DESERT'S EXPERT GUIDE TO GARAGE DOOR SPRINGS

  Safety warnings: it is important to follow good practices by being informed of the serious potential dangers involved in handling garage door springs. Garage door springs hold anywhere from one hundred to three hundred and fifty pounds of coiled tension force (while your garage door is in the closed position). For comparison it only requires twenty to fifty pounds of tension force to dislocate a human finger. Potential for bodily harm is increased if grip is lost on tensioning tools during the tuning process, as any objects firmly inserted into the springs will serve as reach extensions of the spring's tension force. That means torsion bars can rebound to inflict blunt force in the event of slippage. Attempting to fix garage door springs with a shoulder impairment is unadvised, as that is the primary muscle used throughout the process, and sudden failure as discussed, can potentially lead to serious bodily harm.

  Key Considerations: Whenever our technicians are working on torsion springs, the first thing we do is ensure the garage door is safely set into the down position. This is because despite appearances, the track is not designed to hold the entire weight of a garage door unassisted. Additionally, the torsion bars used to torsion the springs are often obstructed by the garage door. If the door is jammed in the upward position, it is often a cable issue that will need to be handled before work can begin on the springs. Regardless, once work begins on the springs, it is perhaps even more critical to properly calculate the spring coil size against their overall length to determine the strength rating of your springs. The force exerted is then to be balanced against the weight of your door.  In the industry, some companies such as ours will go so far as to painstakingly manually categorize each spring received from the factory, labelling them in sizes one-through-twelve based on their support capability. Size one, generally being our weakest, and size twelve generally being our largest heavy-duty springs. On this scale, springs 2-4 are most common for residential purposes.

  Why it matters: Without springs properly balanced to the weight of your door, you will face varying degrees of two extremes. In scenario one, your springs will be too powerful, holding your garage door either partially, or fully open. In scenario two your springs will be too weak for the weight of your garage door, and your motor will either struggle to open the garage door, or will be unable to entirely. While the unique obstacles presented vary, both scenarios lead to a damaged or broken garage door motor. This is because as alluded to earlier in this consumer's guide, residential garage door motors are too weak to lift your garage door unassisted, and that means attempts to do so will damage your motor. Which is a thorough way of simply communicating this solid piece of advice: 'if your springs are broken, don't try to open your garage door, you'll break your motor'.

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  How it's done: After all other crucial safety and critical diagnostic steps are completed, we finally pull out the tools and get to work. The most common tool for the process, aside from the specialized scales to assist with calculations, are the spring torsion bars. Humble, relatively thick, unassuming metal bars used to adjust the tension in torsion springs. These bars are inserted inside the outward facing holes on the spring cap, and carefully turned to loosen or tighten the spring. For most residential garage doors, the sweet spot with a standard pair of torsion springs is an average of around 200 inch pounds per turn. Though, there are many other factors besides tightness to account for in overall spring weight, such as tube diameter and spring wire diameter. Generally however, tightness is the most important. It is also crucial to note that while spring torsion bars are iconic, technology has come a long way, and many professionals including those at Harvey's Garage Door sometimes deploy complex specialized tools used to make the process significantly safer, and more efficient.