The Best DIY Gutter Guards of 2024 (Tested) (2024)

The Best DIY Gutter Guards of 2024 (Tested)

When researching the best gutter guards for your home, you’ll find two types of products: professionally installed and do-it-yourself (DIY) gutter guards. Though we believe professional options are worth the price because they offer better overall quality and warranties, you may decide the steep $4,000–$7,000 price tag is outside your budget. In that case, your best option is a DIY gutter guard, which we cover in this article.

Our team thoroughly researched the best DIY gutter guards to help you make the right choice for your home. We bought 11 of the highest-rated DIY guards on Amazon, installed them onto a model gutter system, and tested their performance using debris and heavy water flow. We dug into each brand’s history and read more than 100 customer reviews per product. We then scored these products on six criteria: material and design, value, ease of installation, customer reviews, services offered, and effectiveness. Five brands stood out from the products we reviewed and tested.

Compare Our Top 5 DIY Gutter Guard Companies

The table below compares our favorite DIY gutter guards based on their performance, price, and other key factors. Even if we don’t generally recommend a brand, it may still be right for your home or the problem you’re facing. For example, GutterBrush’s design and material quality come up short compared to other brands we reviewed. However, it’s extremely easy to install and may work if you want a quick and easy fix, which is why we recommend it over other options that scored slightly higher in our review standards.

*The costs in this table are based on each product’s listed price on Amazon and assume you’re purchasing enough material for a 200-linear-foot gutter guard system, which is standard for a 2,000-square-foot home. Customer review scores were taken from Amazon star ratings.

Video of How a Gutter System Works

If you’re looking to install gutter guards yourself, you’ll need to know the basics of a gutter system. In this video, Tom Silva breaks down how to install gutters and walks through gutter components such as end caps and hangers.

Why Trust Our DIY Gutter Guard Reviews

DIY gutter guards can save you hundreds to thousands of dollars compared to professionally installed options. However, with so many products available on Amazon and in home improvement stores, it’s tough to know which ones actually work.

To help you find the best DIY guards on the market, we bought, installed, and tested 11 DIY gutter guards from eight different brands. We tested at least one of each type of gutter guard (mesh, foam, screen, and brush) and prioritized those with the most purchases and customer reviews. We assessed each product’s durability, ability to handle downpours, and filtration against standard outdoor conditions. We then compared our findings to customer reviews on Amazon, reading more than 100 reviews per product.

This experience and research allowed us to give you firsthand recommendations on which guards perform the best, are the easiest to install, and, most importantly, are worth your time and money.

DIY Gutter Guard Analysis & Test Results

In addition to testing 11 DIY products, we also tested professional products, such as LeafFilter. This allowed us to compare DIY brands’ performance to more expensive, high-end professional options. The brands we tested included the following:

• LeafFilter
• Raptor by Gutterglove
• Two different models by Waterlock
• GutterStuff
• GutterBrush
• Three products by Amerimax
• A-M Gutter Guard
• Home Intuitions Rolled Guard
• Frost King

Our testing process is designed to comprehensively assess all aspects of the customer experience with each guard. We looked at each part of the purchase and installation process, from ordering the guard online (or purchasing in-store) to its performance in various weather conditions. We rated each guard’s ability to block debris (including small particles like shingle grit), filter water without overflowing, withstand impacts, and self-clean. We also reviewed each guard’s warranty, installation materials, discounts, and more.

While each guard has its own pros and cons, the overall takeaways from our testing process include the following:

• Micro-mesh gutter guards perform the best. Material quality matters a lot for gutter guards. Micro-mesh guards block the most debris, are the easiest to clean, and don’t overflow often. Guards made from plastic or PVC perform the worst. They break more easily and only last an average of five years, whereas micro-mesh guards can last 15 years or more.

• The best DIY brand is Waterlock. Waterlock blocked 90% of debris, only failing to stop small dirt particles. These guards also filtered 85% of the water we applied without overflowing.
• No guard fully self-cleans. Self-cleaning is when a guard uses water flow to remove debris from the top of the guard. No guard we tested completely removed buildup, so you can expect small amounts of debris to accumulate on top of your guard regardless of the brand you choose. Even guards with excellent self-cleaning, like LeafFilter and Raptor, still need occasional cleaning and maintenance.
• Every gutter guard brand was easier to clean than an unprotected system. Though no guard completely self-cleans, gutter guards undoubtedly make cleaning your gutters easier, less frequent, and faster than if you don’t have guards at all. During testing, we added materials to an unprotected gutter and cleaned it to have a baseline for how each guard performed. Gutters with guards were much easier to clean in every case.
• Price doesn’t always equal quality. Some gutter guards are way overpriced compared to the quality they provide. The biggest culprits are foam, mesh, and reverse-curve guards, which are all expensive compared to other types but perform poorly.

We assessed each DIY guard using firsthand testing and customer reviews. Our rating system considered the criteria homeowners find most important, including material and design, value, warranty coverage, customer reviews, ease of installation, and effectiveness.

Material & Design

DIY guards are mass-manufactured and must be installed by regular homeowners, so it’s important that they’re built intuitively and use materials that won’t be easily damaged during installation. Guards made from high-end materials, such as stainless steel or aluminum, last twice as long and block more debris than plastic ones, so we rated brands that use these materials highest.

We also awarded more points to brands that use micro-mesh gutter guards because the tiny holes in their design allow them to block debris and filter out water better than other guard types. Foam and brush guards received the least points because they clog easily and are harder to clean, though these guards may appeal to some homeowners because they’re exceptionally easy to install.

Waterlock and Raptor scored the highest in this category. Both brands use a micro-mesh screen and high-end materials but different designs. Waterlock has a thicker frame, making it more durable than other guards and allowing it to withstand harsh weather conditions. Raptor, on the other hand, uses a thinner, more malleable frame so you can customize the product more easily to your roof. As such, we recommend Waterlock for standard roofs and Raptor for alternative roofs, such as those with metal shingles or steep slopes.

Here’s a breakdown of how each guard in this article scored for this factor:

Value

Some brands offer more bang for your buck at a slightly higher price. For this category, we compared the cost of a 200-linear-foot system with quality of life bonuses including multiple communication methods, discounts, instruction manuals, and online resources. Guards that offered the most benefits for the lowest price rated highest.

Most products in this article had middling scores ranging from 3 to 4.5. Raptor earned the most points due to its impressive instruction manual, comprehensive online guides, and 25-year warranty. Waterlock was a close second, but Raptor is half the price. Frost King and Home Intuition also rated high in this category because they’re very cheap and offer all of the extra benefits outlined above, but they didn’t make our top five because they don’t perform as well as other brands we reviewed.

Here are the value scores for our top picks:

Warranty Coverage

Unfortunately, problems like damaged products, missing pieces, and incorrectly sized components are common for DIY guards. A good warranty helps to financially protect you in these cases, as well as from product failures that may occur over time. Products with longer-lasting, transferable, and clearly defined warranties earned the most points in this category. The average warranty length for DIY gutter guards is 15–25 years. We consider a gutter guard warranty to be generous if it lasts 25 years or longer—especially if it lasts for the lifetime of your home.

The best-performing products in this category were Waterlock and A-M Aluminum. Waterlock and A-M both offer a lifetime transferable warranty, something almost unheard of for DIY gutter guards. A runner-up in this category was Raptor, which provides an above-average 25-year warranty.

Here’s a breakdown of each company's warranty score:

Customer Reviews

We read customer reviews to compare our testing results to other consumers’ experiences. Most DIY gutter guards are sold exclusively on Amazon, but we also read reviews on retailer sites such as Lowe’s and Home Depot when available. We noted consistent positive and negative themes to get a sense of each product’s performance and any problems customers have encountered.

Gutter guards generally have strong customer review scores on Amazon. Most items have an average score of 4.5 out of 5 stars on their respective pages. Even guards we believe should receive lower scores, such as GutterBrush and GutterFoam, have high Amazon ratings and appear to be well-received online. Waterlock, Raptor, A-M Aluminum, and Amerimax all scored highest in this category. We agree with their impressive overall customer review scores.

Here’s how our top DIY gutter guards scored in the customer review category:

Ease of Installation

It doesn't matter how well a gutter guard performs if it’s a nightmare to install. This category looked at each guard's overall installation process and the instructional materials that come with it.

If a guard was light, easy to handle, safe, and accompanied by an easy-to-understand instruction booklet, it earned high points. Guards that were difficult or dangerous to install lost points. For example, guards that had sharp edges or overly cumbersome designs didn’t perform well in this category. While most guards were relatively easy to install, GutterBrush far outperformed the other guards in this category. Its simple, slide-in design made installation quick.

Home Intuition and Frost King also scored high in this category because they’re easy to install: they both roll onto your gutters and have clips that snap them down. However, as mentioned, their quality is lacking compared to other brands.

Here’s how each of our recommended products scored in this category:

Effectiveness

We looked at how well each guard blocked debris, if it overflowed, and how easy it was to clean. We consider any gutter guard that blocks 80%–99% of debris while letting in 90% or more water without overflowing within standard conditions to be effective. The poorer it performed in each of the categories, the more points it lost.

The best guards in this category were Waterlock, Raptor, and A-M Aluminum. Each product blocked more than 85% of debris, filtered water without easily overflowing, and was easy to clean.

Here’s how each company fared in our effectiveness rating:

This Old House DIY Gutter Guard Picks

After installing and rigorously testing 11 DIY gutter guards, we found the following products to be the best-performing, most reasonably priced, and highest-rated. While we think these guards perform worse than professionally installed options—for example, LeafFilter’s stainless steel micro-mesh guard—they still offer reliable gutter protection for DIY-minded homeowners.

Realistically, professionally installed guards provide better filtration, longer-lasting warranties, and additional services such as gutter and downspout installation. Putting DIY gutter guards on your home can also damage your gutter and roof system, and you risk serious injury due to the ladder work required. However, the average cost of a professional gutter guard is around $4,760—four times pricier than the most expensive guard on this list.

Many homeowners are willing to apply a little elbow grease to install a decent product if it means saving thousands of dollars. That said, you’ll need the appropriate skills, tools, and experience to install DIY gutter guards properly. At minimum, you’ll need to be comfortable working on a ladder and have the following tools:

• Ladder
• Ladder stabilizer (optional but recommended)
• Personal protective equipment (PPE), such as safety glasses
• Screw gun
• Self-tapping screws
• Thick, protective gloves
• Tin snips
• Tool belt