Garage Door Springs

Garage door springs are heavy-duty springs that are installed to assist with the opening and closing of your garage door. These massive springs are under high tension, and along with the rollers and cables all working together, a garage door which is several hundred pounds becomes easy enough to lift with one hand. It is because of the size of the springs, and the tension that they are under that there are safety concerns with these springs. With proper maintenance, your garage door springs should last for years in proper working order. However, if one of these springs does break you will have to decide if this is something that you want to replace yourself, or hire a professional to do. While there are some adjustments you can do on your own, because of the danger in working on the springs it might be better for you to get a garage door technician in to do the work. With these thoughts in mind, let's take a look at some of the functions and features of your garage door springs and decide if the maintenance, adjustments or replacements is something that you should do.

Garage Door Spring Safety

Every year there are homeowners around America who are injured while trying to service or adjust their own garage door springs. Improperly adjusted door springs may make it difficult to open and close your garage door. Even worse than this, door springs that are loose, cables that are frayed and damaged tracks or rollers can result in your extremely heavy garage door coming down on you or your family with potentially fatal results.

So it is with safety in mind that you should inspect your garage door, and all attaching hardware on a regular basis. With your owners manual in hand, you should inspect all the major components of your garage door and garage door springs. The owners manual should provide you with detailed instructions on what to look for, what to adjust or lubricate along with schematics of the various components. You'll want to check to make sure that all nuts and bolts are tight, that the moving parts are able to move freely and that there is no appearance of damage to any of the components. You also want to ensure that the tracks are tight and stable and that there is no movement in the track when the door goes up and down. This would be a sign that the stability of the track needs to be looked at. To check if your door spring is properly tensioned, simply lift your garage door up into a halfway open, halfway closed position. It should sit in this position without going any further up or coming slamming down. If your door continues up from the halfway position the tension on your garage door springs is too tight. If the door falls down from the half open position then the tension on the spring is too loose. Move your garage door up and down manually to ensure that the operation is smooth and easy. Any signs of binding or rubbing type noises should be examined to determine the cause and how to repair it. If your garage door is attached to an electric door opener you will want to maintain that garage door opener according to the manual you received with it. One of the more important parts of a garage door opener is the safety stop system. You should test this safety device regularly to ensure that the grage door will stop and reverse when the safety device tripped. This will prevent damage to vehicles, and more importantly to people.

Adjusting your garage door spring.

There are usually two door springs attached to tension cables that assist in a moving your garage door up and down. Because of the tension on the springs, their adjustment is very dangerous. If you do not understand how they work, or if you are anyway nervous about adjusting the spring yourself you should not! Tightening or loosing the tension on the door spring will allow the door to either tend to want to pull up or tend to fall. What you want to do is to adjust the springs so that the tension is neutral. That is, that the door neither wants to fling up or fall down, but sit in whatever position it is placed. Again, I can't emphasize enough, if you do not understand how the spring tension works or are in any way unsure of this adjustment yourself you should not attempt to do it. Professionals, who have been doing this type of repair for years are still very cautious when they are servicing garage door springs.

Replacing You Garage Door Spring

If you have the misfortune of having one of your garage door springs break, you should consider replacing both springs at the same time. This is because over time the springs will tend to stretch out from the constant tension that they are under. So that if you were to replace just one single spring, the tension on that spring will be greater than the tension on the other spring. This will lead to a series of problems which can culminate in other damage being done to your garage door. Replacing a garage door spring is definitely something that should be left to the professionals. If you do not understand how to release the tension on the spring the effects of either the spring or the tension cable flying around can be deadly.

Garage door springs, along with the accompanying tension cables and other hardware are a wonderful way of making your garage door easy to open and close. However as you have learned, because of the great tension that they are under and the immense weight of your garage door, safety is something that must be carefully observed when working with the springs. Inspecting your garage door and all the attaching hardware on a regular basis is highly recommended for all homeowners. Adjusting your door springs, or replacing broken components is something that, for most homeowners, should be just left to the professionals. Take care of your garage door and maintain your door springs, and they should give you many years of good service.