If there’s one thing that we recommend you don’t try to fix on your own, it’s a broken garage door spring. Trying this repair could end in a trip to the emergency more so than your typical DIY project as it poses many chances for extreme physical harm to the untrained homeowner. Also, if you continue to use a garage door operator with a broken spring, you risk damaging the top section of the door or burning out the motor, so this is a problem you can’t just ignore either!
A Garage Door Spring’s Purpose
The garage door’s spring, or torsion spring, assists the opening of the door by counterbalancing its weight. This means a spring’s combined force equals the same weight of the door that it is assisting to open. A garage door can weigh up to 250 pounds, which means a garage door spring is under A LOT of tension. You can always try to manually lift your door if the spring breaks, but you’ll find it’s quite heavy!
Is My Garage Door Spring Broken?
-
Did you hear a “big bang?” This could be cause by the sudden breaking and release of ALL that tension.
-
Does your garage door open a few inches but then stop? This is a common safety feature of the garage door operator to stop the motor from burning out when the springs are broken.
-
Do you see a gap in your torsion spring? This is the most straightforward way to identify a problem.
-
Does your door slam shut in a quick, sudden motion? Remember that garage doors are heavy and without the spring, they have no help to close smoothly.
-
Have you pulled on that red rope hanging from your garage door’s operator because you thought that would help it to open, but it didn’t? If that’s the case, your garage door spring is probably broken.
-
Do you see any pulleys or cables hanging down the side of the garage door tracks? A broken garage door spring can cause the cables to come loose of the door.
-
Is your door operator still opening the door, but doing so with a struggle or even opening lopsided? This could mean your garage door uses a two-spring system and one of them is broken.
Let us Deal with the Weight of the Issue: 405.579.3667
No matter what weird issue your door is having, there is nothing we haven’t seen. Don’t try and fix this yourself – we promise it’s not worth the risk. Give us a call instead and let us diagnose and fix your problem.
–
Sources: DDM Garage Doors, Family Handyman, Marvins Garage Doors
