Drain grates that can’t be blocked by leaves

[dieselKiller]

It’s raining hard and I’ve seen that 3 outside drain grates have been blocked/slowed by relatively few leaves, so I’ve had to run outside and clear them. Does anyone have any advice on grates or other equipment that can cope with a small number of leaves and still allow the rainwater to escape? I’m thinking cages or something raised/three-dimensional so that leaves don’t completely block all the holes? Right now we just have flattish, square grates that get blocked by hardly any leaves at all.

I use a drain guard over the drain grate which sits to the wall - similar to this www.screwfix.com/p/floplast-drain-guard-305mm-black/78832?tc=JT3&ds_kid=92700055281954505&ds_rl=1249404&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpbKmrNm-6wIV0-F3Ch0KmwdTEAQYASABEgLxA_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Thanks. Really appreciate it. That could work for one of the drains under a downpipe. One of the grates is in a patio and drains surface water, the other has multiple pipes emptying on top of it, so both of those basically receive free water from the side. Any suggestions for those?

@dieselKiller : I think your grate in the patio is known as a soakaway. We had one and had the same problem. Not a perfect solution but, I partially covered ours with a fancy stepping stone. The grate was in place at a lower level to the patio so the small stepping stone rested on the sides and excess water was still able to flow underneath. It didn't solve the problem completely and I still had to clear leaves periodically, though not as often. But you do have to content with enormous, hairy legged spiders who liked to make their home underneath the stone.

My other drain has multiple pipes draining in to it but I just got the one @SeaMayweed linked to, made a paper template and chopped it about a bit with a hacksaw. Not perfect but it served a purpose.

We used to have this problem until I cut some plastic mesh, the type on a roll and placed it over the drains. It has stopped the majority of leaves as they are kept at ground level and the squares in the mesh are too small for the leaves to pass through.