Apparently this is how well my life is going. I am looking at needing to pull my downspouts as my current ones are full of pine needles. I was thinking covered gutters but then I saw rain chains and read that they won't clog obviously but still get water away from the house. Has anyone tried these and how do they work if so? We don't typically get downpours as much as just continuous light rain.

No thanks.

Our downspouts kick out about three feet, to get the water away from the walls/foundations. Don't see how rain chains would accomplish that.

Down spouts typically have a couple of rivets holding them. Drill them and then clean the tubes and put them back up and use pop-rivits and be done.

A lost of time the debris gets packed and breaks down forming a plug that cannot be snaked, so the rivit remove and replace is pretty simple. (Unless it's a two story house).

I have done half dozen downspouts around the house in about 2 hours with hose, drill and pop-rivit tool. Less than $50.

I have used rain chains with the gutter splash blocks at my daughter's house and they work great ... but she has 2-foot overhangs so getting the water away from the house is easy.

My house has 1-foot overhangs so use downspouts with extensions and wire baskets at the gutter.

Sigmonkey is correct.

If you want to go with rain chains you could buy the cement things that direct water away from the house. They typically are used at the end of the downspout anyway.

Put your leaf blower in the bottom of the drain spouts and blast them out. Works great, but the clump of crap will quickly land on your head so beware.