Garage Door Springs

While most of the parts on a garage door are easy and safe to replace yourself, there is one part that needs especial attention to prevent injury or worse when you are working on it. The spring that pulls your lift garage doors can present serious danger if not properly handled.

There are two types of springs used on garage doors, torsion springs which wind up on a rod which are the most dangerous to work with on your own, and extension springs which run along both sides of the door rails. There are special pieces of equipment that need to be used on these garage door springs when replacing them. Clopay Corporation has developed an electronic drill type apparatus to safely wind and unwind the tension from these springs. If you desire to do this work yourself, they can be rented.

For manual adjustment on the spring tension of your garage door, you can use a ratcheted spring extension tool which looks like a long wrench handle but is fastened to the ends of the spring and used to torque the tension in your garage door springs. For the do it yourself type, be very sure to add security cables to the spring before attempting this.

Remember that accidents can happen. Your tension crank can slip off the spring hooks and the results can be deadly. The tension on a fully closed garage door spring is enough to be able to lift four hundred pounds of door and have been known to punch through the walls or roof of a garage when broken. Always use a safety cable firmly attached to the spring when you are setting the tension. Some styles of tension garage door springs include a built in safety cable to prevent injury in case you are nearby when a spring breaks.

It is also prudent and advised that if one spring breaks replace them both. The variation of tension between a new garage door replacement spring and the older worn spring can warp your door out of shape or increase the chances of the old spring breaking when pressure is placed on the newly fitted garage door. Also inspect all the garage door spring apparatus parts while you are doing this and replace any parts that appear worn. It may seem like an extra expense but when you weigh the cost of additional repairs or injury you will see that it is still the economical choice.