Part of our series of posts where we discuss gutter guard tests.

Alex Higginbotham, MasterShield’s inventor, shot a telling video to discuss the importance of testing for the impact of oil in gutter guard tests.

Higginbotham Gutter Guard Tests Push Products on Real Failing Points

Gutter guard tests often use pieces of product right out of the box in perfect condition. Needless to say, they perform well in most water and debris tests because they haven't been subjected to the elements that will impact their performance over time.

As you'll see as his future videos get posted, Alex Higginbotham tests for water and debris as well, but then goes several steps beyond this.

As Higginbotham teaches, water and debris gutter guard tests don't address the primary reason gutter guards fail in the first place. The reason is roof oils, which coat a gutter guard with their residue. This attracts the graphite that also leaches from shingles, along with pollen, silt and other microscopic debris. The coating on the gutter guard goes from oily to sludge-like. And it's typically this combination that impacts a gutter guard's ability to take water and shed debris.

MasterShield performs very well in gutter guard oil tests with oils. While MasterShield is not a silver bullet (we're a gutter guard after all and we get put into some truly head-scratching situations), our affiliation with Alex Higginbotham means that we've build more self-cleaning, oil-controlling features into our product than our competitors have or even know to do. You won't find any of them mentioning it (well, maybe after the Higginbotham test gets better known you will) because they don't know about it or don't want you to know about it.

Higginbotham first mentioned the impact of oils in his first patent application more than 10 years ago, inventing the first ever micro mesh with self cleaning properties to combat the problem. Since then, he's continued to consider how oil, tar, moss, algae will affect self-cleaning micromesh gutter guards and continuously strives to make further advances to improve its performance.

You may not know it, but copycat designs put the onus of dealing with a clogged filter on the homeowner. MasterShield knows how to address situations where the filter needs some spot cleaning, which it may. But you can rest assured that as Alex Higginbotham continues to make advancements in the field, you'll find those improvements in MasterShield, including any improvements in our ability to self-clean from the top problem to plague gutter guards - oil.

Alex Higginbotham performs gutter guard tests with products that you'll find right in your own kitchen to simulate roof oils, tree sap and other organics. To see how MasterShield performed when tested with oil, honey and syrup, click here.