Garage door springs are underrated by most homeowners. People who know how garage doors work understand the importance of the spring, but to most people, they don’t even really see them until they are broken. Those who have an automatic garage door opener even assume it is that opener that is lifting and lowering the door. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The garage door spring is the true work horse of the garage! It is subjected to most of the garage door’s weight, and if you have either an extra wide door or one made of wood, the weight is significant. So, now that you understand that garage door springs are important, lets go into depth about them.
Garage door springs can be broken down into two major groups: extension and torsion. In the past, extension springs were the most common choice, but most modern residential garages and commercial garages use some variation of a torsion spring. The strength of the spring allows it to counterbalance the weight of the garage door. As the door is opened and closed, the spring tightens or releases its tension. To maintain balance, the force of the spring needs to be equal to the weight of the door. The act of replacing garage door springs is potentially dangerous because that tension is powerful if released in an unsafe way. You will also see “cycle life” mentioned when buying springs. In spring terminology, a cycle life is how many cycles this spring can perform while being properly used in a properly configured door setup before failure. A full cycle is when you both open and close the door. Those two motions together make one cycle, so if a spring says it can handle 10,000 cycles, that means you can open and close it that many times. Torsion Springs This type of spring is a coil mounted onto a rod on the wall above the garage door opening. The spring twists and untwists. The torque generated by these springs moves cables in drums attached on each end of the spring rod, which moves the door up and down. Torsion springs are measured according to 3 basic criteria: diameter, wire size, and spring length. Extension Springs This type of garage door spring is often mounted along both sides of the garage door opening. Sometimes they are also placed above the horizontal section of the garage door track. These kinds of springs stretch instead of twist. While a torsion spring can do the job alone, extension springs are almost always used in a pair. One end of extension spring is usually a loop that can be easily connected to the door assembly. The other end is another loop that can be attached to a pulley.
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