Ladder-Max Ladder Stabilizer Review

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So far I’ve spent my summer starting a bunch of exterior home improvement projects around the house which all, in one form or another, seem to require me to use a ladder. Last year I got “lucky” and only ended up replacing the wooden fence around my yard which required absolutely no ladder work at all. This year I’m painting the exterior of my home, replacing some aluminum gutters with vinyl gutters and even replacing some rotting fascia behind the gutters. I have a Ranch style home with a roof line that’s generally only about 11 feet off the ground but it has a few peaks which extend nearly 20 feet high. When I first bought my home I went out and bought a 12 foot long adjustable ladder which has, for the most part, allowed me to get to everything I needed to inside and outside my home. With the painting project and gutter project I finally figured I needed to get some sort of ladder standoff or ladder stabilizer that would allow me to lean my ladder against the wall or maybe even get up to the roof a little more safely and without denting and bending some of my remaining aluminum gutters.

Here you can see how the Ladder-Max stabilizes my ladder against my roof and allows me to get to my gutters.

I searched for a while, but I found it with Ladder-Max, a great ladder stabilizing system that can be bought right through Amazon.com! It’s a combination ladder wall stabilizer and roof stabilizer that allows you to use your ladder a heck of a lot more safely. It’s got a pretty clever metal design, it’s got a 375 pound load capacity, is OSHA certified, has solid hard rubber feet and can be installed or taken off a ladder in just a few seconds. It’s really pretty handy and I’ve already used it a lot more than I thought I would.

You can read about it more on their website, and their basic photos pretty much show it all. For me the ability to stabilize my ladder against the roof of my house and not my gutters is invaluable. This will allow me to easily clean my gutters out in the spring and fall and it will allow me to put up new gutters this summer without buying a large extension ladder or trying to hang upside-down from my roof.

My one complaint might be that in some cases I needed the Ladder-Max to be a little wider so that I could put the feet on either side of a window. My windows are rather wide, so that’s to be expected. Those cases are rare (it would have been helpful for allowing me to tape around my windows before painting) but it wasn’t much of a deal breaker. The idea of being able to climb onto my roof much more safely is in itself worth the price.

Again, you can get the Ladder-Max pretty quickly if you order it from Amazon.com. I received it about a week after ordering it and it arrived in good condition. Inside the box one of the little bags of screws was torn open (probably from things shifting during shipping) and I didn’t seem to get the wrench they said they’d include, but those are minor quibbles. It took me about 15 minutes to assemble (I keep it assembled and hung on the wall of my garage) and it really does take just a few seconds to attach it to your ladder. Once attached, it’s secured with two heavy steel pins. It’s made of steel tubing and everything seems pretty solid. It’s not nearly as heavy as it looks, though I found the cut steel edges to be a little sharp. From what I can tell the build quality is damn good and it’s solid with no flexing or bending when it’s fully put together.

Attaching the Ladder-Max

1. To install it on your ladder you simply place your ladder on the ground and then position the Ladder-Max where you want it. I have actually marked the two rungs that I almost always use with a Sharpie so that I don’t have to guess each time I put the stabilizer on.
2. Remove the two safety pins from the Ladder-Max.
3. You lift you ladder off the ground, slide the Ladder-Max over the two rungs at the proper level.
4. Insert and lock the safety pins in.

That’s it! Lift you ladder and go! To remove the Ladder-Max you can just reverse the process. Again, I have a simply hook that I placed on the wall of my garage to hang the Ladder-Max when it isn’t in use. If you have the room you could probably leave it attached to your ladder, though I would imagine it might be a little difficult to remove from a tight storage space if you do that.

Ladder-Max Stabilizer Demonstration Video

I’m just an amateur do-it-yourself home improvement guy who doesn’t need to get up on a ladder very often, but I’m glad that I spent the cash to purchase this. Now that I’ve used the Ladder-Max a little bit I can’t imagine climbing up on my ladder without one. If you want more details you can check out the official Ladder-Max website.

This entry was posted on August 1, 2009 at 4:28 am and is filed under New Home Products, Products, Reviews and Resources. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.