Metal Gutter Guards Make Gutter Ice Problems - Video

 

Video Title: Metal Gutter Guards Make Ice Dams and Are First To Freeze:

Description:  Metal is thermally conductive therefore it is the first area on the roof to freeze. Metal gutter guards in the northern climates can cause ice dams and ice problems because metal gutter screens and metal gutter helmets and toppers are the first to freeze therefore they can cause the beginnings of roof ice problems. Plastic gutter protection devices are not thermally conductive like metal therefore they do not freeze first.  Once a gutter guard, gutter screen or gutter mesh freezes over, it becomes like a ramp so nothing can enter the gutter.  Under such frozen over conditions, it is as if there were no gutter at all.

Transcription: All right, I want to talk about "the first to freeze zone". Here we are in the Northeast United States where the winters are cold of course and there are also warm days, so you don't want to create the first area to freeze with a metal gutter guard. I mean the roof is important, we don't want a sacrifice roof performance at all, and metal gutter guards are the first to freeze when it's raining or it's wet and it's getting cold. They are going to get cold first because the metal is very conductive of temperature. And it's got air flow, so the rain hits it and all of a sudden, this becomes a sheet of ice and now the rest of that water coming down can back up under the shingles. So whether it's a metal gutter guard, gutter cover or a metal screen, they create the first to freeze area on the roof.