Downspouts for Gutters

Comparison Page

Updated 4 / 4 / 2012

Functionality:
There is little reason to have gutters if they will not continue to function without continual maintenance numerous times a year, since we know how most Homeowners will not bother to maintain their gutter system as needed. That's just our reality. In my travels downspouts seem to be the most common aspect to this rain management failure, yet it is one of the most overlooked details to a proper gutter system. Even if you do not like the looks of the corrugated downspouts (as shown below) the mess those other failed downspouts will cause will be far worse than the looks of a more functional downspouts, and save thousands of dollars and headaches over the next decade.

Cost saving Over the Long Run:
The safety issue for whom ever will be going up and down the ladder several hundred times a decade to clean out your gutters will save a great deal more than the most costly copper gutter system, as one accident would most likely be more costly.  The best reason is the money you will save on premature roofing and gutter repair from all the extra traffic on your roof and banging ladders against the gutters several hundred times a decade, in order to access gutters that need constant service.  That alone can cost you much more than the most expensive gutter leaf-protection products out there.  The less need to access your roof the better.

Looks:
Function is very important of course, and in most cases more advantage can be gained from just replacing the downspouts with a more functional system than getting new gutters. But face it; if it does not look good, that's still a major problem. Most of us would love to see our house designed with no downspouts at all, if that were possible.  Who wants to look at the external plumbing on their house?  We have to accept it as a necessary evil. We have prepared this web page to show you many of the options available. Although, several of these are no good, so I don't offer them as an option with my installations. Below this is an example of our custom fit downspout installation in copper, but the same can be had in aluminum.

Terminologies:
Here is a breakdown of the terms used for downspout parts to refer to. They are only examples of the corrugated rectangular downspout with rounded corners and curved connecting elbows, since these are the only types of parts we will use in painted aluminum or copper. The second photo shows a larger 3x4 No-clog outlet reduced down to a standard 2x3 downspout for improved function. You can click on these photos to get a better look.

Here's a smaller Pipe-cleat bracket on the left we use to use for downspout attachment prior to 2006, but now we use this larger Pipe-cleat on the right that's made for a 3x4 DS, but as you can see it can be used on a 2x3 DS just fine. It is also made with a thicker metal and is attached w/6 rivets, in stead of just 2.

This style has shown to be the best for looks and function available.  The corrugation not only adds to strength, but also adds a more regal decorative look.  With the soft rounded edges, they seem much more pleasing to the eye and feel to the fingers.  These downspouts are about 125% larger than the plain square downspouts described just above. The plain square downspout can fit inside these 2"x 3" corrugated downspout pipes with room to spare.

The soft curves of these elbows are quieter and far less likely to become jammed with debris.

Homeowners often ask about a larger gutter profile. I could make more money offering a larger gutter, but in stead I offer logic to remind them how if the outlet is still the same small size the larger gutter will still clog just a s quickly. This style downspout can also allow for a larger outlet size, which greatly helps to keep gutters functioning properly allowing the debris to make the transition into the downspouts.

With the larger industrial size 3"X 4" elbows at the top allows for a 2X increase in the size of these outlets.  Greatly reducing the chance of there becoming a debris blockage even more. We then use a reducer to bring it down to a standard 2"X 3" downspout to help minimizing the appearance as well as the cost.  In cases where there is little to no eaves, we will mount the reducer right under the gutter it's self.

Over the last 15 years of doing this I've found no advantage to the industrial size downspout all the way down to the ground.  LeafGuard ® hinges their warranty on those industrial size downspout, and installs them as the whole downspout only so they are able to charge the customer 3 times the price for the downspouts as well as their over priced gutter, even though they still need to use the reducer at the ground level to fit into the 3" round sewer pipes.

Even with just the standard 2"X 3" downspout, you are still much better off than other downspout options.

We attach our downspouts using thick aluminum or copper decorative pipe cleats that are attached to the back of the downspout with 6 rivets before installation.  Then they are screwed onto the siding with stainless steel #12 Phillips screws.  This make removal much easier and risk a lot less chance of damage.

Here are photos of the pipe cleat wall mount bracket and the Leaf-catchers we make

Conclusion: Best choice/value.

Here is more example of our large industrial-sized outlet option.  The picture to the right is an example of what is called a 'B' elbow.  The double 'A' offset elbows shown here are used to go around that steel pipe vent going up the siding.  We decided to drop the rain water from the main gutter section, instead of punching a hole in the gutter near the end cap. That was so the water and debris did not have to go around these two corners in the gutter. It would have made the downspout a lot shorter, but the drainage would have been much less effective.

We stock 5 times as many elbow configurations than most of the other Contractors for a better custom fit to your house, as seen here and below.

These can function OK if they are installed well, but they have numerous problem issues to the extent that I refuse to install them as well. They are quaint looking, but there are several good reasons they were made obsolete half a century ago. It is only a matter of ignorance to these issues they've begun to bring them back into fashion. As a deluxe feature no less, since they are so expensive!

Back when they first came out with these, they had not developed a more complex roll forming machine to make the corrugated downspouts yet, which we are more familiar with today. The corrugation helps to strengthen this thin sheet metal used for most all types of downspouts. It would be nice to have thicker metal used for downspouts, like with the building codes that govern the thickness of metal for gutters.  It is not even a matter of cost.  It is more about the seam that needs to be folded and sealed on the back side of the downspouts 4 layers thick.  If the sheet metal was thicker, it would be that much harder to form this seam and not crack the sheet metal from over bending it.

Here are some of the problem issues with round downspouts:

(a) they look too much like external plumbing.  Gutters and downspouts should be decorative or inconspicuous.
(b) they are mounted sticking out from the house 50% more than a rectangular downspout that handles the same volume of water which makes them more visible and dented more often.
(c) Round downspouts are made with very thin sheet-metal that is prone to easily dent, and when they do they show these dents like a sore thumb.  Much like looking at a dented up trumpet or tuba.
(d) Round downspouts are hard to install, and are not very stable with regards to secure mounting on your house. They are hard to check the vertical alignment with a level, and assemble the elbows. They are more difficult to crimp the end that needs to fit into the other pipe. Without 3 rivets for each connection, the connections are not as stable.
(e) We have had trouble with the back seam sliding and twisting the downspout, causing some odd warping.

Conclusion: expensive, tacky looking, dent too easily, and shows dents badly. Very poor choice. They go against our ethics, so we refuse to install them.

Plastic Downspouts:
The plastic gutter parts are a waste of money. Even though they will not rust they are prone to UV damage from the Sun, which causes them to have a shorter life-span than steel gutter parts.  Just like the vinyl siding we are seeing fail far short of their promises, these are a very poor value and not worth the trouble to install.

Below are photos I took just before replacement. The debris strainer would clog quickly, but when it worked as it was designed to, it would dump this junk on the ground in a nasty pile. Most of the time it would become caked with debris and make the rain water splash out onto the ground, in stead of following the downspout. If you happened to be walking under it when it releases, you are bound to get a nasty surprise. These clean-outs are too high to access for manual removal of this blockage without a ladder. Far from user friendly. You are just as well off without any gutters on your house.

In general they are: expensive, Limited colors, look bad with all the external support brackets, do not work well, highly prone to leaks, too weak to support a ladder against them, become dislocated easily, and will not last more than a decade or so.

Conclusion: Very poor choice.  They go against our ethics, so we refuse to install them.

In areas where it does not rain much rain chains seem to be much more common place. Large steel chains are normally used to guide the water to the ground onto a pile of rocks or large grate that feeds down into a French drain or proper storm drain. 

In the situation in these photos there was no good way to have mounted a downspout on the side of the house, with all the large windows of our dining room.  This large steel chain may cost even more than a copper downspouts, but many people feel it looks classy, not realizing how poorly it will work or look years later, turning rusty and covered in slimy mildew.

Even considering the nice earthy look, they don't really work well.  The chain going up through the outlet acts as a obstruction and quickly dams up the gutters, as seen in these photos.  Even if they are clean frequently, much of the water still misses the chain all together and splatters on the rocks below, as seen in just a light pour in the photo below right.

Worst of all is how it makes the chain slimy and nasty with fungus, which can be a health hazard, especially with children who think it's a fun rope swing and wind-up yank the gutters down onto their little heads.  We do sell some large link decorative copper chains that will not mildew, but they still will not channel much of the rain water.

Example of a chain problem:
We were asked by our former Mayor, Bud Clark, to evaluate a solution to the work he did on his two story house in NW Portland near Downtown, where he had installed chains to replace his downspouts.  He realized how much of the water did not follow the chain.  In order to catch most of that rain water he cut the chain about 3 'shorter so he could attached 5 gallon plastic buckets on the bottom of the chain.  They looked terrible full of gross stagnate water. They had to be suspended off the ground, since wind on the chain would push the buckets sideways and make noise dragging them from side to side. The bucket would fill and then over flow to dribble down the sides.  That standing water would become green and murky before the water would evaporate out.  I'm sure you can imagine how this looked, but can you imagine how heavy this was tugging down on the floor of the gutter?

Even without these catch buckets, these chains are a very heavy addition to the gutter and most gutters are not installed that well to handle that extra weight.  Even with the hidden hanger with a pair of stainless steel screws we use to install gutter with, it is still too much weight on the gutter.  Now imagine how heavy this would become when caked with ice in the winter time.

Conclusion: Functionally rain-chains are a terrible idea any way you slice it!  They are expensive, a health risk, and do not work as you would imagine.  They go against our ethics, so we refuse to install them.

These copper rain-funnels will keep most of the water in a controlled fall with a lot less splattering than chains shown above. Being made of 32oz solid copper and brass wire they will not mildew like steel or plastic chains.  They look rather charming and deter children from swinging on them, since there is nothing good for them to grab. Actual cups would seem like a good idea to slow down the water, but they would have dirty standing water that could become quite nasty and be a mosquito breeding ground, so these funnels have proven to be most trouble free of their kind.

We resell several different rust free designs that range from $15 a foot for the 3" wide, or $30 per foot for the fancier designs with a cute leaderhead, like the Tea Pot over Tea Cups set, or the Watering Can over Flowers set for $180.  They can even be used to focus the rain water into a standard 4" sewer pipe instead of a large storm drain.

There's also different half round design with a flat back made for mounting separately on a house's siding where there is no eaves or a set of downspout elbows above it to deliver the rain water back to the siding.  Contact us for more details and alternatives, because we are not limited to those few options, since I also specialize in fabricating original designs.  See our http://copper-by-design.com web site for more details for custom designs made to order.

The one pictured here is the Crocus Raincup design and costs only $15 per foot  installed and come in 6' lengths that can be streached out with 4 gauge copper wire S hooks.  You can see more design ideas at the Good Directions wholesale web site.  Here's a couple still shots I took in action.  You can click on the photos here to see them larger with more detail.

Conclusion: Raincups look real cute, but are a little pricy compared to aluminum DS. They can work well as long as you have sewer drain system directly under them to carry the water away from your foundation and not kill your plant fro excess watering.

This shows one style of wall mount rain-cups I've made with a 20oz copper back splash plate and 32oz copper funnels mounted with stainless steel screws:

Hidden Downspouts:
I don't happen to have pictures of this type, but I've seen cases where the downspouts were built inside the wall of the house, so all you see is the upper part of the downspout returning to the siding and going through the siding or bricks up high. I saw one house built with a series of stainless steel trays up high jetting out from the wall extending out to the gutter to catch the rain water under each outlet to divert the rain water back into the wall and funneling into the plastic sewer pipes directly.  This does not allow for an accessible debris strainer to help keep that natural debris from jamming up the storm drain pipes.  If they were to back-up (which commonly happens), this would overflow inside the wall and cause some serious damage to your house. It would be very costly to open up the wall from inside or outside to unclog it, but by the time you figure out what the problem is the damage is already very serious.

Conclusion: This is the most inconspicuous, but a terrible idea for any long term solution! I would refuse to install this kind of rain management system.