Home Maintenance Marvel

The Gutter Cleaner began its evolution in 1989 when I first began my window and gutter cleaning business. After cleaning a few gutters, I realized I needed something to access certain sections of gutters on homes that were difficult to reach. Many new homes do not have simple traditional roof lines. The architectural designs of newer homes can be summed up in one word: complicated. What this means is that gutters are at many different levels. To complicate matters even more, many newer homes have very steep roofs that necessitate many ladder movements along the gutter to clean out all of the debris.

Being an inventive sort of guy, I first affixed a plastic kitchen spoon to an extension pole to see if that would solve some of the problems I was experiencing. I needed something that would allow me to pull debris back toward me for removal. Amazingly enough, the kitchen spoon seemed to work relatively well, except for the stiffness. It was way too soft, and when confronted with compacted debris, it had the tendency to turn itself inside out. Otherwise it worked relatively well. The only drawback besides the stiffness was that it was difficult to remove from the extension pole, which was needed for other tasks. Months down the road, I had the idea of incorporating a paint roller handle with a threaded end to the kitchen spoon. By attaching the modified kitchen spoon to the threaded paint roller handle, I then had a tool that was easily attached and removed. This was very convenient as extension poles have a standardized threaded end.

A year probably went by with me using the new improved easily attached tool, before I realized I could not live with the makeshift tool I had patched together. I had done so many gutter cleanings on homes that demanded something of the nature I had developed that it became necessary in my work. Plus it made the jobs so much easier, faster and safer. It was at this time that we started researching the possibility of manufacturing this gutter cleaning marvel. This was essentially the birth of Rain City Tool Designs. We knew we had a versatile home maintenance item that every homeowner needed!

From prototype to finished product took over two years. We applied for a design patent and received it on July 4th, 1994.

Michael Haynes