My Garage Door Spring is Broken!
Well no one ever likes to find themselves in a situation where they have had their garage door springs after they break. The worst is if both have broken, that kind of a headache is unavoidable sometimes. Garage door springs function is to counter the weight of your garage door. With the weight of most garage doors being about 280 pounds that’s a pretty hefty task for a little coil.
Of course, the fact that I just called it a little coil doesn’t do it justice. The garage door springs are engineered to handle all of that weight continually. But like almost everything else if not properly maintained it will break down sooner. Even if you maintain your springs the metal will erode and the bonds will break down so replacement is somewhat constant. There are 2 types of garage door springs that you will find commonly in the market. There are some special order and heavier duty springs available for commercial doors but right now we’ll only focus on the 2 main types of springs.
Extension Garage Door Spring
Extension garage door springs are by far and away the most common type of garage door spring both available and installed. As you are reading this you will probably discover your garage door more than likely has this type of spring. So what’s special about it? Well nothing much really. They are installed on both sides of your garage door and are attached to a cable. This cable is commonly reffered to as the containment cable.
Torsion Garage Door Springs
Torsion springs are the much heavier duty alternative. They are installed above your garage door and you will more than likely notice they are thicker and they work a differently than an extension spring. The difference can be seen by they type of motion the springs are named after. The extension spring extends to counter the weight of the door. The torsion springs use a torsion motion which is more circular in its movement.
What you can do.
Both springs are difficult to work with so we will always recommend you call a professional or company like ours. The garage door springs are extremely dangerous to work with and can cause some very serious injury. If you’d like to find a tutorial on how to change the spring you are more than welcome here’s a link to a guide you can follow on replacing your springs. If it seems like it is too much you can always give us a call at (805) 322-3397.