Ever since I bought my house, the downspout extenders that conveyed and the one I had to replace because Isabel took it away have always bothered me a bit. Here are pictures of those to be replaced: old gutter #1, old gutter #2, and old gutter #3. Not only do they look ugly, but they also kill the grass and are annoying to mow around. I cannot remember where I first heard of Rainguard Automatic Downspout Extensions be it some random web advertisement or an infomercial on TV, but when I saw I could get three of the 4′ variety for $15 I figured I had wasted more money on much less.

Packaging:Here are the Rainguard just out of the box. The packaging is fairly utilitarian, here are close-ups of the front of package and the back of package. Next we have Rainguard just out of the package. Not much to it just the downspout extension itself, the foam that adheres to the downspout itself and the large zip tie to hold it in place. The zip-tie was concealed inside the Rainguard so well it took me about five minutes to figure out where it was.

Installation: Installation was quite simple. After removing the old downspout extenders, first afix the foam to the downspout, then slide the Rainguard over the downspout and foam and finally zip-tie it on. The only minor difficulty was getting the Rainguard in behind the downspout and foam given how close these items are to the house, but overall the process was quite easy.

Conclusions: I have had my Rainguards installed since June. They do as good a job as my old extenders did of keeping the water away from my foundation. Here is the Rainguard in action earlier today in a moderately heavy rain. Note the water coming out of the far left holes. In a heavier down pour, Rainguard opens up all the way to reveal a roughly 2″ x 4″ oval hole to allow for quicker water escape. I have only seen it rain hard enough once for that to happen. In conclusion, if you are unsatisfied with your current downspouts, give the Rainguard Automatic Downspout Extensions a try.

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