3 Reasons Why Garage Door Springs Fail

Count on Dynamic Garage Door for expert care of springs on custom garage doors.

For most Americans, garage door openers are like magic—you just push a button and somehow this huge, heavy door just opens all by itself. However, when you understand how garage door springs work, you can see that of course it’s not magic but mechanics that is responsible for your convenient and reliable automatic garage door opener.

All roll-up garage door openers use torsion springs (garage door springs) to raise and lower the door. These springs consist of tightly wound coils of steel with a stationary cone at one end and a winding cone at the other. When the garage door is raised, the springs unwind, releasing the tension stored in them. This tension provides the energy required to turn the cable drums and lift the door. When you close the garage door, this rewinds the springs to produce new stored tension to be used in the future.

Without working garage door springs, your small garage door opener motor will not be able to budge your garage door. If this happens to you, contact Dynamic Garage Door for help. We will figure out which of the following 3 reasons for garage door spring failure is responsible for your problem and provide the necessary garage door repair.

Age

Most garage door springs are designed to last for anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 raise-and-lower cycles of your garage door. So in normal conditions, this means your garage door springs should last for years. Even so, eventually wear and tear will cause one or both springs to fail. If your garage door isn’t opening and closing smoothly any more, this could be a sign that your springs are about to wear out.

Poor Maintenance

Garage door springs will last longer if you remember to perform basic maintenance on your garage door and opener system. You want to make sure your garage door tracks are not loose, bent, or clogged with grease, as these problems can put extra stress on the springs. You should also remember to spray the springs with WD-40 once in a while and perform a garage door balance test every few months.

Improper Installation

One final problem that can cause garage door springs to fail is installation error. One common error that homeowners make in an attempt to save money is only replacing one spring in a two-spring system. In reality, this does not save any money because it creates an imbalance in tension between the two springs. This can harm your garage door or even cause the new spring to fail prematurely. Always replace both springs in a two-spring system together.