How to Tell a Garage Door Spring Has Broken

What causes it

These are the causes we find most often, in roughly the order we check them.

1. 1

   The spring reached the end of its cycle life

   Springs are rated in cycles, not years. A standard torsion spring is good for roughly 10,000 cycles, which is about seven years on a family home running the door four times a day. Steel fatigues with every wind and unwind, and it eventually fails at the weakest coil.

   What you can check

   Look at the shaft above the door opening. A failed torsion spring shows a clear gap of roughly 50 to 100mm where the coil has separated, and you will usually have heard the bang from inside the house. Look only, and keep your hands well clear.

   What we do

   We measure the wire gauge, inside diameter and length, weigh the door where there is any doubt, and fit a correctly sized pair. Replacing both at once is standard practice: the survivor has done the same work as the one that broke and will follow it within months.

2. 2

   Corrosion from coastal and humid air

   Salt-laden air from the coast, and humidity in garages that are never ventilated, pit the spring wire. A pit is a stress riser, and the spring cracks outward from that point under load. Doors in Perth's western and coastal suburbs routinely lose springs years earlier than inland ones.

   What you can check

   With the door closed, look along the length of the spring for orange staining, flaking coating, or a rough dull surface where it should be smooth and lightly oiled. Rust dust on the floor beneath the shaft is another sign the coating has given up.

   What we do

   We fit galvanised or powder-coated springs rather than plain oil-tempered wire on coastal addresses, and set a shorter service interval so the coils are cleaned and lubricated before corrosion takes hold again. A light oiling twice a year genuinely adds years to a spring.

3. 3

   Spring undersized for the door's actual weight

   Springs must be matched to the weight of the specific door. If a heavier door was fitted later, if insulation was added, or if a cheap spring was substituted at some point, it is working outside its design range on every cycle. It will fail early and it will keep failing early.

   What you can check

   Pull the release and lift the door by hand. A correctly sprung door stays put at waist height. One that sinks, or one that shoots upward out of your hands, is not matched to its springs, and that mismatch is what has been quietly destroying them.

   What we do

   We weigh the door, calculate the required tension per turn, and fit the correct wire gauge and length. It is the difference between a spring that lasts seven years and one that lasts two. High-cycle springs are worth the small extra where the door runs six or more times a day.

4. 4

   A single spring where the door needs a pair

   Some builders fit one spring where the door really wants two, to save money at handover. That single spring carries the entire load, works at higher stress on every cycle, and when it goes there is nothing to slow the door down. Double garages are the common case.

   What you can check

   Count the springs on the shaft above the opening. If your door is wider than about 3.6 metres, or it is a heavy timber-look or insulated panel door, and there is only one spring, that is your answer even before it fails.

   What we do

   We convert to a matched pair sized to share the load. The door becomes safer because one failure no longer drops it, each spring works at lower stress so both last longer, and the opener sees a steadier load through the whole travel.

5. 5

   Extension or tilt door spring failure

   Older tilt-a-door and extension-spring designs run springs along the horizontal tracks or down each side of the frame. They stretch rather than twist. When one lets go it whips, which is why containment cables are meant to run through them, and the door drops on that side.

   What you can check

   Look for a spring hanging slack, one visibly longer than its partner, or a spring lying on the floor. On a tilt door, look at the springs each side of the frame and check that a thin cable runs through the centre of each one.

   What we do

   We replace the springs as a pair and fit safety containment cables where they are missing, which is common on doors installed before the mid-1990s. On tilt doors we also check the pivot arms and frame mounts, since those take the shock when a spring lets go.

6. 6

   Dry coils binding instead of sliding

   Torsion coils must slide against each other as they wind. Dry, dusty coils grip instead of sliding, which concentrates the stress on a handful of coils rather than spreading it along the spring. In a sandy Perth garage that happens faster than most people expect.

   What you can check

   Look at the surface of the spring with a torch. A healthy spring carries a faint oily sheen. One that is dry, chalky, or coated in fine grit is working harder than it should. You can see all of this from the floor without going anywhere near it.

   What we do

   As part of a service we clean the coils and apply a proper spring lubricant that penetrates between them without flinging off onto the car. It takes five minutes on a service visit and it is one of the cheapest ways to add years to a spring's life.