Winter means rain, not snow, out here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Two years ago, I had installed The Silencer on all the gutter downspouts. The bad news is that these magnetic sponge pads wear out. The magnet portion is still good. It’s the sponge portion that fails over time. I think the glue that binds the sponge to the magnet finally broke down so all I was left with the magnet. Little use that does in silencing the continuous dripping sound. Fortunately, I had a few leftover Silencers since the only time that the dripping noise proves bothersome is late at night when I’m finally headed for bed and all the shops are already closed.
The next project is to save the leftover magnet from 2 years ago and glue a thicker sponge to it. I wonder if a thicker sponge might be able to completely dampen the drip, drip, dripping sound.
I never understood the Itsy Bitsy Spider song when I was a kid. Â What the heck is a waterspout? Â Nowadays, children have it easy. Â Everything is spoon-fed to them. Â You sing the spider song and see the nice colorful drawings of a rain gutter and the downspout. Â Oh, that waterspout. Â Well, it’s been raining quite a bit as of late, in contrast to last winter. Â And, because of that, I’m hearing that drip, drip, drip sound more and more often. Â Enough to actually do something about it. Â Actually, the dripping sound was so noisy that my neighbor asked about it. Â So, I head down to Orchard Supply Hardware and pick up “The Silencer.” OSH is selling them for $2.39/unit. With tax, my total cost is $2.59/unit. The Arkco website has them for $14.00/6-pack, or $2.33/unit, and this price includes sales tax, handling and shipping. Could have save $0.25/unit if I had first checked online. Basically, this product is a sponge with a magnetic backing. You can probably fabricate something like this on your own. I opened the package and placed the magnet on the lowest bend of the downspout. I don’t have any technical sensors to measure the decrease in decibels, but I can say that this product made an appreciable difference. It did not completely stop the dripping noise because water dripping on a sponge makes some noise. However, the sound level went from very obvious to barely perceptible. It’s worth the two bucks and change.
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