There are scores of manufacturers of gutter and leaf protection systems, touting their products’capabilities and knocking competitive technologies. It seems that every week, a new invention for leaf protection finds its way into the marketplace.
We know of no one who has independently set standards and conducted tests of all the available systems to determine which systems actually work the best. Perhaps, there just isn’t enough money and/or interest in the consumer marketplace to mount an independent study large enough to analyze all the gadgets out there. Perhaps, leaf protection just isn’t high enough on the lists of gadgets that have already made their way into consumer guides.
Meanwhile, manufacturers and contractors have been known to monitor homeowners websites, joining web conversations and pretending to be “satisfied customers” of one kind of leaf protection device or another. May the web buyer beware. And when the rain stops and the dust settles, who even knows if half the complaints of disgruntled homeowners are even accurate—if in fact, the leaf protection system is even the real problem.
Choosing a leaf protection system is a very subjective activity. Everyone’s wallet is different. Everyone’s idea of what a clean gutter constitutes is different. Some people are do it yourselfers, others simply weren’t born with the DIY gene.
One thing does seem to be certain—no one has yet come up with the perfect solution to the leaf protection problem to satisfy everyone. If they had, no one would be grumbling about what is out there now.