Avalanche! Original 500 Roof Snow Rake Review

Ice dams start when snow on the roof melts from house heat, runs down, and refreezes at the cold eave. The fix is to keep the first few feet above the gutter clear, and the problem with ordinary roof rakes is that clearing that band means pulling heavy snow down across the shingles, stroke after stroke, with your arms over your head. The Avalanche! inverts the job: you push a wheeled cutter head up under the snow, a slab separates, and it slides down the attached plastic sheet to your feet. Your arms push instead of pull, and gravity does the lifting.

The wheels matter as much as the slide. A blade rake scrapes granules off asphalt shingles every time you use it; the Avalanche!'s head rolls across them. The head cuts about 17 inches wide, and the sectional aluminum poles reach the eaves of most two-story homes from the ground — 10 to 16 feet depending on how many sections you use. In a foot of fresh snow, clearing 30 feet of eave takes a few minutes, not an aching half hour.

It isn't perfect for every roof. On a low-pitch roof the snow doesn't slide as eagerly; on a very high eave you'll want the longer heavy-duty version. And it's long and slightly awkward to store assembled. But for the common case — a two-story house, a foot of snow, and a gutter line that turns to ice every January — it's the rake that gets used, and the one that gets used is the one that prevents the ceiling stain.