Columbia Garage Doors and Openers, LLC

Of Columbia, Tennessee

Questions and Answers

Door Springs

 

All sectional and one-piece (overhead) type garage doors have a counterbalance system to aid in the opening and closing of the door. This counterbalance system will have either extension (Stretch) or torsion springs.

 

Extension springs on a sectional door stretch horizontally away from the front of the garage. They run parallel and above the overhead track on each side of the door, or for a one-piece door, they stretch vertically near the sides of the door opening. If these springs break they can cause damage to property, or injury and death. These springs should have safety cables through them to contain the spring if it breaks. If your door does not have these safety cables, call a qualified door technician to install them.

 

Torsion Springs are used only on sectional doors. These springs run through a steel tube that runs along the header (front wall above the doorway), and at each end of this tube are drums, and lift cables are attached to them, which in turn are attached to the bottom of the door. Tension for this type of spring is gained by winding it on this tube. When a torsion spring breaks, it safely remains on the steel tube.

 

Spring Life. Garage door springs have a life expectancy of about 10,000 cycles. One cycle is when the door is opened and then closed. So if you open the door once in the morning and close it when you leave, and then open it and close it again when you come home in the evening, that is two cycles a day. At that rate the spring should last about 13.7 years. If the door is double wide, two car garage, with both cars leaving and returning at different times, this would shorten the spring life to about 6.8 years. Also, when people are at home, weekends, holidays, vacations, the doors may be opened and closed more often.

 

If you have a broken spring, it is always best to replace both springs on doors that have two springs. In time it would be cheaper. If only one spring is replaced today, next week the other may break and thus be charged with a second service call. When a spring or cable breaks, call a professional door technician  to replace the broken part. A loaded or charged spring can be as dangerous as a loaded gun, or comparable to a fully swung baseball bat.