If you're like most homeowners, you probably won't even consider garage door springs. While you certainly can't be blamed for ignoring these somewhat hidden components, the truth is that your garage door spring is one of the most critical parts of your entire garage door system.
Think about how often you lift and lower your garage door each day; all the heavy lifting, stretching, and compression eventually takes its toll on your garage door assembly, and your springs are usually the first to be used. Usually, when the spring breaks, your garage door will no longer open because the door can become very heavy. Electric openers will try to pull the door, but usually stop after a few inches because the door is so heavy. If this happens, you can easily check for a broken spring by seeing if the spring splits in two. If you have the most common torsion spring system, the spring is centered 1' above the door. The image below shows what a broken spring looks like:
Types of Garage Door Springs
The vast majority of residential garage doors sold over the past 30 years have a torsion spring mechanism (see photo above). Garage door torsion springs are tightly wound heavy-duty metal springs mounted on parallel metal rods directly above the garage door. They are a key part of balancing doors so they can be lifted easily. Depending on the size and weight of the door, a garage door can have one or more torsion springs, each wound (turned) to a specific torsion setting. When the garage door opens, the spring releases, pulling on the cable to lift and open the garage door. The same assembly then operates in reverse to wrap the garage door torsion spring and create tension to keep the door light and balanced when it is closed.
On the other hand, extension springs are on the side closer to the track and are longer than torsion springs. An extension spring stretches and contracts using a series of cables and pulleys to open and close the garage door. However, extension springs are not mounted on fixed metal rods, so a safety cable should run through each spring to help hold them in place if they fail or break, preventing them from flying dangerously through the garage, potentially causing damage or harm. These springs are usually used on old doors that are 30 to 50 years old.
There is one model of door on the market that uses a hidden spring system called Torquemaster. Unfortunately, since the system is limited to one model from one manufacturer, most door companies don't carry these parts, and when the spring comes along, you may add to the expense of converting it back to a standard torsion spring unit.
How to tell if your garage door spring is broken
Garage door springs are consumable parts that break periodically. Since every time your doors are opened or closed they twist or stretch, eventually metal fatigue occurs and the steel breaks. How long they will last depends on how often the door opens and closes, but typically a set of springs is expected to last about 8-10 years. Unfortunately, there is no way to tell just by looking how much life is left in the spring. An educated guess can be made based on the age of the spring and how often you open and close the door each day.
