Garage Door Spring Guide

Have you ever heard a loud “bang” then your garage door only goes up a few inches? You may have a broken spring.

Garage doors use specialized springs to provide mechanical advantage to lift the weight of the door. Getting the correct spring tension is crucial for the life of your door’s operator. Even the strongest garage door operator should not lift the weight of the door without springs.

For torsion springs, a single-wide door typically requires one garage door spring, while double-wide doors need two. With that being said, it all depends on the tension. Both extension springs and torsion springs are available from us. Newer doors tend to have torsion springs because they can last up to 100% longer.

Springs wear down on a per-cycle basis. Torsion springs can last up to 20,000 cycles. At 4 up-down cycles per day, those springs can last you 7 years. It is standard to replace both springs during a service call because if one breaks, the other won’t be far behind.

We highly recommend that you do not try to replace your own springs. They are extremely dangerous and are under a high amount of tension. Trying to mess with torsion springs could result in severe injury if not done the right way. Unless you are experienced with garage door springs, leave it up to us.

If you decide to replace garage door springs yourself, make sure you get the right ones. You can either look at the dimensions painted on the spring for a direct replacement, or you can contact the door manufacturer given the serial number found on the side of door panels.