Fall in New England, I'm in gutter cleaning mode.
I'm working on a setup that will allow me to flush the small debris out of my gutters with water after cleaning all the leaves out by air/hand. The goal is to minimize time on the roof or the ladder, so this will be something that I can hopefully use from the ground.

I was planning on a couple sticks of 1/2" or 3/4" copper with threaded adapters to join together and dismantle for storage, a shut off valve somewhere on the handle, and a fitting to transition to garden hose at the bottom (mgh fitting?).

At the top I was going to have a 90 then a short stub and another 90 or 45 with a stub pointing down to direct the flow down into the gutters. I think all that will work, but I'm trying to figure out some sort of sprayer or diffuser that I can put on the very end to allow for more directed flow in the gutters, and hopefully be a little more water efficient in the process.

Can anyone offer suggestions on some sort of fitting that I could use at the top to spray around and flush the gutters out? Also, I'm on a well with a 40/60 pressure switch, so would I even have the lift and flow to make this work without using a pressure washer instead?

I'd use quick connect couplings for joining the pieces of tubing. A standard garden hose spray head should work well at the end. I'd probably use soft copper to make the bend, and sweat an adapter for the spray head to screw on.
You're only going to lose roughly 5 PSi for every 10' of lift so you pressure should be fine as well.

Would quick connect couplings be too weak if they were in the middle of 2 10' sticks? I thought that would wobble too much and be a point of failure which is why I envisioned using threaded adapters for rigidiy even over using a union.

I don't know why I didn't think of using a regular garden hose sprayer on top but that sounds perfect. Thanks

since you obviously can solder:

use a cap with a 1/16" drilled hole in the center

you can always make the hole larger and/or replace the cap as needed

use male and female adapters for rigidity

you can purchase a 'return bend' for the top

[www.bing.com]

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"Measure Twice & Cut Once" - Retired U.A. Local 1 & 638

Thanks both of you. That's why I come here...

[hydestore.com] I don't know how high your roof is, or any other consideration, but they make products similar to what you are suggesting commercially already. If you are making a wand to extend more than 10' just to rinse a gutter, I would consider using 1/4" to 3/8" tubing for your water supply instead. keep in mind that you will be lifting, carrying, and wielding overhead the entire apparatus, the water inside it, and be dragging a garden hose with it. Reducing the water line size will help maintain your pressure and reduce the weight as well as allowing other storage options. If you could use tubing, you could roll up the water line and collapse a telescoping pole for easy storage. Just my $.02

DITTO

'google' gutter cleaning tool



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"Measure Twice & Cut Once" - Retired U.A. Local 1 & 638

I too would use a male and a female adapter to join the 2 pipes.
for the spray end, use a 90 and a 45 with a small piece of copper flattened out leaving a little slit for water to spray out.

2 story cololial built on a hill with a walk-out basement. Because of the layout, the reach varies from 10-20' in places, plus you have to add for the setback as you're not standing directly under the gutter. So the store-made extension tubes aren't enough.

I like the few ideas you guys gave, it'll sure beat spending another saturday morning hauling the extension ladders around. I had enough of that last week getting the leaves out!

...just my system

if you remove the end caps from the gutters they will be 'self cleaning' during a heavy rain but still catch 98% of the water during a 'normal' rain

where they 'dig a hole' in the ground you fill with gravel / stone

voila - virtually maintenance free

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"Measure Twice & Cut Once" - Retired U.A. Local 1 & 638

What is missing with this setup is a rear view mirror so when you are on the ground you can see where the debris is going and not having to guess. I say a rear view mirror wide angle attachment the nozzle with an "OBJECT ARE LARGER THAN THEY APPEAR" warning would be nice.

He could "piggyback" my RIdgid SeeSnake, with its extended probe, to it and watch what is happening in real time. But that could add three more variables for each option. Without viewing, with a mirror, and with the SeeSnake, to see which one did the better job and was easier to manipulate. That might extend the test time into next Spring.



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I think getting someone to clean the gutters and install covers would be better than making a contraption to clean the gutters from the ground. Ounce of prevention and all that.

What i like to do is go up once or twice in the late fall to clean the leaves out by hand. the contraption i'm rigging up is for the final 'flush' of all the small debris that can hold water and start an iceberg come winter time.

It's really not that much work. Certainly less than say gluing up 500 stubs of pvc into fittings and busting them up!

Well, I got this all put together this weekend and it worked just using the suggestion of pounding a stub of copper slightly into a flat shape at the end to help spray out all the junk from the gutters.

However, holding 20' of 1/2" copper almost vertical while filled with water and trying to work it around turned out to be kind of tough. Almost would have been easier to get back up on the ladder with the hose and just flush them out that way.

Not a complete loss though, because I got to spend the morning teaching my 2 five year olds about cleaning and soldering pipe, which they really enjoyed and so did I.