Gutter Helmet by Harry Helmet Harry Gutter Helmet GHbHH installers damaged the gutter-heating coil - and the resulting winter ice buildup caused water leakage damage to our home Millersville MD

As is seemingly “normal” Gutter Helmet by Harry Helmet, the company sent unqualified, third-party contractors to install its “gutter helmet” on the gutters of my home in February of 2019 (months after the initial appointment date that they set).

Without telling me that they had done so, the installers removed the heating cables (used to melt winter ice) from the gutters and pinned them to the “gutter helmet” with metal clips. Also unknown to me at the time, this caused the GFCI electric outlet powering the heating cables to trip and cut off. On April 1, 2019 the resulting ice-buildup in the gutter over the residential section of my home caused a water leak which totaled approximately $1400.00 in ceiling and wall damage.

The installation-crew foreman was sent out to “inspect” the damage, at which time he took the opportunity to repair a glaring oversight left by his careless crew (one of whom had also refused to clean out the gutter-drain elbows as I had requested). Nevertheless, he chose to neither examine nor mention the heating-cable issue.

As American consumers have come to expect from unethical businesses, Gutter Helmet by Harry Helmet refused to take responsibility for the damage. In January of this year (2022) there was a second episode of ice and water damage in the same place on the ceiling and wall. The area of the damage in the room is located directly below the gutter outside where most of the amateurish mismanagement of the gutter-heat cable was committed. As mentioned above, I belatedly learned that both episodes were the unavoidable outcome of the GFCI power-outlet-trip issue.

Gutter Helmet by Harry Helmet has also refused to take responsibility for this second episode of water damage citing “cracked and separated sealant against the dormer.” There is no “cracked and separated sealant” on the side of the dormer that the second ‘inspector’ examined for all of thirty (30) seconds – as the video that I took reveals. And, if the leakage came from anything other than gutter-ice buildup (which the company admits its “Helmet” can cause) there would be water leakage during periods of torrential rain.

There have been no such occurrences. The Better Business Bureau Profile of Gutter Helmet by Harry Helmet reveals this tendency of irresponsibility to be the company's policy. After I complained to the Better Business Bureau, the company sent a third amateur to put the original heat cable back inside the gutter.

After realizing that the first crew had damaged the original cable, he offered to replace forty (40) feet of the cable (admitting that 40 feet of cable was all that he had with him). I reluctantly agreed to allow him to do so. After he was finished, he advised me to get some electrical tape to complete his do-it-yourself cable-splice job.

Does a professional electrician come to a job without electrical tape? And, if the company had the honorable intent to repair the cable damage that its installation contractors caused, why didn’t the worker bring enough cable to do the entire job? The inescapable conclusion is that Gutter Helmet by Harry Helmet administrators have little or no integrity. And, judging by the false/fake excuses they made to the Better Business Bureau, they have little or no regard for the truth.