Your garage door probably weighs somewhere between 150 and 400 pounds. Your opener doesn't actually lift that weight. The opener is barely strong enough to move a door on its own. What actually lifts your door is a spring system that stores enough energy to counterbalance the entire door's weight, so the opener only has to nudge it up and down. When those springs fail, the whole system stops working.
There are two spring systems in use on residential garage doors: torsion and extension. They do the same job in fundamentally different ways, and it's worth knowing which one is over your head, if only so the reason we tell homeowners to stay off them makes sense.
Torsion springs (the modern standard)
Torsion springs are the ones mounted horizontally on a shaft above the closed garage door. If you look up from inside your garage with the door closed, you'll see a metal bar running across the wall above the door, with one or two thick coiled springs wrapped around it. Those are torsion springs.
They work by winding up under tension. When the door closes, the springs wind tighter, storing energy. When you (or the opener) start to open the door, that stored energy unwinds and lifts the door up. Cables attached to the bottom of the door and wound around drums on either end of the shaft transfer the force.
Why torsion is now the standard
- Better balance. Torsion springs are mounted so the force is applied evenly across the width of the door, which makes for smoother operation.
- Longer lifespan. Standard-cycle torsion springs are typically rated for about 10,000 cycles (one cycle = one open + one close). High-cycle versions can go much further.
- Safer failure mode. When a torsion spring breaks, it releases its energy in a very localized way. You'll hear a loud bang, but the broken pieces stay on the shaft rather than flying across the garage.
How torsion springs fail
Torsion springs almost always fail from metal fatigue after enough cycles. Once yours are somewhere in the 7 to 12 year range on normal use, a failure is possible any time, and a busy household with several drivers gets there sooner. Signs of impending failure include the door feeling heavier than usual, sluggish opening, or a slight gap starting to appear in one of the spring coils.
Extension springs (the older system)
Extension springs run horizontally along the tracks on either side of the door. As the door closes, the springs stretch out (extend) and store energy. As the door opens, the springs contract and lift the door via a system of pulleys and cables.
Extension springs are cheaper and were the industry standard for decades. You'll see them on older residential doors and on many detached garages. If you look at the tracks along the ceiling above your door and you see long springs stretching horizontally as the door closes, you have extension springs.
The safety cables no one talks about
Extension springs have a real safety issue: when they break, they can whip across the garage with enough force to seriously injure someone or damage a car. Because of this, current safety codes require extension springs to have safety cables threaded through the middle of each spring. If a spring fails, the cable contains the broken pieces so they don't go flying.
If you have extension springs and they don't have safety cables through them, we should install them the next time we're out. It's a small job and it eliminates a real risk.
How to tell which system you have
Stand inside your garage with the door closed and look up. If you see:
- A horizontal shaft with coiled springs wrapped around it above the door: torsion springs.
- Long stretched springs running horizontally along the ceiling on both sides of the door: extension springs.
Why we don't recommend DIY spring replacement
You'll find plenty of videos telling you this is a weekend job with the right tools. It's not. Springs are the one repair on a garage door that consistently puts people in emergency rooms. Not sometimes. Consistently.
The energy involved
A wound torsion spring on an average residential door stores enough energy to break bones and remove fingers if it slips off the winding bar. A stretched extension spring without safety cables can whip across a garage with the same result.
The tools
Torsion spring replacement requires proper winding bars (real ones, not screwdrivers), and knowing exactly how many turns to wind for the specific spring on your specific door. Wind too little and the door is heavy and the opener burns out. Wind too much and the spring fails prematurely.
The parts
Springs come in dozens of sizes: wire diameter, inside diameter, length, and left-hand vs. right-hand wind. Ordering the wrong spring is common. Matching springs to a specific door is a job we do every day, and we still double-check the specs on every replacement.
What our spring replacement service looks like
When we do a spring job, here's what actually happens:
- We inspect both springs, cables, drums, and bearings. Springs typically wear at the same rate, so we replace them as a matched pair.
- We install springs sized correctly for your door's weight and height.
- We wind the springs to the correct tension so the door is balanced (a properly balanced door should hold its position anywhere along the tracks when you disconnect the opener).
- We test the safety reversal on the opener before we leave. A well-balanced door is also the door that lets your opener's auto-reverse feature work correctly.
We price the job before we start work. See the spring section of our repair page for more, or get in touch and tell us what the door is doing.
How long should new springs last?
Standard torsion springs are typically rated for around 10,000 cycles, which for most homes works out to roughly 7 to 12 years depending on use. A door that cycles twice a day sits at the top of that range. A family that uses the garage as the front door and cycles it four times a day sits near the bottom. Double that again and you're under it.
For homes that use the garage door heavily, like households with multiple drivers or homes where the garage door is basically the front door, we recommend upgrading to high-cycle springs (25,000+ cycles). The price difference is small and the doubled lifespan more than pays for itself.
If yours are showing their age, meaning sluggish operation, a gap in a coil, or a door that feels heavy, call us before it becomes a breakdown. Contact us here or ring us at (478) 274-0307.
