Gutter Covers-Not Labor Savers

    About five years ago, I saw that Costco had a sale on covers for gutters.  I was tired of always cleaning all the leaves out of my gutters, and the covers seemed like they would be a real labor saver, so I bought them.  They haven’t really worked out as planned.  

    They do prevent leaves and debris from clogging the flow of water to the downspouts, but a lot of leaves now pile up on top of the covers, so I still have to get up there and scrape them off.  It is easier and not as messy as it would be without the covers, but lately there has been another problem.

    For the first couple of winters, as the build-up of snow on the roof slowly glaciers down over the edge, it moved above the covers and they remained in place, but during the last couple of winters, the slowly sliding snow has caught the gutter covers pushing and twisting them out of place. 

     Now every spring I have to collect them all off of the ground, bend them straight, and then put them back over the gutters.  I am wondering if every autumn after the leaves fall, whether I should just take the covers off for the winter, then put them back on in the spring.  If that is the case, it doesn’t seem like I am saving a lot of labor, and it might be easier just to take them off permanently, and just clean out the gutters every year like I used to.

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