Gutter Sucker: An easy way to clean your gutters without having to climb a ladder 

This little baby packs a punch for the price (just over 30 bucks). I'm comparing it to an old Craftsman blower that recently died after about 15 years. So far I've used it four times ru-vid.comUgkx9IdbewMd3eOaX3SS_kV4wC73v6yWG2KY and it's done an excellent job. It's light, and it moves leaves and debris very well. It's a little shorter than the craftsman, but it's fairly easy to manage. I don't ever use the front grip (requiring both hands). If I did, it would increase the distance between the blower and the debris, or it would require me to bend over awkwardly. I'm 6' 3", so I just hold it (since it's light enough) with one hand down at my side and it's a perfect fit. It's also back-heavy, making it easy to maneuver up/down/left/right motions of the blower end. As a final perk, I can actually appreciate the safety cord lock feature, since my other blower's lack of a decent one caused my power cord connector to start falling apart, due to all of the pulling, etc. If you're not ready to spend 200 - 400 on a gas leaf blower, and you don't mind messing with a cord 2 to 4 times a month, then this thing is for you.

I found your video after searching for both DIY and powered blowers. Not wanting to spend $200+ for another yard tool to deal with, I decided to to try the gutter sucker. I had 2 inch PVC pipe left over from a previous project, and picked up 45 and 90 degree elbows and a 4x2 inch rubber coupling at the hardware store. In about half an hour, I had the gutter sucker ready for trial. I have a 16 gal Rigid shopvac with a 2 inch hose and the coupling fit perfectly. The 45 degree angle for the nozzle provided a good standoff, which I needed in my case. It worked great! Dry leaves did occasionally collect on the inlet nozzle and required me to drop it down and pull them off, but most went to the shopvac. I tried putting the hose on the discharge side of the shopvac to blew the dry leaves out first, then sucked up the balance of the debris from the gutters. Weight was not an issue for me as the main tube is only 6 ft in length. The two 3 ft sections of tubing that came with the shopvac extends that to 9 or 12 ft if needed. For less than $25, the roof dance and ladder climbs are history. Thank you for a great design, and a very well done video.

This is a great idea. What works better for me then thin wall Schedule -20 PVC tubing is 3 inch "round" x 10 ft long aluminum down spout. Pros: it's much lighter, far more rigid for better control and low cost. Cons: it takes a bit more effort to couple the various sections together. Results: I can easily reach my first, second and third story gutters buy coupling or decoupling 10 ft downspout sections. Bonus: After vacuuming all the gutters, I securely attach my iPhone to an expandable window washing pole, then in video mode inspect all the gutters to make sure they're all perfectly clean.

You just saved my life. I took a job cleaning 2nd story gutters and have never even done them before. I was gonna be hangibg from a ladder scooping into a 5 gal bucket like a bozo. Thank you sir, gonna go huild one right now

Thanks a Todd. You just saved a tree besides my house. I don't need to worry about leaves in gutter now. Great idea!

The male /female threaded joints to for adjustment is a great idea, Should have thought of that myself being a plumber for 40 years. Great job.

This is the first cleaner that is angled so your not standing so close to the house having to look straight up which is a big problem for me this is the best way I've seen thank you for making this video

Just built this and it works great. Forget searching for other leaf suckers. This one is built to last and do its job. Thanks for the video. (Mine was 3 10" pieces and it worked just as well)

GREAT VIDEO! You inspired me to build one myself. I used the black ABS drain pipe which was much lighter than the sched 40 PVC at Home Depot. I mounted my son's cell phone (wrapped in plastic wrap so it wouldn't get wet) on the snoot and used Skype video call over wifi from his phone to my phone :) worked great! Thanks for sharing your design!

I wish I had seen this video last year. For a guy that's not supposed to be on ladders, this idea saves my bacon. Thanks for sharing.

I have a 2-story room addition WAY too far up to climb an extension ladder! I'm going to try this with my shop vac and hold it out the room addition window. It's about a 6-foot reach from there. *So much safer than climbing high up!!* Kudos, Todd!

wow first gutter cleaning video that is actually sensible and practical. Thanks!

You did it!!! This is what I was envisioning, but didn't think of PVC pipes! So awesome!

Todd, I just purchased and assembled my own Gutter Sucker per your video. The cost was right as you said, about 30 bucks. Going to give it a go later this afternoon....wish me luck. Mike

I took the HEPA filter off of my shop vac, but I wrapped the filter cage with a piece of furnace air filter to keep stuff from getting sucked through the motor. There was minimal air flow restriction and it protected the motor. Thanks for your video!

That looks like a good solution to cleaning gutters every year. I got tired of cleaning mine because they were always wet and nasty and close to the electrical lines feeding my house. So 2 years ago I installed gutter guards from Amazon and will never have to clean my gutters again. Cheers!

Thank for the video! Spent $100 on material and saved on a $350 service charge👍🏼

This Idea is awesome ,No damage to the shingles !! Safe and easy Steps !!good job

Thank you so much for sharing. I always told my children there are still awesome people willing to share their knowledge. All the best

Just found your video after climbing my ladder and doing the worst one by hand. I'm 68 y/o woman. Will definitely be trying this instead. Thanks!

I did this in 2021 with a Ridgid vac. Brother gave me a Sears kit to blow out the leaves with a blower. I didn't want to get covered in leaves so vacuuming them seemed to make sense. Great vid, thanks.

Looking at the camera attached to the device, reminds me of how terrified of heights I am. This is really a cleaver way of handling clogged gutters. My gardener wanted to charge me 250.00 US dollars to clean the gutters on my small one level ranch home. This is perfect...my gardener was not hired for the job. LOL. thanks for sharing.

Great information... especially the Go pro. Thank you for sharing.

what an awesome idea thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the insight. I have been up on my roof before, and its not too safe. I really appreciate the upload.

I'm too old for ladders now, so I'll definitely make one. (I had used a similar idea for depleting wasp-nests in my roof by slurping the workers up every day and starving the colony).

Like Ive been told, and have told others, this trade is 80% brain, 10%brawn ...... Cheers mate! Awesome configuration!

Male and female connectors are a great idea Todd. I’m almost done with my build and I was stuck on how to connect the pipes. Since it didn’t make sense to try and cement them.

To buy one with camera and monitor is about £1k so fair play to you for creating your own and it worked very well!

Oh boy, that is really really cool. Low tech and high tech mingle together

ingenious, no more calling overpriced gutter cleaners. Thanks

I have a husband … however I need this done so I will build one lol no bashing just being pro active when you own a home you actually have to maintain. If you don’t want to maintain your home “RENT”. Thanks you have inspired me Got to love PVC!!!

This worked way better than I expected, thank you!!

Awesome, this was exactly what I was looking for, thank you

Thanks for this amazing video! I build one tonight and will be trying it tomorrow. The one change I added was a male adapter at the 90 degree elbow where it would connect to a 5' section, just so it's even easier to store... I also didn't have a dremel to create the notches at the tip of the "snoot" so we'll see if I end up having issues.

I used the setup today, and it worked great. However, I would advise everyone to do this before the leaves in you gutter get too moist. I had to work a lot harder to free the debris from the gutters, because the leaves were really wet. I had to flush the system out several times with my garden hose several times before I finished the job. Thanks again.

I’ve just replaced all my guttering but will definitely be building one of these units. Thank you for the demo and information on pipe sizing. It’s a 👍🏻from the 🇬🇧

This is a better mousetrap than the one I built. use three shop vac extensions glued together with pvc cement onto the elbow sections. Then I used a 10 foot section of pvc connected to my shop vac. It still needed to get on the ladder to reach the second story. So, I will be adjusting my gizmo to meet your's. I like the addition of the male and female connectors for added strength and support. Thanks you.

Just what I was looking for. I love the female male connectors for easy storage. Thanks.

If you invested some time to cover the gutters with a mesh or screen to only let the water get in the gutters, you would never have to clean your gutters ever again. You can buy them premade or manufacture them yourself. Worth the effort!

I made one of these several years ago but I used the whole house vacuum tubing they install in the walls of homes it's thinner than schedule 40 PVC. It's available from Amazon. I had trouble with mine because I have large oak leaves that constantly plugged it up. I finally switched the vacuum from suction to blowing and I actually blow the leaves out of my gutters.

i don't know why i didn't think of this,great idear.

Awesome video! Perfect solution and perfect scripting / editing.

Your video inspired me to make a copy of yours thanks you from Ireland:)

That is such a great idea thank you for sharing. I love to try to make one

Amazing, well done. Love the GoPro construction. I think I would use a cheaper action cam, because my GoPro would definitely end up somewhere in the gutter.

Fantastic idea using the Go-pro. I’m definitely gonna build one. Regards from Australia.

Great Idea but in West Australia we have much less access to the gutter with tiles overlapping the gutters

Thanks Todd - great clip. Might give it a try.

Excellent idea and very simply explained, thanks.

Hello from Australia🇦🇺. Great video thankyou. 👍

Thanks a million! Update. Just made one and man it works like a champ. Mine is heavy due to 2 ten foot sections but hey it keeps me off a ladder or hiring a guy to do it. $45 in total saved me $75 for a gutter guy.

Thanks for the video!!! I just finished clearing out the gutter...

Thank you for helping me solve a dilemma. I have a 2nd story gutter clog that is also just over my exterior stairs to my basement. I have an aluminum extension ladder but no firm place to safely extend this (try as I have in the past) to service the gutter. I seen this video and another similar on YT but like the threaded couplers really appeals to me to break down this system into smaller pieces for storage.

I get heavy sludge. I use 3/4” pvc about 24’ long with a hook or “U” at the end that I form using a heat gun. Also using a heat gun, I pinch the end so I get a sludge busting spray. I attach a garden hose to the other end using adapters found at any hardware store.

DUDE!!!!!!!!! FLIPPING BRILLIANT!!!

I made a gutter blower, which essentially uses a leaf blower attached to pvc and flexible pipe to blow the leaves out.

Schedule 20 PVC pipe is the stuff used to put together a whole-house vacuum system. I found mine at a local electrical supply house. I also slipped a 2'-long piece of 2" ABS pipe between two 8'-long pieces, making it easier to reach my second-story gutters.

Simplest ideas are usually the best. Nice, my next project

This does work great! However, you really do want to use schedule 20 if you have a run of more than 15 feet. Not only is it heavy and almost impossible to lift the schedule 40, there's very little control. Save yourself time and money and seek out the schedule 20 if you're a two story home. If you're a one story home, the 40 will be fine.

Hey us lazy cheap guys love day dreaming this stuff! Thanks

This is brilliant. My 76yo father scales a ladder onto the roof of his 2 story house to clean his gutters. It'll be the end of him one day I'm sure. Going to make this for him!

I put one together this weekend. I also used 2" diameter pipe with two 5 foot straight sections. As matthewskarate mentioned below, pine needles don't cooperate. On regular leaves, they would go through the curved section, then through the first 5 foot section but they get stuck a few inches before exiting the second 5 foot section. The leaves were dry. I would have to disassemble the second 5 foot section and pound it on the ground to dislodge the leaves.

Great idea thank you and be careful . hello from Canada

GoPro justifies the “Gutter Sucker” justifies the GoPro...elegance in simplicity! Bravo, Todd! No dremel/grinder, drill before you cut?

The 45* elbow is a great idea.

Excellent!!! Excellent!!! Excellent!!!

This is absolutely brilliant. I am 100% going to try this.

I’m doing the same thing but using blower at bottom and plastic down spouts. Blowing is more effective in helping you get stuff out of crevices. Put tarp down below, wear cap and paper mask for the ride.

this is brilliant!

Great idea. Thanks for sharing.

Flipping genius you Are sir the camera makes it 💯👌👊

Thank you for sharing. Its detailed enough for a noob like me to understand.

Who are the 85 losers that ave this video a thumbs down? This is the least expensive and safest way to clean your gutters. Thank you Sir for sharing your technique!

This is a great solution 👍 Gonna look into this

Thanks for sharing, that’s awesome!

Very impressive! Our super gutter cannot be accessed from the ground, so we have to clean it from the roof, so I would like to figure out a way to have a Shop Vac on the ground with the hose somehow extended so that a person standing on the roof can walk the length of the roof and vacuum up the leaves.

Great idea. Will make. Appreciate it.

Great gadget, many folks could learn to use that after a few goes, magic idea to used screw couplings in the construction helps a lot for adding to or even taking away section to suit ground levels around house, also great for storage time, well done.

Great recommendations and video....especially the angled snout design.....BUT..... Sch 40 PVC is awfully heavy when building a unit like this, and you are better off with less weight using Sch 20.... used for in-home-wall vacuum systems and other areas.Available locally usually at electrical supply shops or from Amazon

To find schedule 20 or any other such material, go where the pros go: the local plumbing supply store. There are plenty of reasons pros frequently bypass the box stores. A good one will be happy to help a DIYer and keep you out of trouble. I really like the threaded couplers. That's a perfect solution

HI. It would have been kind a nice to know how high your cutters were for comparative purposes....otherwise, this video was extremely helpful.

Pretty awesome! Will definitely make one! Thank you!

This is really well executed. Some sort of a rest at ground level so that you could take some weight off might be beneficial.

love the setup...especially the go pro attachement. i made one similar but out of black ABS. Needed it a little more rigid where i have a 30ft section to do. I did run into some caking problems with some of the wet silty stuff but certainly works well....well I think so because i didnt have my gopro mounted...LOL Ver 2 is now on the way.

Super video i mean once it works thats all you want . Fantastic idea 👍👍👍

Heck yeahhhh! Almost bought a ladder. Nope!! Thank youuuu

Great job, will be building mine soon!

What kind of vacuum machine did you use? Thanks

Excellent sir, thank you!

Fantastic idea my friend. Great work!! This works super well for dry debris/when done in dry weather conditions. But caked-on wet sludge underneath is another story. I'm one of those people that actually cleans the whole inside of the gutter spotless. A bit OCD :( ;)

Very wise invention

I must live in a rainforest cause I've been doing eavestroughs for decades and its never dried leaves, just muck... sadly this would never work.

Great job buddy! Im building one too

Love this

I've been looking for a good way to clean our second story gutters. Definitely didn't enjoy the shady ladder left by the previous owners.... I like the threaded connections for breaking it apart, going to try this myself.

Great minds think alike! Before even seeing this video, I was thinking of the idea of using screw coupler adapters! :D In my case, I'm planning to use something like this but the other way around with a leaf blower. I don't think my little shop vac is strong enough. 2" diameter PVC seems to be the most 'universal' as far as fitting into gutters as well. I should probably just get a bigger shop vac at some point.

How to improve and make money. I saw a vacuum system gas power for leaf collection on the back of a enclosed pick up truck . This would usefully for added power and no need for an electric outlet

thanks for sharing, what is the height ground to gutter of your house?

Genius! Exactly what I need. Do you have the kit written out for people to buy from you?