When it comes time to clean your gutters, aside from ladders, pressure washers, and a variety of buckets, there aren’t a lot of advertised products designed to reduce your overall time on the ladder. From robots to pressure washer attachments, scoops to gutter tongs, these products are designed to save you time and money, so maintaining vital efficiency of your gutters will be a much smoother and safer task.
Without a doubt, using a pressure washer is the best method for cleaning gutters. Debris and sediment won’t stand a chance against the force of the water, and the grime and film that couldn’t typically be removed using a pair of gloves is effortlessly blasted away. However, using a pressure washer on a ladder has some obvious safety concerns, and there have been many serious injuries resulting from homeowners falling from ladders while trying to negotiate cleaning, balancing, and using a pressure washer. But with a wand and a gutter cleaning attachment – such as the Apache Gutter Cleaner Spray Tip – cleaning gutters is a breeze, and as safe as it gets. The attachment is designed to fit virtually every type of power washer extension wand, rendering the use of a ladder unnecessary.
Not looking to own a pressure washer in the near future? Gutter tongs are another option for those that wish to clean safely from the ground. Gutter tongs, like the Ultimate Rain Gutter Cleaning Tool, can be attached to standard extension poles and are light enough to easily reach gutters on two-story homes. The jaws are opened, clamped around debris, and easily lifted to remove the sediment and foliage found in your gutters. The tongs can also clamp onto your garden hose nozzle, allowing you to operate the spigot to flush out smaller debris that might have been missed without having to repeatedly scale the ladder or recruit a friend.
Gutter scoops are another alternative to pressure washer cleaning, but unlike the washer extension or the gutter tongs, the scoop requires the use of a ladder. Gutter scoops are cheap and available at nearly every hardware store, so getting your hands on one shouldn’t be a problem. It works well for debris that’s a little tougher to grab by hand, like seeds, pine needles, and muddy sediment, but when you’re already up on the ladder, trying to juggle a bucket and your balance, adding another gutter cleaning tool into the mix seems a bit risky. Most homeowners would say that just using gloves is sufficient but if you have a lot of sludge in your gutter channel, finding a safe way to use a bucket and a scoop on a ladder should be on your to-do list.
If you’re completely opposed to manually cleaning your gutters, hiring a professional service will be your best choice.