You flip a wall switch, and your kitchen light illuminates the room. You press the edge of a glass against a dispenser built into your refrigerator door, and water or ice magically appears. These are the wonders of 21st-century living and we take them for granted, the same way we take our garage doors for granted. With the simple push of a button on a wall pad or handheld remote, a tiny machine whirls to life and opens or closes your garage door on demand. But what if the door refuses to open or close, or only manages to do either one halfway? There could be any number of reasons, but broken garage door springs may be the culprit.
The garage door springs do most of the heavy lifting in regard to the door opening and closing, and when they break, most homeowners are left frustrated and perplexed as to what happened and why. To understand what’s going on, it’s a good idea to know a little bit about garage door springs.
WHAT KIND OF SPRINGS DO YOU HAVE?
This is an important question, but garage springs regardless of type are responsible for helping the door go up and down. As the garage door is lowered, the springs increase tension. When the garage door goes up, tension gets released and the spring helps with the lifting. As a warning, your garage door springs have the most tension when the door is closed. Because of this, the vast majority of Arvada broken garage door springs appear when the door is lowered. If the spring breaks while the door is raised, the door could come falling, meaning you should never walk under a door when it’s in operation.
What kind of springs were installed with your garage door?
- Extension springs are installed on either side of the garage door track. They lengthen and contract with the help of pulleys and cables when the door is moving.
- Torsion springs normally use one or two tightly wound springs, but this depends on door size. The springs are situated horizontally on a steel shaft with cable drums at the ends. The torsion spring is installed along the header wall atop the garage door. Almost universally it features a three-pronged support system with a middle and two end-bearing plates at each end.
WHY DO GARAGE DOOR SPRINGS BREAK?
There are several reasons why your garage door springs may eventually break and require garage door repair. Some are preventable, thanks to routine maintenance. Other causes, such as a manufacturing defect, are unforeseen and not something you could prevent. Here are the top reasons your garage door springs may break.
Wear and Tear
Nothing manmade lasts forever and it’s a fact of life that the biggest enemy of any mechanical device is wear and tear from everyday use. Most manufacturers say their garage door springs are rated for about 10,000 cycles, or each time the door goes up and comes back down. That adds up to a lot of use, and many homeowners use their garage door as the primary entrance to their home, meaning it can go through far more than 10,000 open-close cycles in its lifetime. If this sounds like your home, you might want to consider asking a garage door expert to install springs good for 20,000 or more open-close cycles. And, yes, that means you may need to call Arvada garage door repair specialists for help.
Rust
Rust is another powerful villain. Any rust on garage door springs can dramatically shorten their lifespan because rust boosts the volume of friction on the coils during back-and-forth motions. As the springs corrode, the coils will follow suit and lead to quicker failure. In this case, a garage door expert may recommend spraying down the springs with a silicone-based lubricant up to four times a year to keep them well lubricated and ensure the expected lifespan.
Improper Maintenance
In our experience, we’ve seen many homeowners forced to have new garage door springs installed because of a failure to not follow through on routine maintenance. Besides keeping the springs and garage door working as expected, routine maintenance can also alert you to potential problems, such as a dangerous breaking of the spring and the expense of repair or replacement. Besides spraying the springs with a lubricant, we recommend you, check the garage door balance each season, especially during the winter when springs most often fail.
Incorrect Springs Used
If you’re an experienced DIY enthusiast, you may think you can install new garage door springs on your own. But is the spring the correct length and wire size? If not, the garage door springs will probably fail in the near future. In case you’re wondering, properly maintained and installed garage doors should include a torsion spring on each side of the door. To save time and money, some garage door professionals decide to install one long spring spanning the width of the door, which is okay for lighter or smaller doors, but not what’s considered an “average” garage door. We recommend using two springs to divide the weight load of opening and closing the garage door, because one spring could shorten the life cycle and possibly cause serious damage in the event of failure.
ARVADA GARAGE DOOR REPAIR SPECIALISTS NEAR YOU
For more than 18 years, A Well Hung Garage Door has been a leading Arvada garage door repair specialist thanks to offering the best products and services at reasonable prices. If you require a new garage door installation or need us to look at broken garage door springs, we can handle any job large or small. Contact us today for more information.