[drive surgeon]

hi guys,  got my kit to start gutter sucking!!  but how do you get broken tiles out of the gutter from the ground?  im not using ladders at all!!

[steven ainger]

cant you suck the tile so it sticks to the hose, then move it out of the gutter and turn off the vac, so it drops off.

[drive surgeon]

dont think the suction will be strong enough to suck a half tile to the end?

[STEVE-UK]

Mine sucks out broken tile but not a whole one, and as said turn motors off and let it fall

[ftp]

Ditto, did one today and nearly had a claim on my insurance 

Working away when the tone of my generator changed - it kind of went quiet.

Because the trailer was spinning in large circles as it trundled off down the road on it's own. One car driver was watching in amazement. I suddenly found i had caught the sun!
Put the wheel lock on for the rest of the job. 

[trevor perry]

i have never used a guttervac but from what i have seen i would rather go up a ladder, your problem with the slate is something i have thought about before if this was to fall it could do serious damage to someones head and even if it didnt hit anyone it could easily damage a car or other property.
  i usually use ladder to remove large debris and then rinse with with a pressure washer pole but but use a rinse nozzle so dirt doesnt fire everywhere, unless gutter is really badly clogged i only have to go up ladder one climb per side just to make sure nothing that could cause damage is in gutter i may get a camera set up to reduce ladder use more but as i dont do many gutters cant justify spending the money.

[ftp]

Thing is you generally know when you've latched on to part of a tile and can normally suck it up and drop it if need be or lower your pole with it stuck to the end if you want. Nobody is going to leave their car two foot from the wall whilst your sucking and your unlikely to stand directly under the line of fire either.
 If your happy working off ladders then there is no point in chucking your money at a vac.

[trevor perry]

Thing is you generally know when you've latched on to part of a tile and can normally suck it up and drop it if need be or lower your pole with it stuck to the end if you want. Nobody is going to leave their car two foot from the wall whilst your sucking and your unlikely to stand directly under the line of fire either.
 If your happy working off ladders then there is no point in chucking your money at a vac.

  you obviously have confidence in the suction and as i said i have never used one so couldnt comment on how efficient it is, i do take your point about a car not being that close but if a slate drops from 20ft and hits the floor they  shatter and fly everywhere these bits could easily cause damage. also a falling slate could easily bounce of the pole your using and hit you even if not stood directly underneath.

[Oakley Windows]

What do guys do when theres a gap of only an inch and a half to two inches between the end of the tiles and the gutter?

The reason I ask is that there must be a solution as it isnt uncommon for this to be the gap available.

Matt

[ftp]

Easy, i heat my nozzle in the exhaust gas of my genny and squish it to size.

[ftp]

dont think the suction will be strong enough to suck a half tile to the end?

If you've found half a tile to suck up then either you have a massive gutter or you had better get the ladders out 'cos you've wrecked the roof. 

[Feen]

I've only cleaned a couple of gutters and don't intend to make it a big part of my business so i will do what i have to do off ladders. One question to you gutter vac guys. What do you do if the neck of the down pipe is blocked for example? Do you go up the ladder to sort it? Do you even know it's blocked? Or is that not part of the service offered?

[STEVE-UK]

i quoted a job with box gutters ( the picture on my website) and assummed the nozzle would fit in no problem, but when i started the job i realalised the nozzle wasnt cleaing it all out

i ended up hiring a manned cherry picker and had it cleared out by hand, but even they had problems, the gap was that small they couldnt get there hands in, they had to lift the tiles to clear the gutters

I had to pay for the cherry picker out of my own pocket as that was what i quoted

so be carefull when quoting!!

[Nathanael Jones]

This was just posted on another forum:
http://www.google.co.uk/patents?id=ZPo7AAAAEBAJ

The idea for gutter vacs goes way back before I was even born it seems!

[Window Washers]

That looked like brodex gutter tool lol

[ftp]

Interesting. 

[sageorgeta]

That cant be right...surely....
A patent issued for a gutter cleaning system that uses suction from the ground,how can this be...patent applied for and granted in the US in the seventies...hmmmmmm.

Well that looks like the one i saw in australia in the nineties must have been an offshoot of the original design in the US.

Interesting though.

[ftp]

I'll have a stab at this and i might be wrong. Omnipole quite likely have applied for a patent but it's most likely to be the only parts you can't source yourselves such as the gutter spike and power pole. They produce one or two parts themselves but as for the rest i doubt it very much.
I didn't see if any patent was granted on that link? Haven't got time to read it all.

[sageorgeta]

Yes the patent was issued on 27 Jul 1976.

Omnipole have obviously applied for a patent for the specific parts,which they should do if they have invented them.

But i was allways under the impression (and i can bring past quotes up) that anyone trying to copy the system or use the generic term guttervac would be dealt with under the copyright laws?

I put it to Glynn a couple of times before that i had viewed a gutter cleaning system in Australia back in the nineties,but he got very protective over the facts,but how can you strenuosly deny the process for cleaning gutters with a vac from the ground had been used prior to omnipoles design when according to this a patent had already been issued in the US?

As i say this is interesting and facts are facts.

[[GQC] Tim]

Yes the patent was issued on 27 Jul 1976.

Omnipole have obviously applied for a patent for the specific parts,which they should do if they have invented them.

But i was allways under the impression (and i can bring past quotes up) that anyone trying to copy the system or use the generic term guttervac would be dealt with under the copyright laws?

I put it to Glynn a couple of times before that i had viewed a gutter cleaning system in Australia back in the nineties,but he got very protective over the facts,but how can you strenuously deny the process for cleaning gutters with a vac from the ground had been used prior to omnipoles design when according to this a patent had already been issued in the US?

As i say this is interesting and facts are facts.

Watch out, he will say he was living in the states at the time.