Our Projects - The Problem With Balloon Caps For Gutters

You might have seen these things before in the garden centre, a balloon cap or mushroom cap is designed to fit in to the top of the Swan neck which is the piece that connects the gutter and the downpipe. The idea is that the grill Will keep debris out of the downpipe and avoid blocked downpipes which are particularly hard to deal with. Does it do the job? Yes. Are there potential issues after installing balloon caps? Yes. Please read on…

We have been clearing gutters and cleaning gutters in Surrey and the surrounding areas for over 15 years. In that time, I have come across maybe four blocked downpipes. With that in mind I think it’s fair to say that block downpipes are a rare occurrence. The issue with using these mushroom caps in your Gutters is that although it will stop most of the debris going into your gutters it’s very easy for debris to collect around the grill which causes a blockage. It’s for this reason that I recommend in most cases to avoid using them. I would say that there is a 20% chance that a mushroom cap will cause issues after installing.

When, you should consider installing mushroom caps: 

If, for instance, your downpipe leads into a soak away which is maybe pretty old and not particularly efficient, adding more debris to that area is just going to make it even less efficient. You can imagine the soak away getting clogged up with debris as all of the mud has collected in the soak away. Given enough time the debris will slowly build up from the bottom all the way up to downpipe. If the mushroom cap placement is on a lower level gutter then it will be easy for a homeowner to maintain it themselves or at least very inexpensive for a contractor like myself to come along and deal with it every now and then.

Whenn not to consider installing guttering caps:

If the balloon cap install is at a higher elevation, then it makes it even harder for the client to deal with these issues as they arrive which could be as much as twice a year potentially, I’ve seen it happen. This issue will arise, especially quick if there is a lot of moss on the roof or lots of leaves collecting in a gutter which will decay and turn to debris.

Just to conclude: (as we will cover in another blog) dealing with a blocked downpipe isn’t particularly easy but then it’s quite a rare occurrence and on the hole I believe that installing balloon caps can create more issues than it’s trying to solve. 

Thank you for spending the time and getting to the end of my blog.