Autumn Oak Rain Chain

Held Off Too Long

We have about a 4' section of gutter that never had a downspout on it. The drop is just over 10' to the entry sidewalk near the front door. A big downspout would be unattractive coming down the front of the house and always wondered about these. Just got a new roof and gutters, thanks to hail and decided to order this and the installation kit. I had the kit installed by the gutter installer, so fits just right. With 10' of this Autumn Oak rain chain, there is plenty to see and is right there when you walk up to the house. It is attractive, seems to be sturdy and well made. The only issue I noticed was in having to remove the two hanger thumbscrews on each pot. They are small and I made sure I did the assembly indoors for less chance of loosing any. It went smoothly until I ran across one that didn't seem to want to come off. I got needle nose pliers and removed it, but then it would not screw back on as there were no threads. Evidently it was cross threaded originally and now the threads were gone. There were only two spares provided and I used one with success. I ran across several others that didn't want to come off with hand pressure, but I did not make the same mistake and just left them. Luckily the other side came off and I was able to pull the hanger out enough to attach and then reconnect them. Thus far, we are happy with this purchase. They seem solid, attractive and should get a workout in the heavy rains we get in N.E. Texas. Shipping was quicker than the timeframe provided and each cup is indivitually wrapped and then well packaged. Definitely recommend and assume the other styles are just as well made.

Acorn cup rain chain, the real deal about it.

Nutshell transaction was good & simple. To the point. I had a large space to fill, I wanted a rain chain that filled the space and looked how I wanted it to. This is a premium rain chain well constructed & looks good to my eyes. Indeed high quality. The leaves are soldered on & look good to me. The fat part of acorn is just under 4", however with the rolled top the true opening is 2-3/4". Under very heavy water flow you will get some splash out. Like full flow of garden hose. Under heavy flow almost all chains will splash some. My chain doesn't take much water so there is basically no splash. The cups come in a box stacked together, not connected. You must connect all the cups. The rolled top edge means the top wire must be bent together to free an end to attach to next cup. This takes a bit of muscle power. Then bend wire back through hole. That's a bit harder. Pliers are helpful if your fingers are not strong enough. However, the very good looks of the chain make all the effort worth it. I needed '10 so bought extra cups. The nuts on ends of wires are supposed to be Loctited with 242. I just snugged them well with pliers. I doubt they'll work loose. Now this is important... My gutters & downspouts drop are aluminum. If copper is in contact with aluminum it corrodes the aluminum quickly. So I bent top hanger hook from 1/4" aluminum round bar from Ace Hardware. it bends easy. I put several wraps of tape on the V bend of hanger, then custom bent a "chain link" to attach the aluminum hanger in gutter to top wire of top cup. This allowed me to custom bend chain link to just the right length. I made link from top wire from a spare cup as I actually needed 9.5' so had spare cup. The silver aluminum drop for old down spout looked ugly with the copper cups. I didn't want to cut spout off as then water runs horizontal along bottom of gutter. I watched neighbors chain do that. I put 5 layers of electrician's tape over the spout. The got thinnest copper sheet from hobby metals at Ace Hardware. Heated it red hot over gas stove top( Propane torch works well too) & dropped in pail of water to remove black scale. This makes copper very soft. I made template from copy paper wrapped around spout & cut to size. Cut copper to size & wrapped around spout over the tape such no copper to aluminum contact & secured with one small stainless steel screw. The soft copper conforms to spout effortlessly. I wanted top cup closer to spout, so I rebent top wire of top cup to bring it closer. Cut off excess wire. Drilled nut & crimped the nut to the cut wire end. The shape of cups is such the nuts are actually only decorative. Wire cannot fall out. The soil under chain has very good drainage so I didn't need bowl or drain pad. I took 16" of 3/4 copper pipe & made stake. flattened end & drilled 1/4" (no need to flatten end), secured with zip tie with some wiggle room. I had a vision of what I wanted. The cheapo small cups I'd seen at garden centers looked just that, cheapo & too small. End of day all this work paid off. I could not be more happy with the outcome. My wife saw add for these acorns on face book. Looks like nutshell is only seller. The price is in line with high quality large cup rain chains. It is some work to assemble but I most strongly recommend this chain. Don

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