Broken springs are the most common garage door failure we are called out for, by a wide margin. They are also the repair people most often try to tackle themselves, and the one that most often sends them to hospital. Here is how to identify one and what happens next.
Seven signs your spring has gone
- You heard a bang. A torsion spring releasing sounds like a gunshot inside the house. People often report it as a break-in or a car hitting the garage.
- A visible gap in the coil. Look at the spring on the shaft above the door. A two-inch gap where the coil separates is unmistakable.
- The door is suddenly enormously heavy. A balanced door weighs almost nothing by hand. With a broken spring you are lifting the true weight, which on a double door is around 150 to 250 pounds.
- The opener strains, lifts a few inches and stops. Modern openers detect the excess load and give up. That is the opener protecting itself.
- The door slams shut instead of lowering. Nothing is counterbalancing it.
- The top section bends when the opener pulls. The opener is trying to lift the whole door by one bracket.
- The cables have gone slack or jumped the drums. Common with extension spring systems.
Why this is not a DIY repair
A torsion spring stores several hundred pounds of energy. Winding and unwinding it requires the correct-length winding bars and a specific technique, and the failure mode is a steel bar being thrown across the garage at speed. Hardware-store screwdrivers used as winding bars are a recurring theme in emergency room reports.
There is also a sizing problem. Springs are specified by wire diameter, inside diameter, length and wind direction, matched to the exact weight of your door. Fit a spring that is close but not right and the door will never balance, which quietly destroys the opener.
Always replace in pairs
If you have two springs and one has broken, the other has done the identical number of cycles and is close behind. Replacing both costs marginally more now and saves a second call-out and a second failure within months.
How long the repair takes
For a technician carrying the right springs, most replacements are done inside an hour, including re-balancing the door and re-setting the opener force limits. Our trucks carry the common sizes, which is why most spring repair calls are single visits.
Making the next set last longer
Ask about high-cycle springs. A standard spring is rated around 10,000 cycles; high-cycle options run to 20,000 or more for a modest upcharge. If your garage door is the family's main entrance, that is the upgrade to take. An annual tune-up also helps, because a balanced, lubricated door puts less strain on everything.
Spring gone overnight? We answer emergency calls 24 hours a day across Maryland.