In past years when it was time to clean out the rain gutters, we would usually either grab a latter and climb up to the gutters to clean them out by hand, or drag a backpack leaf blower along up on the roof to try to blow the leaves and debris out. Neither of these methods were very appealing or the safest, but it would get the job done. There were always people that would suggest using a gutter kit with a gas-powered hand-held leaf blower as an easier and safer solution, but that just wasn’t that appealing either. Sure, standing on the ground would be better than standing on a ladder or on the roof. But there weren’t many other positives to that method. Then you have the negatives like the blower's exhaust blowing in your face the entire time, the stuff blowing out of the gutters and falling down on you, and most gutter kits don’t seem to give you enough extra reach to make them worth it.
This year though I knew I should take a different approach to gutter cleaning in a few locations. One place that I knew I should try something else was the roof of our garage where we noticed a leak during a heavy rain storm. Last thing I need to do is walk around up there with a backpack leaf blower making things worse. And there really isn't a way to set up a ladder and be able to reach all parts of the rain gutter from a ladder. I thought maybe it was time to reconsider the idea of using some type of gutter kit with one of our leaf blowers. But by this point we had already sold or gave away the last few gas-powered handheld leaf blowers we had because they just weren't used anymore. Between our battery powered handheld leaf blowers and large gas-powered backpack blowers the gas-powered handheld units became obsolete. The options were further narrowed down because there is not a gutter kit available for any of our backpack leaf blowers or the Husqvarna battery powered leaf blowers we own. So that left me with our Ego LB5300 as the lone possibility to attach a gutter cleaning kit to.
The rain gutter kit from Ego, SKU # AGC1000, was available at our local Ego dealer for $44.99. Pricewise it was right in line with the rain gutter kits from Husqvarna, Echo, and Stihl for their gas-powered blowers. The box that the AGC1000 comes in says that the total length of the piping is close 8.3 feet which again is very close to that of the kits for the gas-powered units. And when looking at the box that this kit from Ego comes in you will find a list of their leaf blowers that this kit will work with. It will work with any of their blowers rated over 500 CFM. What’s good about that is that our LB5300 is the least powerful model of all the models this will work with and if we purchased a more powerful Ego handheld blower the rain gutter kit would still work with it.
The first rain gutter we tried this out on it about 11 feet from the ground to the rain gutter so I knew that this kit would be long enough to reach the rain gutter while still being able to stand out of the way of the falling wet leaves and other debris. The elbow part of the extension pipe set up can be rotated to be used at different angles which was nice because it helped with holding the blower at an angle and still being able to get the air from the blower aimed into the rain gutter. The Ego kit has 4 straight pipes that thread together so if you wanted to use it for a rain gutter that wasn’t as high up as ours you could easily take a section or 2 of the pipes out to shorten it up and give you a bit better control when maneuvering the blower. After getting everything assembled and putting this setup to work, I was surprised at how well it was shooting the soggy leaves and dirt up out of the rain gutter! We have tall pine trees next to the garage, maple trees in front of the garage, more trees in the back, and this gutter had not been cleaned in well over a year and the Ego LB5300 with the AGC1000 rain gutter kit worked just as well as using a backpack blower from the roof or standing on a ladder and cleaning them out by hand.
After using the Ego LB5300 blower with the AGC gutter kit on multiple gutters we were definitely pleased with the results. Here are a few benefits of using this blower and gutter kit that we noticed
Very easy to use! The LB5300 blower itself is easy to use since it is battery powered and the gutter kit pipes are easy to attach to the blower.
No exhaust fumes. If you were holding a gas-powered leaf lower above the waist it wouldn’t take long for you to notice the constant smell of exhaust.
This kit is easy to store away because the sections of pipe are short.
The LB5300 worked great even at the maximum length of the rain gutter kit, so one of Ego’s higher CFM blowers (LB5800, LB6150, LB6500, etc) would probably do the job faster since they would be pushing more air through the pipe.
If you use a bigger battery than the 2.5 Ah battery that comes with the LB5300 in the LB5302 kit the extra weight of the larger battery will help balance out the weight of the gutter kit piping. (A shoulder strap (AP1500) would also help balance it to)
The LB5300 leaf blower is available as a bare tool (leaf blower only), or it can be purchased as a part of the LB5302 kit, or in the ST2102LB kit. The LB5302 kit comes with the LB5300 blower, charger, and 2.5 Ah battery. The LB5302 kit is definitely the better value between those 3 options. The current cost of the LB5302 kit is $179.99 and $44.99 for the AGC1000 gutter kit. When you break down the cost for this blower/gutter kit combination it’s a very good investment for anyone with trees around their home that would like to clean their own gutters. The LB5300 has a 5 year warranty, the battery and charger each have a 3 year warranty. If you break down the $224.98 that it costs for the LB5302 kit and AGC1000 gutter kit just over the 3 years that the battery is under warranty, that comes out to $75/year. If you clean out your gutters in the spring and in the fall that’s a cost of $37.50 per gutter cleaning! A gas-powered blower and gutter kit will cost close to the same price, but becomes more expensive when you add in the cost of gas and 2 cycle oil every time you use it and annual maintenance (Air filter, spark plug, fuel filter, etc) which the Ego LB5300 does not require. And you would probably have a VERY hard time finding someone to come out and clean your gutters for you for the low cost of $37.50 per cleaning. Now I know this is not a feasible method for everyone reading this, but it is definitely something to be considered for all of you that are looking to save money, or are into DIY home repairs and maintenance, or anyone looking to get more use out of your Ego battery power leaf blower.
