Cleaning gutters of accumulated debris is necessary to insure that the gutters function property. Cleaning the gutter when it is in its normal upright position is difficult. Manually cleaning the gutter by climbing on the roof of a building presents a safety risk for the individual as well as potential damage to the roof. It is not easy to clean the gutter from the ground because of accessibility and possible damage to the gutter structure. Inverting the gutter to dump the accumulated debris overcomes these problems. Prior art devices, for example, Deason--U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,292 and Faye--U.S. Pat. No. 4,309,792 provide means for inverting gutters. These known prior art devices invert the gutter by rotating a modified gutter having a pivot mechanism about a pivoting point on a special bracket assembly horizontally extending away from the vertical mounting wall. The gutter is rotated less than 180 degrees to invert the gutter to empty accumulated debris. However, this tends to dump the debris against the mounting wall and deface its surface.
Furthermore, if a gutter needs replacing, the special gutter with pivot mechanism need be custom built at high expense. It is thus highly desirable to mount standard gutter assemblies, to facilitate replacement and repair.
In addition, latches afforded in the prior art for pivotable gutters have not provided positive latching and dumping mechanisms that could be easily manipulated from ground level. Thus, it may be necessary to climb up to the gutter height to release the latching mechanism and pivot the gutter. Also, the latches may not be of the locking type which avoid accidental pivoting of the gutter when not planned.
Thus, it is an objective of this invention to provide improved pivotable gutter assemblies resolving the foregoing prior art deficiencies. Other objects, features and advantages are found throughout the following description, drawings and claims.