Never Clean Your Gutters AgainGutter Guard Installation in Redfield, IA

Gutter guards and rain barrels

Anyone collecting roof runoff has a particular interest in gutter protection, because everything the gutter fails to stop ends up in the barrel. Debris in a rain barrel is not merely unsightly. It decomposes, it feeds algae, it blocks the spigot, and it turns stored water into something you would rather not put on a vegetable bed. Most barrel setups include a mesh screen at the inlet, which clogs and then diverts the flow it was supposed to collect. A guard upstream changes the problem: the water arriving at the downspout is already filtered, so the barrel screen stays clear and the stored water stays cleaner for longer. The one thing to watch is that a fine mesh sheds a little water in the heaviest rain, which slightly reduces what you capture in exactly the storms that would fill a barrel fastest. For most people that is an easy trade against not having to empty sludge out of the bottom every season.