Garage Door Springs
Usually, the biggest mechanical thing around your house is the garage door – the one you’re driving your car through, sometimes without even opening.
The major, and the most dangerous component of the overhead door is the door spring – (or springs depending on the design), which supports the entire weight of the door panels (sometimes over 400 pounds) and helps you to lift/lower the entire door assembly. I have personally installed 3 overhead garage doors with 2 different types of springs, and you do have to trust me on that – garage door springs are under enormous pressure and you can get seriously injured or even killed when performing such work. If you decide to take your chances – it is imperative that you follow instructions to the last detail! Even if you have a friend or a professional doing it for you, read it and check everything after the installer finishes the job. The doors have no safety brakes (at least I haven’t heard about any), which would prevent it from falling down when the supporting spring fails. I’ve found some US patents for such devices, but apparently, none of them were ever implemented into an actual garage door.
According to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, garage overhead door related accidents account for thousands of injuries every year (average of 30000 per year). For example, some these injuries are: fractures, crushings and amputations.
There are basically two types of garage door spring systems utilising tracks/side rails:
- Torsion spring(s) which are wound-up on a rod above the garage door opening top section ( door header)
- Extension springs that are attached on either side of the door and stretch along the horizontal part of the track when the door is closed
You might also have an old, one-piece door that swings outward as it goes up and overhead. This particular design will have springs mounted on the sides of the door opening – at about your waist height, secured to a lever bracket system that extends the springs toward the ceiling at the door closing. It is an old and extremely dangerous system, not manufactured anymore. If you have such a system in the garage, I’d highly recommend replacing it.
Garage door torsion springs – these are either single or double spring designs. The spring will usually break while under maximum stress which is when the overhead garage door closes/travels down, or it is already completely closed (USUALLY). If you’re closing it manually and it happens during this operation, don’t try to prevent it from crashing down, let it go.
When one of the two garage door springs breaks you need to have them both replaced at the same time! It will cost some extra money, but having an old and new spring installed will:
- put much more stress on the new one
- the door will lose proper balance
- the remaining old garage door spring will most likely break soon
So don’t delay in getting springs fixed or replaced whenever your garage door shows signs of resistance, have odd sounds, don’t move freely, don’t close or open properly or other reasons.
We can help to review if the issue can be resolved with new parts, a service or in unfortunate circumstances, whether it may best be fitted with new garage doors.
At Melbourne Garage Doors, if you have perfectly safe garage doors, we will try to keep these in place for you by repairing and or servicing the system you have as the first action. If it cannot be resolved and if it may be an ongoing danger to the household owners, we may recommend getting it replaced. We will explain the reasons why and we will leave that decision up to you. But what we will always do is be upfront and honest with you. Provide you with the information you need and be there to help you through it if you need.
For a discussion, or if you need help, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Talk to you soon.
Kind Regards,