A broken garage door spring is one of the most common reasons a door suddenly won't open. NovaLift Garage Doors repairs broken torsion and extension springs for homeowners in Hollywood and across South Florida.
Think a spring is broken? Leave the door closed. Don't lift it by hand or keep pressing the opener button. Without a working spring the door is dead weight.
Garage door springs counterbalance the door. Many garage doors weigh well over a hundred pounds, yet with working springs they feel light enough to lift by hand. When one breaks, that weight comes back all at once.
The opener isn't built to lift the full weight of the door. It's designed to guide a balanced door up and down. That's why an opener often strains, stops, or lifts the door a few inches and reverses when a spring has broken.
Mounted on a metal shaft just above the door. They wind up as the door closes and unwind to help lift it. Many sectional doors use them.
A broken torsion spring usually shows a visible gap somewhere along the coil.
Run along each side of the garage ceiling, above the horizontal tracks. They stretch as the door closes and pull as it opens.
They typically have a safety cable running through the middle, which helps keep a broken spring from whipping across the garage.
Springs are sized to the door they lift, by wire thickness, length and inside diameter. A replacement that doesn't match the door leaves it out of balance, which is hard on the opener and the other parts.
Every spring is rated for a certain number of cycles, and that rating varies by spring and door. One cycle is one opening and one closing, so a door used several times a day reaches its limit sooner.
On a door with two springs, both have usually gone through the same number of cycles. Depending on the door and how its springs are set up, replacing both may be worth asking about.
A spring that snaps can leave a lift cable slack or knocked off its drum. It's worth asking about the cables at the same time.
A wound torsion spring stores a lot of force. Adjusting or replacing one without the right tools and training can cause serious injury.
A torsion spring is under the most tension when the door is closed. A worn spring can give way while the door is sitting still, which is why people often hear the bang without having touched the door.
It shouldn't be asked to. Running the opener against the full weight of the door can strain its motor and gears, and the door may lift unevenly.
Not always. It depends on the door and how its springs are set up. The second spring has usually done the same number of cycles, so it's worth asking about when the repair is looked at.
Describe what you heard and what the door is doing. You can also email [email protected].
