Customer Reviews

AIRALEAVE: Flex Downspout & Gutter Cleaner. AIRALEAVE is a Great Gift for a loved one! Featured on QVC & DIYNETWORK'S Cool Tools. Get FREE U.S. SHIPPING when you order Today!

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I own a large 2 story house so the 2 upper gutters (front and rear of house) have downspouts about 25 foot high. Today I had a complete clog on the back gutter and hooked up the Airaleave and using an 12 amp electric leaf blower on high speed (230 mph) blew the clog all the way out of the gutter like a volcanic eruption and released a full gutter of water down the downspout.

If your gutter is overflowing because the downspout opening is blocked with loose debris, this product will do the trick. I have a problem downspout on a gutter which is about 2-1/2 stories above the ground, which causes the gutter to overflow into my basement stairwell - and sometimes into my basement. I have blown this downspout open on several occasions with the AIRALEAVE and my gas-powered leaf blower.

(The other reviewers who used electric leaf blowers for the task scare me. If there is a lot of water sitting in the blocked gutter, you will get a gusher of water out the downspout when the blockage is blown free.)

If your overflowing gutter is blocked someplace other than at the downspout, this device won't solve that problem. My aforementioned problem gutter also tends to accumulate tree debris which forms dams at the gutter nail ferrules. Other means are necessary to deal with that problem. The AIRALEAVE will only blow away what's directly above the downspout opening.

The tighter the fit the leaf blower makes with the conical end of the AIRALEAVE, the better luck you'll have with this device. My leaf blower thankfully came with a round attachment which makes a very snug fit with the AIRALEAVE cone. I'm frankly amazed that another reviewer was able to get this to work with a rectangular wand.

As other reviewers have noted, when using this device, please remember that what goes up (yucky leaves, water, etc. being blown up and out of the downspout) must come down (probably on you as you stand there holding a leaf blower jammed into the end of the AIRALEAVE). A hat, safety glasses, and clothes you don't mind getting dirty are recommended.

As another reviewer noted, it does seem like a lot of money to spend on a piece of molded plastic. But it is a well-made piece of molded plastic, and it has worked for me.

does as advertised, i use it with an electric blower.

be sure to wear safety glasses and grungy work clothes when using this product. the snowstorm of gutter debris will cover you and you don't want any of that fetid junk in your eyes.

I recieved the product on time. But when I tried to use it on my down spout it simply did not work. It didn't fit tightly enough in the spout and the air escaped around the sides and never developed enough power to blow any leave clogs out of the gutter. Total waste of my time and money

** short version: **
I ordered the AIRALEAVE this past summer due to pine-needle build-up in my gutters and in particular 1 specific section of gutter full of water due to an upper downspout that was blocked and not reachable by my 21ft ladder. Unfortunately, the AIRALEAVE was a wasted purchase as despite its claim of having a 'universal blower end', the AIRALEAVE is incompatible with Toro leaf blowers such as the one I own as they don't have a round nozzle end or main body output shaft.

The product certainly has potential but I'm writing this review as a warning for potential buyers of the AIRALEAVE to check what shape their blower's nozzle and/or nozzle connector on the main body are, before ordering. The AIRALEAVE website states the product makes "a great gift" -- but if the person you're buying it for has a Toro leaf blower (or another possibly incompatible make), it'll be a BAD gift. And of course, you don't want that.

** In detail: **
I'd already attempted and failed to flush the gutter blockage with a garden hose & spray from further along (where my ladder could reach; the actual downspout was around a corner, out of sight), and had looked into professional gutter cleaning services($$$$), ladder rental($$$.. esp as I don't have a roof-rack), and other possible gutter cleaning products($$-$$$), so when I saw the AIRALEAVE and 'universal' leaf blower compatibility claim and its low $9.95 price here on Amazon, I figured as it was the cheapest potential solution, it was worth trying first.

The AIRALEAVE arrived about a week and a half after ordering, and I have to say I was dismayed to see that the actual shipping cost from PA to Canada was just $4.03 -- I'd paid $13.95 in s&h ('ouch', that's downright nasty!).

As I didn't want to risk blasting wet mucky debris out from my gutter all over my nearby neighbour's windows/wall, I held off using the AIRALEAVE until most of the water in my gutter had evaporated, which due to a string of summer thunderstorms, meant I had to wait about 5 or 6 weeks. The day finally came and I headed out to the garage, opened up the AIRALEAVE box, read the note inside about ensuring I wore the included (and quite nice, and appreciated) 'free' safety glasses, put them on, and grab my Toro Ultra 3-in-1 Blower/Vac.

Once I had both the Toro & the AIRALEAVE in my hands, I realized that WHILE THE AIRALEAVE HAS A LARGE *ROUND*-SHAPED INPUT HOLE (that is, the hole in which one inserts the blower's nozzle/the nozzle connector shaft on the main body if using with the nozzle removed), TORO BLOWERS HAVE A 'FLAT-OVAL' NOZZLE END AND A RECTANGULAR-SHAPED MAIN-BODY OUTPUT SHAFT--MEANING THAT IN EITHER CONFIGURATION, WAY TOO MUCH AIR ESCAPES FOR THE AIRALEAVE TO WORK PROPERLY. THE AIRALEAVE IS THEREFORE INCOMPATIBLE WITH TORO BLOWERS.

I even went to a few local hardware stores to check whether it was just my 2 or 3 year-old 'Ultra' that had that shaped nozzle/body output shaft design, but no, it was *ALL* Toros that I saw.

I don't know if there are any other makes that aren't compatible, but surely AIRALEAVE is aware of this issue with Toro blowers. Their website (and the Amazon text) says that the product is "universal" - but it's clearly not. Toro is far from a nobody in the yard cleanup industry, so the lack of clarification is rather inexcusable. How about it, AIRALEAVE, can you update your site and the Amazon listing to say what makes/models your product is and isn't compatible with, or design an adapter or even an alternate model specifically for Toro owners?

I tried flipping the AIRALEAVE around, to see if the rectangular end might fit the Toro with me squishing the round end as square (or rather: rectangular) as possible around my drain pipe.. but no, that didn't work either. I hate to do it, but I've got to give the AIRALEAVE 1-star out of 5 - it's of absolutely no use to me.

So, I came up with a simple solution - and one that I should have probably tried much earlier, before even ordering the thing: I unscrewed the lower section of drain pipe (the connection was about 4ft up and held on by 1 screw) and with the Toro blower's nozzle removed from the unit, shoved the output shaft right up inside my drain pipe and turned on the blower. SUCCESS! Muddy pine-needles and leaves shot up out of the gutter above me! I went back up my ladder with my hose pipe and sprayed into the gutter--at long last, the water drained out of the gutter and down the pipe!! WITHOUT THE USE OF THE AIRALEAVE.

I was lucky though - looking at some of my other pipes, the same thing would NOT have been possible because they were all 1-piece pipes and exited too close to the ground to get the blower up underneath.

I would have returned the AIRALEAVE but Amazon's (generous) 30-day return window had already passed (so lesson for you reading: buy it, try it and return it (if necessary) right away). Hopefully I can find someone local this Fall to sell it to -- I'll just be sure to make them do a 'test fit' with their blower before buying it.

It is really such a simple device that really works. I used it on my 2 story gutters and it did blow debris out of the gutter. Of course, this won't clean the gutter itself, but it will help keep them open. It's so easy to use you might as well blow out the gutters every time you bring the blower out.

My only concern would be for the person trying to blow out a clogged gutter with water still in them. The water has to go somewhere, and into your leaf blower seems to be where it's headed. potential for a shock for sure.

This is a good idea and it might work if your downspout is large enough to accommodate the cleaner. My downspout is not large enough. I was able to collapse the tip enough to shove it inside the downspout but it leaked so much air around it that it wasn't effective. If they redesigned this it would be great. As is...not so great!

It worked okay but not great. It opened up 2 lightly plugged downspouts but could not unplug 2 others. Also, this is a good example of a product that cures the symptoms but not the cause. Sure it can unplug (some) downspout clogs, but unless you get up there and clean out the gutters, the downspouts will just clog again.

Sure beats trying to clean a downspout by hand. Leaves shot 5-10 feet out the top of a two story downspout. Just make sure you have a good grip on everything while using it.

I used this on a gutter I couldn't get to without crawling over a roof. It cleared it out even thought it was full of water. It doesn't always prevent re-clogging but its so easy to use it's not a significant problem