Gutter Sense Gutter Cleaning Tool

Decided to invest in this leaf grabber and an extra long pole as an alternative to paying $300 per cleaning using a service. Carefully read the reviews in case this was better than the 3.7 star average suggested. Really pleased with the ease of use and ability to remove dry leaves and partially degraded clumps from my gutters two stories up. Though the rope was too short, I used some 60 pound fishing line to extend it to the bottom of the pole. Wrapped it around a wooden block at the bottom to make it easier to use (fishing line is a bit narrow and uncomfortable otherwise). I just grip the block and pull it down to operate the grabber. It took me about two minutes to master use of this leaf grabber tool, and about fifteen minutes before I decided how best to handle the gutter supports which are not viewable from below. I use the fully open grabber to push leaves away from the screw supports and then grab the leaves in the adjacent space. Easy to pick up many dry leaves per go, and effective at picking up large clumps of degraded leaf debris at the bottom of the gutters. Completed one section of about 25 feet in about 30 minutes, and with more experience, an equivalent section in about 15 minutes. Removed about 5-6 cubic feet of leaf matter. A couple caveats about my success: first, six inch gutters give plenty of room to grab leaves, and second, the leaves are narrow/oblong (Zelcova tree). Will try this on maple leaves on the other side of my house in a few days and update if there is any difference. (See edit below). All in all, really happy with this purchase, and would recommend, especially for people with wider gutters like ours. Edit: Was slow in moving around the house using this tool to clean gutters and discovered a few benefits. First it works well when trying to unplug a downspout during a downpour. Two decent grabs of wet mulch-like debris, and the downspout cleared. Excess water spilling out of the downspout brought with it even more debris. After several dry days I again used this on the front of my house to remove maple leaf debris, and it worked equally well as in the back with the Zelcove leaves. Have decided to adjust pole length sufficient to rest it on my upper thigh, which allows for decent fatigue-free cleaning. Having experienced a major downpour several days back, I revisited areas adjacent to downspouts previously cleared and found more debris had been swept close to the downspouts that needed removal. By this, I only need clean this area on a more regular basis, because the further away I go from the downspout, the lesser the leaf accumulation. Basically nothing about six feet or more on either side. Based on this experience I plan to use this every couple weeks during autumn starting when leaves begin to fall and ending when there is nothing left to remove. Not shooting for perfection and allowing the rain to gather the leaf debris near to the downspouts seems to work best. Have to believe that my six inch gutters play a positive role in this process in allowing the leaves to be swept towards the downspouts. Final verdict: super pleased with this purchase and looking forward to ladder-free, cheap gutter cleaning moving forward.

So, I purchased one of these to clean about a year of accumulated pine straw from my gutters and once I learned to use it it has done a surprisingly good job. It can be a bit cumbersome and can wear on you so I've just been using it about 15 minutes per day, slowly clearing away the debris from my gutters. I took the advice of another reviewer and set the extension pole near my chest and sometimes my thigh, which I can lift as I squeeze the tongs together and remove the debris fairly quickly this way. With saturated and broken down pine straw the debris can almost be rolled out when you have a good grip of it, but you'll have to stop at the gutter supports and work around those. At first I wasn't sure about this product, but after learning to use it I'm glad I bought it and it's saved me a lot of money not having to call someone to do this for me. I did already have a good 18ft extension pole (Unger brand, about $40) which I use for washing the second story windows and this tool has worked very well on it. Since it's made of plastic I doubt it will last very long, that's the biggest downside and after using this thing I'd be willing to pay more for a higher quality materials version.

I seldom write reviews on Amazon unless I have a pretty strong opinion (hopefully positive) about a product. I can highly recommend gutter sense as I've been using mine frequently for about three years and consider it a lifesaver. I bought a house about 6 years ago which had lots of high gutters constantly filling with leaves. It is truly a miracle I didn't kill myself falling off a ladder for the first 3 years. A friend of mine recommended gutter sense, and I typically use it every 1-2 weeks except in winter. I don't wait til the leaves are overflowing the gutter, and seedlings and earthworms are living up there. A few tips: Depending on factors such as working around trees/shrubs near house and the distance between gutter nails, it can take some practice and tweaking. Sometimes gutter nails are much closer than the width of the claw. But with practice, you'll learn to pull the string enough to partially close the claw and fit it in between the nails. I use the claw in conjunction with the Toro gutter cleaning kit (a long tube which attaches to my Toro blower). The Toro blower also works amazingly well, BUT-if leaves are wet and plentiful, it can be quite messy blowing all that wet stuff everywhere. So, I first attack it with the gutter sense, usually removing about 70% of the leaves. (You can first use the gutter sense to remove some leaves to determine how wet and full they are.) Then, usually later in the day-or the next day, if it's been dry and sunny, the leaves in gutter have dried sufficiently to attack with the blower. Using both tools can get the gutter spotless. DON'T neglect your gutters and fall behind! Total time to use the gutter sense and the Toro blower to clean all my gutters is about 20 minutes. (Much better than spending 2+ hours on a ladder!) A gutter completely overflowing with pine needles can be almost impossible without getting on a ladder. BUT, if you don't fall behind, the gutter sense and the Toro blower can do the job. The job is easier if you know exactly where the gutter nails are. That way, you're getting between them and not grabbing one. If your gutter nails are hard to detect from the ground, you might consider marking location of each on the gutter. I just helped a friend do this and made a dot with a permanent marker for each nail. (Yes I did have to get on a ladder, but his gutters were ridiculously full-so I cleaned them from ladder-so now he can maintain them with the gutter sense. (NOTE: My friend had seen me demonstrate the gutter sense and Toro blower on my gutters and was amazed. I then ordered a gutter sense for him from Amazon; thus was prompted for this review.)