When was the last time you thought about your garage door springs? Has it ever crossed your mind that they might have a shelf life and sometimes need proper maintenance and replacing? Most people will answer no to one or both of those questions. Garage door springs are not on everyone’s mind until they become a visible or audible issue. Your garage door is quite an essential piece to every home, whether rarely opened or often opened. Keep reading this guide to broken garage door springs so you become knowledgeable about preventative maintenance, repair, signs of wear and tear, typical life spans of door springs and more.
Why Garage Door Springs Matter
Garage door springs balance the weight of your garage door so it can open and close smoothly. When you open your garage door, the tension in the springs releases to assist in lifting the door to the open position. Most garage door springs have an average lifespan of about seven years, but you should inspect them every six months, lubricate them annually, and consider replacing them every seven years. Broken or bent springs can cause your door to suddenly fall, which can be very dangerous. If you do have a broken garage door spring, you should have it repaired as soon as possible.
Types of Garage Door Springs
There are two garage door springs that you can choose from, but which one is perfect for you? First, what exactly are garage door springs? They are the entire reason your garage door can open and close. Because the direct use of garage door springs is why the door opens and closes smoothly, knowing the difference between the two types of springs you can use is equally as important.
Extension Spring
These springs extend and stretch to provide the movement with the garage door. Generally, garage doors will have two extension springs — one on each side of the door running parallel to the track. When the door is closed, they extend, and when the door is open, they retract utilizing pulleys and cables to create the movement.
Extension springs are used mainly in residential garages. When extension springs are part of the garage door setup, you must also install safety cables to help if the cables snap. The spring snapping is highly unlikely, but it can happen, so it’s better to be prepared! There are a few different cables within the extension spring style to choose from.
Double Looped
Even though the double looped extension spring is a more robust choice than open looped, it is much harder to replace.
Clipped Ends
Durability is where this style excels, and the clipped ends help relieve stress from the extension springs during use, making this the more intelligent choice for heavier garage doors that are 200 pounds or more. The downfall is that they are also harder to replace than the other styles.
Torsion Spring
The size and weight of your garage door will dictate how many torsion springs are helping open and close the door. There are generally one or two for average garage doors, but there can be as many as four for heavier-duty garage doors. They are found above the garage door opening. Torsion springs utilize torque to open and close the garage door by winding around the shaft as the door lifts and gaining tension as it closes.
There is more tension on the springs when the door is closed, which is when most springs break. If the springs break while in the open position, the garage door could fall, so maintain safety guidelines when having your garage door open and never walk underneath the door during the opening procedure. Much like extension springs, there are different types of torsion springs.
Steel Rolling Door
Steel rolling door options are found in commercial builds and used on rolling doors.
Torque Master
Having the springs encased in the torsion shaft makes the torque master the safest option for the torsion spring system.
How To Tell Your Garage Door Has a Broken Spring
The first sign of your garage door having a broken spring is that the garage door will start functioning strangely. The garage door will have trouble opening and closing correctly, and you may see springs swaying if they are disconnected. Another indicator that your garage door spring may have broken is if the garage door is bent. With the spring not supporting the usual amount of weight, the garage door takes on more weight than it’s supposed to handle. An indicator of this is when you raise the door when the springs are not functioning, and the extra weight causes the door to bend outward.
You will also notice differences in how the garage door closes when the spring is not adequately handling the garage door’s weight. The door will close faster than expected and not move as smoothly. The final noticeable sign of broken springs or springs that are not functioning as they should is that nothing happens if you try to open the door with the emergency rope.
Why Do Garage Door Springs Break?
The main reason garage door springs break is the most easily guessed — wear and tear. Garage door springs have an engineered set of cycles. A cycle for a garage door is indicated by going up then back down. The springs have a rating of about 10,000 cycles. At first, that may seem like a lot, but when you think about how often you use the garage door each year, it adds up quickly.
For example, if you keep your car in the garage, you will be doing at least two cycles per day. Add in extra trips such as errands, children playing in the driveway with the garage door open, your spouse using the car for their needs, or even having two cars all add extra cycles to each day. Some households use the garage as their front door, which increases the cycles immensely, and the 10,000 cycles are suddenly gone before the average time frame, which is 5-7 years.
Rust
When rust starts spreading on the spring, the lifespan decreases drastically. Rust will increase the amount of friction the coils cause while expanding and retracting during cycles. As corrosion increases, the rate of failure speeds up. Lubricating the springs with a silicone-based lubricant a few times a year can increase the lifespan and help the cycles remain smooth.
Improper Maintenance
Proper maintenance will help prolong the lifespan of the springs and give you insight into when they start failing. All springs will fail eventually but keeping them lubricated, cleaned, and properly cared for will help longevity. Checking the garage door balance is another task that needs to be done seasonally at a minimum. Winter is a typical season for spring failure because of the cold and tension combined with more moisture in the air. To check the balance, proceed with the following:
First, place the door in manual mode by pulling the emergency cable.
Next, lift the door about halfway and let go. If the springs are in good condition, they will hold the door still. Alternatively, if the door sags a little bit or falls, that’s a sign that the springs are beginning to wear and need adjustment or replacement.
How to Repair a Broken Garage Door Spring
While you can get parts from online or hardware stores to repair broken garage door springs, it can be a dangerous job. Professional help is always strongly suggested when needing to replace your springs. With the two main types of springs, your garage door can have different hazards that come with replacing them on your own.
Extension Springs Replacement
Even though the extension springs can be easier to replace, there are still hazards with doing it on your own. The garage door could fall on youor someone else, or you could cut yourself on the rusted old metal of the springs.
Some people go to Lowe’s, Home Depot or other home improvement stores and buy the biggest spring they can find hoping it will last longer, but bigger doesn’t always mean better. Extension springs should be purchased according to the weight of your garage door. If you use an extension spring bigger than what you need, your garage door may fly up quickly when you open it, and it can be challenging to close. This issue can cause additional damage to your springs, requiring further repairs.
It’s recommended to buy extension springs through a certified garage dealer rather than making the purchase yourself. That way, you know with certainty you have the correct-sized spring properly suited to the weight of your door. Your garage door will be easier to open and close with the right extension spring.
Torsion Springs
With the tension that comes with torsion springs come many potential hazards when attempting to replace them on your own. Because the metal has so much tension, it poses a severe risk of metal flying out from a part if something snaps or breaks during the repair. Along with potential flying metal, you can get cuts from rusted metal, or the garage door could fall on someone, and more.
Professional Replacement Is Best
To circumvent the potential hazards to yourself or others, you need to get professionals to repair or replace your garage door springs for you. Attempting to do any repairs or replacements on your own poses a risk of serious injury.
Many homeowners don’t realize how easy it is to get a professional out to their home to replace the springs and attempt to do it independently. It is excellent to take care of your home and proactively fix anything wrong with it, but in certain situations, such as with garage door springs, you will be doing yourself a favor getting a professional.
Is It Safe To Open the Garage Door With a Broken Spring?
You may think that if you have a garage door opener, it will still be safe to open your garage door with it if a spring is not functioning correctly. Unfortunately, it is not safe to open the garage door even with an opener. If you attempt to open the door with your opener, various problems can arise:
The door panels could crumble.
You could potentially strip the gears in the opener attached to the garage.
The motor of the opener could burn out.
The rails may bend.
Parts of the opener carriage could break off as the motor works harder to open the door.
Although it is rare, there have been instances of the opener ripping itself from the ceiling, causing even more damage and other potential hazards.
Do not attempt to open your garage door if the springs are not working correctly. Even if you don’t have a garage opener, you could do other damage depending on which type of spring system you have. With the weight of garage doors, which can be around 500 pounds, you would be lifting that weight all on your own without the help of the spring system working. Doing so will be difficult and take a toll on your body. You could potentially damage your back or legs, or the garage door could fall on you and cause even more bodily harm.
If a single spring is still functional, you can open your garage door, but it’s not recommended to do this frequently. The door will be challenging to open, and the risk of harm still exists. You can also use your garage opener to assist in opening the door safely if someone is trying to back their car out of the garage. Practice caution when opening your garage door to prevent damage or injury, even if one of your springs is still intact.
There are some ways you can open your garage door without the opener if you need to get into the garage. Following these guidelines will help you lower the risks of opening a broken garage door.
Have someone help you lift the door
Make sure you use proper precautions for your back and don’t let the door fall on your fingers or feet.
Disengage the door by pulling the rope hanging from the J-arm until the mechanism comes free. Remember that before your springs broke, you had the help of both the opener motor and the springs to open the garage door, so be cautious when lifting the heavy door!
Lift the door until it settles on the horizontal rails, and then carefully take your hands away to make sure it will stay in position.
While lifting the door, remember not to force it because you will bend the panels. To avoid bending the panels, lift the door evenly with a partner. To close the door, you will need to reverse the steps, but with the weight coming down, it may be more challenging to control the garage door closing so it does not fall too fast and break more parts along the way or hurt someone.
Contact Cornwell Door Service To Help With Your Garage Door Springs!
