helmet." Below L stands for "leaf" and G as in LG stands for "guard". T as in GT stands for "top" and "per" as one word. And with LP. L stands for Leaf and P for Proof.

The less sophisticated gutter covers, like GH, only have one long curved surface (fin or louver) to guide the water into the gutter. The disadvantage is that not only water sticks to the curved surface, but so do leaves and spring time debris which results in clogging of the gutters inside.

Another thing to consider is the radius or size of the curvature. The larger the radius, the larger the flow of water that the gutter protector will accomodate. Likewise, the smaller the curvature or radius, the lesser the flow of water that the product will handle. Thus some of these gutter covers or leaf guards like LP don't work in heavy rain falls.

Some gutter covers and gutter guards work with a combination of designs. In addition to the curved fin, they have a trough as in the GT product. The downward curved fin delivers the water to a trough with sieve-like openings. The goal here is to keep the debris that follows the curve from entering the gutter in full size form. Unfortunately, in mid to heavy debris conditions, the debris fills the trough or breaks down and still enters the gutter in sufficient quantity as to clog the gutters.

The most advanced design of gutter cover or gutter protector combines the downward curved surface with two rows of louvers. Each louver is three-fourths of an inch in length. This gutter guard is known as the Waterloov Gutter Protection System. Water flows downward from the large open curved surface, which handles both light and heavy rainfalls, and into the first row of louvers. The rain water that is not collected by the first row of louvers flows down from the bridge between the first row of louvers into the second row of louvers.

With the Waterloov Gutter Protection system, nothing larger than three-fourths of an inch can pass into the gutter. Any debris that small which enters the gutter is small enough to be flushed down the leader so that gutters remain free flowing and never clog.

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

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