Guard Reviews – Failed Guards

Gutter Guard Reviews

You may be like many homeowners who have difficulty imagining a gutter guard capable of maintaining leafless gutters. Like us, you are reading and researching gutter guard reviews.

How does a gutter guard comparison look between the most popular gutter guards like Gutter Helmet, Leaf Guard, Leaf Solution, Rhino Gutter guard, and One Guard? You can use our methods of leaf guard comparisons to help establish the best gutter protection systems for your home.

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Failed Gutter Guard Reviews

During your research on gutter guards, you may have seen more than just a few complaints with failing gutter guard reviews. Most likely, those reviews spanned all types of guards and didn’t seem to favor one guard over another. It can be confusing when looking at all the guard products on the market, so let’s break them into categories.

Gutter guards typically fall into a few categories based on design and function. There are all-in-one gutter and guards, reverse curve guards (helmet and hooded guards), DIY metal/wire/slotted guards, mesh guards, and in-the-gutter guards (foam and brush rolls). A lot of failed gutter guard reviews have been about one-piece gutter and guard systems (Exhibit A), reverse curve designs (Exhibit B), and DIY gutter guards (Exhibit C) sold at local home improvement stores like Home Depot, and Lowes. Foam and brush guards still require cleaning, and many homeowners know this going into the buying process. For this reason, many homeowners are fine with them since the guards can be removed fairly easily. If you don’t want to clean your gutters again, keep reading.

If you have or had gutter guards, or you are researching the purchase of a gutter guard, you may relate to some of the complaints about these products, such as:

“They get clogged and we have had to devise a tool to somehow gouge the leaves, grasses, etc. out! After spending all this money, I think we will have to remove them,”
[all-in-one guard and helmet]

or

“Their technology is outdated and the claim that you’ll ‘never have to clean your gutter again’ is a lie!”
[helmet and hooded guards]

or

These are ok to keep out small sticks and the occasional leaf. I have several types of Oak trees, when the sap & pollen start dropping they easily pass through these guards and plug up my gutters.”
[DIY wire and screen guards]

There are complaints on many forums like Rip Off Report, Pissed Consumer and YouTube (to name a few) that shows testimony after testimony that these gutter guards do not function properly causing water damage to the house itself.

We’ve found that many of these guard designs and gutter guard companies fall short in providing the best gutter protection, especially when it comes to DIY gutter guards.

Our Process

The gutter guard review process started with us doing research – mostly by removing gutter guards installed by our competition or the homeowner themselves. Our goal to offer a gutter guard system started with the least expensive guard. Within months, and sometimes a few years, they all failed in some way or another. We did not want bad products to hurt our reputation, so we set off on a mission to discover the best gutter guard system on the market.

We realized that just like us, many homeowners were doing their own online research. Common searches we see are; best gutter guards, gutter guard comparison, Leaf guard reviews, Gutter Helmet reviews, Rhino Gutter Guard reviews, gutter protection, gutter protection reviews, etc. and have even started to do our own live gutter guard comparison (see video on top-right).

Our own research and look into gutter guard reviews led us to some of the most popular products, such as, Gutter Helmet, Leafguard, MasterShield, GutterGlove, Leaf Filter, Rhino Gutter Guards, and Leaf Relief. We compared Leafguard vs. Gutter Helmet reviews, and also took a look at Rhino Gutter Guard and similar gutter guard product reviews.

To determine the best gutter guards, we narrowed our search down to the most popular among homeowners. Our gutter guard comparison started by looking at Leaf guard reviews, Rhino Gutter Guard reviews, and Gutter Helmet reviews. Some raved about Leafguard, and others said it simply did not work for them at all. The Gutter Helmet reviews and Rhino Gutter Guard reviews also varied. We then also crunched the numbers and did some gutter guard cost comparison, looking at cost for Gutter Helmet, Leafguard, and Rhino Gutter Guard, as well as other competing products.

Conclusions

  • There is not one perfect gutter guard.
  • Your guards are often only as good as the company that installed it.
  • Gutter guard warranties are mostly bogus.
  • The best gutter guard for your house depends on a variety of factors:
    • Tree, leaf, and debris type
    • Pitch of roof
    • Type of roof (asphalt shingles, wooden shake, metal, etc.)
    • Size of gutters
    • Skill of installers

Our conclusion, while looking for the best gutter guard, all leaned towards the mesh/micro-mesh based gutter guards. We ended up choosing a mesh guard as the best design and function of all the gutter guard types. These gutter protection systems produce the best results in keeping out debris, while also continuing to let the water flow through the gutter system, especially during heavy rainfalls.

We’ve heard and seen the good, the bad, and the ugly from many homeowners about gutter protection systems installed on their home. Because of our reputation, you can imagine how hard we searched to find a gutter cover you could believe in. It is why our conclusion fell to the gutter screen reviews/micro-mesh reviews, as the results were almost always more positive than other designs, and among the best rated gutter guards.

As we continue to search and test gutter guard systems, our confidence is on the mesh guards. In fact, we believe these to be the best gutter guard systems on the market, because of its aluminum and surgical-grade stainless steel micro-mesh design that we offer a money-back-no-clog warranty for 20 years!

We have also realized many homeowners need a more affordable but comparable gutter protection system. We have found MicroGuard to be a great alternative for homeowners looking for a cost effective, low maintenance leaf guard. It does not come with extensive warranties, discounts, or promises of never cleaning the gutter again, but it typically outperforms most of the other brand names available for a fraction of the cost.

Products We Offer

Don’t let bad guard reviews discourage you. Not all gutter guards are the worst, nor are all installers poorly skilled. We have found many homeowners consider our gutter guard products to be the best performing gutter guards (through our 3rd party reviews). Even though we are confident in our guard covers, it’s our installer training we believe in more. We are confident our gutter guard options will suit multiple price ranges for multiple home types in multiple situations.

After conducting research and comparing many guard products and designs, we were able to make a decision to offer two guard products; One Guard and MicroGuard. With the One Guard, we are able to change mesh inserts to accommodate the surroundings. With MicroGuard, we are able to offer a competitive product to many DIY and big box store guards. Research on all of the products we offer to clients is always ongoing, as we are always looking for the best possible products on the market.

k-style gutter guard all in one

One Piece Gutter And Guard Systems


Failed reversed curve and gutter helmet guards

Hooded Gutter Guard Reverse Curve System


DIY Metal, Wire, Foam, And Plastic Guards