GutterTalk Blog

Earlier this year, we invited several micro mesh gutter guard manufacturers to submit their products for testing. After follow-up emails and phone conversations with company executives, assuring them that we would be fair in our testing, some manufacturers accepted our invitation, some declined, and others simply did not submit product for testing.

Undeterred, we marched on. Fortunately, we already had a fair bit of product at our disposal, so we took what the manufacturers offered us and added products we had available to us to for testing.

We will continue to add products to test over time, so the manufacturers that declined our requests are welcome to send us products, and we will likely independently acquire products to add to our tests.

Why are we testing gutter guards?

You may be familiar with Consumer Reports magazine September 2010 gutter guard article. While the article featured several solid surface (surface tension) and do-it-yourself gutter guards, only two micro mesh products were tested. Micro mesh gutter guards were introduced more than 10 years ago, and are considered the first real advancement in the gutter protection industry since the invention of solid surface gutter guards in 1908 — over 100 years ago. It was odd that testing was limited to two products.

By conducting our own gutter guard tests, we will be able to provide detailed information about products in order to help homeowners make more informed decisions about what type of gutter guard systems to install on their homes.

Micro mesh gutter guard manufacturers that I spoke to after the Consumer Reports story ran were unanimous in believing the CR will not test gutter guards in the future, so we will fill-in the gaps from previous testing in hopes of providing homeowners with a broader pool of products from which to choose.