Man has been inventing and reinventing rain gutter covers since gutters were invented. Initially gutter screens were devised to keep out debris. They started as a flat metal screen and have evolved into plastic screens with square or round openings. Some gutter screens are arched, newer plastic ones have troughs.
What all these screen devices have in common is that they have their openings on the top portion of the device. While they do a pretty good job of keeping out fresh new debris, they all tend to hold the debris. As the debris dries it becomes brittle and is then pulverized by a subsequent rain fall at which time it enters the gutter in significant quantity as to clog the gutter. One has a bowed top with a hinge for lifting the gutter screen to clean the gutter--problem is that the bowed top captures and holds debris such that when it is opened, more debris falls into the gutter further aggravating the situation. Basic screen designs were invented in the early part of the 1900's
In the mid 1900's two basic solid top rain gutter covers were invented. They both use the property of surface adhesion where the water sticks to an imposed curvature in the front of the gutter guard rather than flying off into space. The first one has a curved front where the water is guided downward through a narrow opening between the front gutter lip and the front most part of the gutter cover. It is held in place with a clip approximately the size of a quarter. The problems with the design are two fold:
1. the clips work loose at which point the rain gutter guard collapses into the gutter.
2. sufficient debris can still pass through the limited opening which is approximately 3/8" in width to clog the gutter.
The second design (GH) is similar to the first except the front curved portion is higher than the first one and extends over the top of the front gutter lip such that the path of the water actually goes to the end of the gutter lip and then flows backward and downwards into the gutter.
Forgive me for using the abbreviations for the product names as opposed to their registered trademarks as I do not have permission to use them. 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.
Theoretically the debris is jettisoned off the front edge onto the ground and misses the gutter. In reality, much of the debris sticks to the surface of the gutter cover just as water and the debris clogs the gutter. Since the product is nailed into the roofing, cleaning the gutters can only be done by a trained service crew.
In the mid 90's the basic GH design was adopted by another company which manufactured a product (LG) that was an all-in-one gutter and gutter guard. Its function is much the same as its predecessors.
In the early 90's a group of GH dealers left the company to invent and create a hybrid GT. It's design is very similar to the GH product with one exception--the opening between the lower edge of the gutter cover and the front lip of gutter is closed with a trough that has sieve openings. The idea is to cut down on the debris that passes its predecessors' design. However, it doesn't take an MIT degree to notice that any debris that makes it as far as the trough still has to go into the gutter. It too is often nailed into the roofing requiring a trained service technician to clean clogged gutters.
On the heels of GH in the late 80's another design, known as the Waterloov® Gutter Protector, was invented. It has a flat solid top with a front vertical surface. A rounded (arcuate) surface guides the rainfall from the top downward toward the gutter lip. The bottom of the front of gutter cover has a flange that is installed under the front gutter lip and hard fastened to the gutter with stainless steel screws. You might wonder where the water goes? The answer is that in the front vertical portion of the gutter guard which is approximately 2" in height (approximately the same as the GH and GT there are two rows of louvers. They are arranged so that the water that passes the first row of louvers is caught by the second row of louvers and directed into the gutter.
Because the louvers are limited in size to 3/4" width, nothing longer than 3/4" can ever pass into the gutter as opposed to the full sized leaves that pass into its predecessors which gives Waterloov® a distinct advantage of being literally the first gutter guard gutter cover that never allows gutters to clog.
With the distinct advantages of the Waterloov® Gutter Protector design, one would wonder why anyone would ever select anything else.
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