The Dangers Of Garage Door Springs
For residential overhead garage doors, torsion springs have anywhere between 5000 – 30000 cycles life span. Those digits represent an average total number of times you should be able to open and close your door before anticipating garage door spring replacement.
Garage door extension springs – you might have either one or two on each side of your overhead garage doors a critical issue with those springs is to have a safety cable installed inside of every single spring and secured properly, so when the door opens and closes, the spring can freely slide on this cable! When the garage door spring snaps without the cable inside, broken ends might severely injure anyone standing within their range. The cables should be always included with the overhead garage doors hardware (assuming that they came equipped with extension springs), but A LOT OF PEOPLE either forget to install them or don’t read the instructions and maybe assume that they are not required. Unlike the torsion spring, which doesn’t really show any visual wear until it breaks, extension spring wear is much easier to spot because they simply change dimensions: the coils are over-stretched (best visible when the garage door is open). If you notice such behaviour on your garage door springs – it’s time for a replacement.
And for both types of garage door springs – their tension should be evenly adjusted (on a two spring system) so the overhead door travels properly in its tracks – to test it, stop the door slightly above the garage floor (1″ or two) and make sure that it’s bottom / top edge are perfectly horizontal. Measuring the gap along the bottom might not be the best way to confirm that, because the garage floors are often out of level. Placing a level somewhere in the centre section of the garage door top edge would give you the best readout (remember that the door should not be closed completely!). When the springs are properly adjusted, you should be able to raise and stop the garage door at any height, and it should stay at this level without any assistance ( garage door opener arm disconnected).
Important things to remember:
Check the rollers / hinges, cables, and the overhead garage door springs often to ensure they are in good working condition
- Educate your children about garage door safety
- Never leave children and disabled persons unattended near or in a garage door path
- Keep your body clear of the door path when closing
- Don’t leave a personal property underneath an open garage door
- Read more about the garage door opener and other garage components
For more information or help, contact our friendly team at Melbourne Garage Doors
We would be happy to help you with your Garage Door plans & needs.