Typically, you’ll find two springs in a garage door. These springs play an important role to open and close the door smoothly. Lifting a heavy garage door is not possible for the opener if there is no spring. Springs help other components of the system by minimizing the load.
When the springs are broken, the whole system faces a lot of pressure. The door doesn’t operate smoothly and the scope of accidents increases. So, you should get the issue fixed as soon as possible. A garage door accident may cause huge mental and financial damage. This is the reason any kind of issue with the door should be taken care of immediately.
Don’t worry because we’re here to help you with repairing your garage door spring and all other types of damage. Our professional and expert team members can fix any kind of garage door issue within a short time. All you have to do is make a call and let us know about the problem. We’ll be there.
About Us
We are a team of garage door experts and professionals working almost everywhere in the USA with the promise of helping you with garage door issues within a reasonable charge. Our target is to make sure that you’re not breaking the bank to repair the damages to your garage door.
No matter what the problem is with your garage door, we find out that and make sure that the issue is solved properly. We are dedicated and focused on doing our job so that you become satisfied. Our professional and expert service has satisfied almost all of our clients.
If you need any kind of help with your garage door, starting from installation to maintenance tips, just knock us and let us know. We provide every type of service regarding garage doors.
Signs Saying You Need to Repair Garage Door Spring
When the garage door spring is faulty or broken, the system shows some signs of that. You need to keep your ears and eyes open for those signs if you don’t want any accidents. Let’s talk about some common signs.
The door doesn’t Move Smoothly
If the spring of the door is broken and faulty, the door loses its balance. An imbalanced door doesn’t open or close smoothly as only one spring has to carry a huge weight. As a result, you’ll find that the door is closing or opening faster or slower than the usual speed.
In most cases, you’ll see that the door is fast while coming down. On the other hand, at the time of going up, it is very slow.
Noticing something like this should make you check the springs as soon as possible. Don’t be late because it may cause a terrible accident. Also, waiting with a broken spring often results in another broken spring.
The Door becomes Heavy to Lift
When you try to open a garage door manually, you can do it easily. But when the door has a broken spring, it becomes heavier. So, opening it manually is not easy at that time.
This is a way to test the springs of the garage door. Try to open the door manually. If you do it regularly, you’ll find the difference easily when the spring is broken. The broken spring can’t carry the weight it used to do. Opening the door manually makes you carry the weight.
So, we suggest you open the door manually once a month. This will give you a sign of a broken spring that is required to be taken care of.
A Loud Sound without Any Sign
If you hear a loud sound from your garage but there is no sign of any accident or anything, there is a chance that it is the sound of a broken spring.
The springs of the garage door remain in huge tension in maximum cases. So, when a spring breaks, it makes a loud sound that you’ll hear from a distance. The sound generates from the unraveling of the coiled spring.
So, next time you hear such a sound, make sure that you’re checking the garage door springs too. You can ask for professional help in this situation. Don’t avoid it if you want to stay safe from accidents.
Loose Cables
Loose cables can be a sign of a broken spring. Let me explain it to you.
The cables are wrapped around drums at the top of the door. To hold the door properly, the cables are attached to the bottom panel of it.
At the time of breaking a spring, the drum spins as an aftershock of the broken spring. When the drum spins, the cables become loose. Often the cable can get tangled too. Also, you might find the cable broken if the drum spins in the reverse direction.
So, if you find the cable of your garage door is loose, check the springs too.
Cable Service: Garage Door Cable Repair
Spring Gap
If you find a noticeable gap in any of the springs of your door while performing the routine check, you should check the springs more carefully.
When the spring breaks somewhere in the middle, the parts unwind and make a noticeable gap that is unusual. This spring gap says that the spring is actually broken and it is not contributing to the system anymore.
The Door doesn’t Open
As springs take care of the weight of the door, the system runs properly. Without the springs, cable and opener can’t move it fully.
So, if you see that the door is going up only a few inches while opening, and then stopping there or coming down again, you should check the springs. The reason behind such a situation is broken springs. When both the springs break, there is nothing to handle the huge weight of the door. The cables and opener try to open the door but it doesn’t open properly.
In this case, you should call a professional garage door spring repair service who can replace the springs and make your door work properly again.
Crooked Garage Door
When the spring is damaged or broken, it can’t hold the weight of the door. As a result, that particular side of the door stays down compared to the other side. Thus your garage door stays crooked when a spring breaks.
In such a case, check the spring to see what has happened to it. I know that you’ll find it broken. Call us or any other professional for garage door spring repair service.
Emergency Release Lever doesn’t Work
If you find that your garage door is not opening, you should try to open it using the emergency release lever. But if you see that the lever is not working properly too, you should check the springs.
When the springs are broken, there is nothing to carry the huge weight of the door. As a result, the door doesn’t move. Even if it moves, it doesn’t go up for more than a few inches only. In such a case, the emergency release lever has nothing to do.
So, go check the springs if you see that even the emergency release lever is not able to open the door. Don’t forget to call someone professional to help you with replacing or repairing the springs.
Reasons Why You Should Repair Garage Door Spring
The spring of your garage door system is one of the most vital parts of it. This is why you should focus on repairing it immediately. Let me talk about the reasons you should repair the spring of your garage door.
To Make it Work Properly
You’ve already seen that a broken or damaged spring doesn’t allow the door to work properly. In some cases, you can’t even open the door if a spring is broken. If you can’t open it, you can’t take your car out or park it inside the garage.
This is why you should focus on repairing or replacing the garage door springs as soon as possible. Making the garage door work properly is a must.
To Avoid Damages
When there is a spring broken, the door becomes crooked, I’ve already said. As a result of this, when it opens or closes, it touches the sidewall. The friction caused by it damages the sidewall if the door is heavy. If the door is not that heavy, the friction damages the door.
Also, an imbalanced and crooked door often hits the ground while coming down. This causes damage to the ground if the door is heavy. If it is not, the door itself gets damaged.
You can avoid these damages if you repair the garage door spring as soon as it gets broken.
To Avoid Accidents
When one or multiple springs of your garage door is broken, it doesn’t function properly. You may find it often coming down faster than it should be. Also, there is a chance of the other spring gets broken too. If the door remains open at that time, it might come down without any notice.
This can cause serious accidents. If people are standing under the door, they can get injured. Even such an accident can kill people because a garage door is heavy.
The accident may also happen when the car is entering or coming out of the garage. In such a case, it can cause severe damage to the car. It can also cause damage if the car is not parked properly inside the garage.
To stay away from such mentally and financially damaging accidents, you should make sure that you’re repairing your garage door springs in time.
To Avoid Bigger Financial Loss
Till now, you’ve already understood that there are some huge impacts of a broken or damaged spring on your garage door. Those might result in huge financial losses. You don’t want to end up with a broken car. Also, you don’t want someone to get hurt by your garage door. Both of these will make you spend way more than the cost of replacing a broken spring.
So, to avoid bigger expenses, you should get the garage door repaired as soon as possible.
Also, sometimes the loss can’t be measured by money. So, you should be careful.
Reasons Behind the Springs Getting Damaged
There are several reasons for which springs get damaged or broken. I’m talking about those reasons so that you can stay alert.
- Rust
The very first reason behind a broken spring is rust. If you don’t take care of the springs properly, rust build-up is a common matter. Rust gradually eats the spring material and makes it weaker. Thus, it becomes unable to carry this huge load.
The overload damages the spring faster. As a result, you’ll find the spring broken within a few days.
So take care of the springs. Make sure that you’re lubricating it if needed. Also, if you see any sign of rust, take preventive measures to keep that away.
- Frequent Use
I’m not saying that you need to restrict the use of the garage door and open and close it only once or twice a day. But you shouldn’t open the door frequently when you don’t need it.
Garage door springs are made for a specific number of cycles. Typically, it can last up to 10,000 cycles. So, the spring would break before or after reaching this number. This is a natural process. You can make the springs last longer by reducing the frequency of use.
- Improper Maintenance
The springs come with a limited lifetime, I’ve already said. But if you don’t ensure proper maintenance, they break faster. This happens because anything can happen to the springs for not maintained properly.
If you want the springs to last a bit longer, you should make sure that you’re maintaining those properly. You need to lubricate those regularly.
- Extra Load
Springs are made to take the load of the door. But if you put some extra load, the scope of breaking increases a lot.
When spring is broken already, the rest carries a huge load. This makes it prone to breakage. If you don’t want it to break too, you should replace the damaged one so that the weight becomes distributed evenly.
- Improper Installation
If the installation is not done properly, there is a huge chance that the spring would break easily. This happens because an improper installation makes the spring function wrong. When the spring has to function wrong, it takes unnecessary pressure that makes it break quickly.
So, you should make sure that you’re getting your garage door installed with the help of professional and expert service. You can call us for that. Our team can do it without any fault. Also, while replacing the spring, make sure that a professional service is doing that for you.
- Use of Incorrect Spring
Using an incorrect spring is another reason that makes it break easily. A typical garage door should have at least two springs. Sometimes, the installation service asks you to use a long spring instead of using two. This may save only a few bucks instantly. But if you’re installing a heavy door, it would cost you a lot within a few months.
Installing the garage door with one spring is okay for light doors. For regular or heavy doors, you need more than one spring. So, make sure you’re maintaining the rule. This saves you from huge damage and accidents.
Types of Garage Door Spring
Typically you’ll find two types of garage door springs- torsion spring and extension spring.
Torsion Spring
A torsion spring uses torque to perform what it is supposed to do. It is typically installed with the wall above the garage door. If there is not enough room at the top, it can be installed at the back of the horizontal tracks.
The main task of the torsion spring is to take away the weight from the door and transfer it to the anchor plate. The anchor plate is typically situated at the center of the door.
Torsion springs are stronger than other kinds of springs. So, you can expect them to serve you for a long time.
Extension Spring
The extension spring uses its ability to extend to perform its function. These springs are installed on top of the horizontal bars on both sides of the door.
While opening the door, they get extended to create a counterbalance. When the door is open fully, the springs face the highest pressure. For safety, each spring comes with a safety cable. The task of the safety cable is to make sure that the door is not falling on the ground if the springs break. Thus, they save you from accidents.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to replace both springs?
There is no necessity of replacing both of the springs if only one is damaged. The rest is still able to function further if you find no sign of damage. So, you won’t have to change both seeing damaging signs on one.
Similarly, if one is broken, change it as soon as possible to minimize the need for replacing both at a time. Thus you won’t have to spend two.
But both springs wear and tear similarly, right?
In such type of damage, you have to change both because the rest is suspected to break within a few days. That’s why we suggest checking the other one properly if you find damaging signs in one. This will help to understand the situation and take necessary steps according to that.
Can I replace the spring by myself?
If you have the expertise, a set of specific tools, and enough knowledge about garage doors, you can replace the spring by yourself. This is the exact answer to the question you’ve asked but things are complex. Let me talk a bit more about it.
The garage door spring is probably the riskiest part of the whole system. That’s why it needs proper expertise to fix when it is broken. If you have enough knowledge about replacing or repairing the spring, you can go for it. But a sudden accident can change a lot of things. So, I think, you shouldn’t go for it.
To stay safe, leave the task to someone expert. Still, if you want to do it, make sure you’re doing it with proper safety gear.
How often should the springs be replaced?
The issue with garage door springs is their life expectancy is counted by cycles, not date. Opening the door and closing it fulfills one cycle. It is impossible to count the cycle every time you open and close it. So, you can’t understand when it should be replaced.
However, a basic estimation is- if you use the door not so frequently, your garage door springs are expected to serve you for around 8-9 years. For frequent use, it’ll serve you around 3-4 years.
You can wait for breaking as most of the garage owners do. But typically it is suggested to take good care of the springs and replace them after 7-8 years.