Information about Gutter Protection

Gutter Helmet and Similar Systems
One of the most popular and common types of gutter protection is the Gutter Helmet and others like it. It works on the principle of surface tension and boasts a unique way to direct water into your gutter while blocking debris. For an example of this property of water, take an ordinary drinking glass, turn it on its side, and let water from your faucet run over it. As you might have guessed, the water seems to cling to the sides of the glass as it runs down it and finally streams downward at the bottom. Water molecules are slightly polar, like a magnet, and their opposite poles will slightly attract each other.

The Gutter Helmet uses this principle to do away with the ultimate shortcoming of gutters themselves. Because a passive system (one that uses no energy) must rely on gravity, it can’t discriminate between things like water and leaves. All will be swept into the system. What the Gutter Helmet does is close any vertical opening that might let debris in. instead, only a horizontal opening is present. The Gutter Helmet is a metal piece attached to the gutter, creating a smooth path from the roof to the Helmet itself. The Helmet then totally covers the gutter, about an inch above it. As the Helmet reaches the lip of the gutter, it gently curves downward and back under itself, into the gutter. Using the principle of surface tension, the water will flow down the Helmet and into the gutter. There is no vertical opening for debris to enter, and only water (which is what a gutter is designed to protect against) is collected.

The Gutter Helmet is unobtrusively attached to your house with brackets, doing no external damage to your roof or siding. It can be custom made to your home and shouldn’t be too big or too small. One of the things it advertises as being an advantage over its competitors is that it will not allow birds or other animals to enter and take up residence in your gutter. Gutter Helmet also boasts that in the year 2004 it laid over 10 million feet of gutter protection.