Black guttering

[spruce]

We cleared the gutters of a 3 bed house this morning. In full sunshine I was unable to see the gutter contents at all with our gutter camera.
I eventually got the ladders off the van and sent the lad up to guide the process. This camera was expensive but absolute garbage. Had the gutters be white out would have been alright.

Have you guys had any better experiences with gutter cameras?

 

[P4dstar]

I haven’t got the hand to eye coordination to look at the cam screen and navigate the gutter at the same time so I bought a GoPro. Gardiners sell a fitting for it to go on the end of a pole, bought a protective case. Bobs your proverbial.

 

[spruce]

I haven’t got the hand to eye coordination to look at the cam screen and navigate the gutter at the same time so I bought a GoPro. Gardiners sell a fitting for it to go on the end of a pole, bought a protective case. Bobs your proverbial.

Can you see the contents of black guttering in the sunshine please? When its overcast, my camera works better, but when the sun is out, all I see is a black stripe.

GoPros are expensive, but if they work with your experience, then it's probably worth the investment.
The other solution is to only clear gutters on dull days.

 

[ched999uk]

Can you see the contents of black guttering in the sunshine please? When its overcast, my camera works better, but when the sun is out, all I see is a black stripe.

GoPros are expensive, but if they work with your experience, then it's probably worth the investment.
The other solution is to only clear gutters on dull days.

I assume there are no settings on the monitor, like brightness, contrast, white balance, wdr etc?

An action cam should be fine, doesn't need to be a current gopro maybe an older model with replaceable battery. Ideally one with a Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) I have a couple of action cams but I haven't tested in the conditions you have an issue with.

 

[Scrubsy]

We cleared the gutters of a 3 bed house this morning. In full sunshine I was unable to see the gutter contents at all with our gutter camera.
I eventually got the ladders off the van and sent the lad up to guide the process. This camera was expensive but absolute garbage. Had the gutters be white out would have been alright.

Have you guys had any better experiences with gutter cameras?View attachment 30711

I have used a friends camera before that looked similar to this, but you clicked a button and a few LED's lit up which made it easier to see, although I find black guttering a pain, the same as you. I made an attachment with an unger green cone, an unger clamp and a baby mirror (the sort you out on your rear windscreen when your kids are small so you can see them in your rearview mirror, if you see what I mean). I then put that on a Gardiner traditional pole tip and put it on my SLX and can see the reflection of the gutters from the ground. It works better than I thought it would and I can aim it away from the sunshine.

 

[P4dstar]

Can you see the contents of black guttering in the sunshine please? When its overcast, my camera works better, but when the sun is out, all I see is a black stripe.

GoPros are expensive, but if they work with your experience, then it's probably worth the investment.
The other solution is to only clear gutters on dull days.

The benefit of the GoPro is you can watch the video back. I’m on the Hero 8. By the look of it they’re on the Hero 13 now. My video are in 1080p So I can just watch it back on the phone and check is I have a situation such as you encountered.

I don’t save many videos but I’ve attached a couple of pictures from footage we took last summer. It was to inspect some deep commercial gutters. Done on a sunny day but as I say I can stop and zoom in. Apologies, I did try and upload a video but the file was too big and then the wrong format.

 

[spruce]

I assume there are no settings on the monitor, like brightness, contrast, white balance, wdr etc?

An action cam should be fine, doesn't need to be a current gopro maybe an older model with replaceable battery. Ideally one with a Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) I have a couple of action cams but I haven't tested in the conditions you have an issue with.

Thanks. When we discussed this before a while back, I looked for a camera with wdr but couldn't find the feature listed apart from one.
It was one of those sj's which eBay suppliers had plenty of fake copies for sale years back. You reminded me of that. So I didn't know if the camera advertised was a genuine one at £80 or not.

The GoPros didn't list that feature either when I looked.

I was hoping that someone's had experience with a camera they used that worked ok in these conditions.

 

[Chris34]

Personally I find the camera's a pita and have given up. If it's not the actual camera then it's the glare on the screen you're trying to view it on. Someone said that it's possible to get an anti glare film that you put over the screen, I've not researched it yet but that might be an option for you to consider for both the camera and the screen your viewing it on.

It might not be right but I just go off feel now. You can feel the plastic hit plastic, as long as it's clear of blockages then all the little bits that you might miss are not going to block the gutter which is essentially what were trying to achieve. If need be then I use a rear view car mirror strapped onto the underside of my wfp brush and view it from the ground.

I also now do the gutters off a platform step ladder, it's that high that it almost feels like I can touch the upper gutters with my hand. The extra height makes it easier and you get a different angle. I'd prefer to be looking down on the gutter as that would be a doddle, but I don't do standard ladders and the platforms available are not high enough.

I did one the other day, it generally went well but I've now decided I'm going to make my own nozzle tools for it. None of the ones available seem to be 100% perfect for both length and width, so I'm going to make my own which should make it a hell of a lot less hassle. I'm also going to get a bigger mirror as the car mirrors are a bit too narrow, a wider one would make it easier to see what you're trying to see.

 

[Scrubsy]

Personally I find the camera's a pita and have given up. If it's not the actual camera then it's the glare on the screen you're trying to view it on. Someone said that it's possible to get an anti glare film that you put over the screen, I've not researched it yet but that might be an option for you to consider for both the camera and the screen your viewing it on.

It might not be right but I just go off feel now. You can feel the plastic hit plastic, as long as it's clear of blockages then all the little bits that you might miss are not going to block the gutter which is essentially what were trying to achieve. If need be then I use a rear view car mirror strapped onto the underside of my wfp brush and view it from the ground.

I also now do the gutters off a platform step ladder, it's that high that it almost feels like I can touch the upper gutters with my hand. The extra height makes it easier and you get a different angle. I'd prefer to be looking down on the gutter as that would be a doddle, but I don't do standard ladders and the platforms available are not high enough.

I did one the other day, it generally went well but I've now decided I'm going to make my own nozzle tools for it. None of the ones available seem to be 100% perfect for both length and width, so I'm going to make my own which should make it a hell of a lot less hassle. I'm also going to get a bigger mirror as the car mirrors are a bit too narrow, a wider one would make it easier to see what you're trying to see.

The mirror I have is a pretty good size. I'll see if I can find the make . I like using a mirror when I can.

 

[Chris34]

The mirror I have is a pretty good size. I'll see if I can find the make . I like using a mirror when I can.

It sounds such a simple thing but it took me ages to think of a car mirror when looking for the 'perfect' mirror. I actually stumbled across the car mirror when looking in a discount shop.

They're good for a very quick inspection when quoting, especially for checking the gap from tile to gutter.