Thursday, December 1, 2016

Springs: A Garage Door's Best Friend

Springs are the main operating system for the garage door. People often wonder how a 1/2hp motor can lift a 150- or 200-pound garage door, and the real answer is that it probably couldn't--not without a little help. This is where your garage door's springs come in. These springs are wound with an incredible amount of required tension, and it's this tension that does the majority of the work when your door is opening or closing. Maybe you like to leave your door cracked open to let in some air? That's the springs at work again. Or maybe you've opened and closed the door manually, and with surprisingly little effort. That's the springs at work for you one more time.

A broken garage door torsion spring.

We last wrote about springs over a year ago, and we think that post covered some very important information. You can view the full post here (and we recommend you do), but we'll recycle some of the key points below.

  • Springs don't usually shatter into pieces when they break, so it's not immediately obvious that a broken spring is causing a door not to open. Due to the incredible tension we talked about above, however, you are likely to hear a loud BANG when they break, and it would be very difficult or impossible to open the door manually.
  • A broken spring is one of our most common service calls.
  • In addition to inconvenience, broken or old, rusty springs can create a safety hazard for family members and pets that may be passing under an open door. For this reason, checking and properly lubricating springs is always on our checklist during all service calls.
  • Springs are made to fit your unique garage door. We keep a large number of common sizes in stock, and we can also custom make some sizes in our shop. In most cases, we're able to replace broken springs the same day, and we're always able to get you up and running with a safe, temporary fix, should a special order be necessary.

Much like garage doors and nearly everything else, springs face extra pressure due to our warm, salty air. For this reason we use only the highest quality high-cycle springs, and we stand behind this quality with our own 3-year warranty.


To close out another great year with you all, we're offering our biggest savings ever on spring replacements. During the month of December 2016, save $50 off of any single-car door spring replacement, and save an incredible $100 off any double-car door spring replacement! Whether you have a broken spring or preemptively want to replace an old pair, use code word SPRINGS to take advantage of this great deal when calling 871-8888 to schedule your appointment!