If you have a broken spring on your garage door, it will need to be replaced. Unfortunately, it is not common practice to repair a broken spring. For torsion springs (above the door): if your door is heavy, this may be a sign that the spring does not have the proper tension on it. It is possible to have a professional add tension to the spring to re-balance the door and system. It should be noted, however, that the loss in tension may be a sign that the spring is near the end of its lifecycle. If you add tension to a spring in this state, it may break soon after, or many times even in the process of the winding! Extension springs (sides of the door): these springs cannot have tension added to them. Option is to replace. We always recommend hiring a professional to perform these repairs as the springs carry an enormous amount of pressure and torque and the repair process can result in serious injury if not trained properly.

For a professionally trained technician, a garage door spring replacement can be fairly quick. While a spring replacement can take anywhere from about 20 minutes to an hour and a half, the average replacement time is about 30 – 45 minutes

We highly recommend hiring a professional to re-tension or change your spring for you vs doing it yourself, unless you are very experienced with this specific type of work. There are particular tools you will need to do the work, and the garage door springs and accompanied parts in the system carry a tremendous amount of torque and pressure. Serious injury may result during the process. Aside from the safety concern, each and every garage door is unique in the spring or combination of springs that it needs. Does the door have a torsion spring system? An extension spring set up? A Wayne Dalton Torque Master system? Within each of those systems there will be specific springs that the door takes that will all be dependent on size, weight, and manufacturer of the door. The correct springs MUST be put on the door for proper balancing and functioning. Our technicians will come stocked with most standard springs and will make sure the door is properly balanced at the end of the repair. There are many other components to the balancing aside from the springs themselves.

If you have a two spring system but only one of the springs is broken, we generally recommend changing both at the same time. The reason for this is that the springs were most likely installed at the same time and have the same lifecycle. If one spring has broken, it is likely the second one is close behind it. If we have to come out to change the other spring at another time, additional charges will be incurred vs doing both the first time.

Two springs will always be better than one on a garage door. In fact, most high-end leading manufacturers’ double car garage doors will come stock with two torsion springs instead of one. If the door has two (or more) springs on the door, it may last longer, as they are sharing the work. If one spring breaks, the second one will be there to help temporarily. If you have extension springs on the side of the door, there will always be at least two (one on either side). Some very large, heavy doors will come with more than two springs! If you have one spring on your garage door and would like to have two instead, our technicians can make this change and ensure the proper combination of springs is put on.

The most common garage door spring setups are either extension springs or torsion springs, although there are others such as a Wayne Dalton Torque Master system. Extension springs are located alongside the horizontal tracking on the side of the garage door, and torsion springs are located above the garage door connected to a torsion tube. In general, we do recommend a torsion spring system over an extension spring system. Torsion springs are generally rated to last much longer than extension springs. Where a torsion spring may last 15,000-20,000 cycles, an extension spring may be closer to 10,000 cycles. Most high-quality leading door manufacturers will come stock with a heavy-duty torsion spring system. Safety: when a torsion spring breaks, it will remain on the torsion tube. In contrast, when an extension spring breaks, unless it has a safety cable running through it, it may fly off into the garage which can be very dangerous.

Yes! If you are looking to upgrade your extension spring system or have another type of system that is tough to find parts for, you may have a “torsion conversion” performed and change it to a standard torsion spring system that is simple to work on for many years to come.

The springs are what do the lifting of your garage door, therefore, the garage door should not be operated with a broken spring. If the door is able to still operate (many times it will not), there is potential it can be thrown off its tracking due to improper balancing. Secondly, because the springs are what lift the door, if one is broken, the door will suddenly be very heavy. If the automatic garage door opener lifts this heavy door, it can cause severe damage to the opener, resulting in replacement.

Operationally, when a garage door spring is broken, often times it will only raise a few inches. Visually, a broken spring will be snapped in two, not to be confused with a two spring system. Lastly, when a spring breaks, it makes a loud pop noise! If you are near the garage when it happens, you’ll know!