I wrote about the Looj, the gutter cleaning robot from the makers of of the Roomba, about a year ago. How can you not get excited about a gutter cleaning robot?
I was waiting for it to show up at the local Lowe’s so could look at it hands-on before I bought it, but fall was upon me once again and i had gutters to clean.
I found it for $99 at Amazon with free shipping. Amazon has a great and simple return policy so I went for it. It showed up in a pretty bug box and I unpacked it with great anticipation. The unit is pretty simple – a battery pack (NiCad, interestingly), a rubber auger attachment, a remote that snaps onto the main body, and a charger. It also comes with a belt holster if you want to really geek out. The charging cycle before use is quite long so I charged it overnight and figured my son and I could give it a go the next morning.
I have an older house, circa 1966, although the separate garage was re-built in 1990 after a fire. My first stop was the garage, which is built into a hill, so it’s very easy to set the Looj into the gutter toward the back and make any adjustments. I kept in mind one of the comments on Amazon - “make sure you keep your mouth closed when you start it” – yuck! The Looj settled nicely into the gutter, which had a good layer of rotting pine needles in it. It has two treads on the bottom and using the remote you can go forward and back, and adjust the direction of the auger.
Two things that drive the effectiveness of the Looj:
- Gutter bracket height – the Looj is very low profile (2.25”) but if your brackets are bent or obstructed then you’ll have a problem here.
- Gutter width – iRobot now has a template on their site for you to measure yourself, but the Looj will only work if the flat bottom part of your gutter is at least 3.25” wide.
I didn’t have a problem on the garage – the Looj worked fine. It made a tremendous racket and mess but that was fun for both of us. It gave my car a good splatter. You have to go back and forth to really get the stuff out but it does work.
I wasn’t so lucky on the main house with item #2. These still had older gutters and they didn’t have the width I needed. The Looj didn’t sit flat on the bottom and therefore didn’t have the traction it needed. If it’s not sitting flat it will also turn over in the gutter. If I couldn’t use it on my house I couldn’t keep it.
A new 22’ fiberglass ladder will run you over $200. Plus, it’s dangerous. If your gutters are wide enough I would definitely get a Looj and give it a go. If it doesn’t work for you then the Amazon.com return policy is easy – just repack, slap on a return label and you’re done. Plus, it’s a fun thing to do with your kid!
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