The Best Way to Stop Leaves Blocking Drains

Some of the best ways to stop leaves blocking drains and moss coming down the down the downpipe. No ladders required!

Living in a leafy area is beautiful and good for the soul. An opportunity to do a little Shinrin-yoku or "forest-bathing" is always a good idea. The only downside we can think of is perhaps in Autumn when leaves cause problems blocking drains, guttering, downpipes and soakaway crates.

Blocked drains can be expensive, difficult to fix, and can even lead to flooding.

Fitting leaf guards at the height of your roof guttering can be problematic even on bungalows. You need a good sized ladder, to feel comfortable standing and working at height, and of course you can't see that the downpipe is blocked until water is flowing over the sides.

We have three downpipe leaf filters that work excellently and are easily installed at a convenient height - no more standing on ladders to reach the guttering!

Downpipe Leaf Catcher

The simplest design, the Leaf Catcher from 3P Technik traps leaves and other debris that have travelled down your downpipe before they enter your drains. It comes complete with adapters to suit 65mm square downpipes and 68mm, 80mm and 100mm round downpipes .

It collects leaves, moss, twigs and other debris in a small basket that has a coarse filter incorportated into it. You simply scoop the debris out from time to time. Designed for light to medium leaf fall.

This device is popular where people want to filter out leaves, moss, twigs and other larger particles before underground pipework, drains to guard against blockages. Can also be installed before waterbutts that are fed from directly into the top of the water butt from the downpipe (like the Wall Mounted Waterbutt), so that sludge doesn't build up at the bottom of the water storage tank.

Once cut, the downpipe simply hangs into the Catcher basket, clipping onto the basket's pre-cut positions.

Note: The adaptor it is round not square. When using with a square downpipe, the round adaptor simply slots into your square downpipe, there will be gaps in the corners, but that will not effect the water flowing into the downpipe.

Available in Black, Grey and Brown to suit the colour of your downpipe.

View the Downpipe Leaf Catcher in detail >>

Leaf Catcher Reviews

Downpipe Leaf Separator

A very simply designed downpipe Leaf Separator. The coarse filter in the Leaf Separator stops leaves, twigs, moss and other debris like feathers from going into your home drains.

The leaf separator is designed to simply and efficiently separate and then eject leaves from the water passing down the downpipe.

The Leaf Separator discharges leaves from the front while allowing rainwater to pass into the downpipe as usual. This Scandinavian designed product is particularly recommended for houses which experience heavy leaf fall. It can be a real cost-saver especially where rainwater is discharged into undergound drainage systems or to a soakaway, which would otherwise block over time and need costly refurbishment.

This leaf guard can be installed at any suitable height to allow for the discharged leaves, moss and twigs.

This is not a formal filter for rainwater harvesting systems, however, it is intended to protect downstream drains, pipework, ponds, or soakaways from blocking up with leaves etc, or can be used as a simple pre-filter. If a fine filter is required instead, or in conjunction, then do have a look at the superb 3P Filter Collector with Universal Link Kit (which is used to connect downpipes to water butts) or the 3P Rainus Filter (below).

Like the Leaf Catcher, it comes complete with adapters to suit 65mm square downpipes and 68mm, 80mm and 100mm round downpipes. It is available in Grey and Brown.

View the Downpipe Leaf Separator in detail >>

Leaf Separator Reviews

Downpipe Fine Filter

The Rainus Downpipe Filter is ideal for protecting underground drains, pipes, gulleys and soakaways from blocking up. It is also perfect for downpipes that feed rainwater to fish ponds and water features, as well as underground rainwater tanks. It can be easily retro-fitted and is ideal in situations where there is no space to install a below ground filter, or to convert an existing septic tank or cess pool for clean water storage.

No more blocked soakways, the Rainus can save thousands of pounds.

The Rainus has a stainless steel filter mesh (removeable for occasional cleaning) - mesh size 0.7mm x 1.7mm.

You can connect it up to a max roof area of 90m2.

It is a relatively large unit 505mm high x 170mm wide x 220mm deep. However it needs very little space behind it (from the back of the filter to the wall) as all the "filtering" parts are at the front of the unit.

Rainus Filter - How it works

1.The Rainwater´s incoming flow is slowed by baffles in the upper filter housing.

2. Rainwater is then calmed in a small sump.

3. Water then weirs over the sump lip, and is distributed evenly across the Primary Cascade slats - the first cleaning step.

4. The Primary Cascade filters out any large or coarse particles, such as leaves, feathers, twigs and moss.

5. Below and behind the Primary Cascade is the finer Secondary Filter made of specialised Stainless Steel Mesh.

6. Both fine and coarse particles are ejected out of the front of the filter.

7. Cleaned rainwater flows down out of the filter outlet, back into the downpipe, to a storage tank, or to the point of use or disposal system.

The Rainus can be installed on 68mm, 80mm, 90mm and 100mm round downpipes and 65mm square downpipes. It does not fit 110mm downpipes (4 inch). It is available in Black, Grey and Brown to suit your downpipe.

View the Rainus Downpipe Fine Filter in detail >>

Top tip

We recommend you purchase an extra downpipe wall bracket or two before you install any of the downpipe leaf catchers and filters. Depending on where your downpipe is currently attached to your wall, it will help to keep the downpipe in position above or below the downpipe filter.