Why You Should Replace Both Garage Door Springs

Overhead garage doors use heavy duty steel springs to help make it easier to open and close the door.  Garage doors weigh hundreds of pounds, but with properly adjusted springs they easily opened by hand or a small opener.

As garage door springs extend and contract (or coil and uncoil for torsion type springs) they become fatigued.  Each cycle of opening and closing the door causes the spring to become slightly weaker and it will eventually break.  Garage door springs typically last for thousands of cycles so even if you use your garage door frequently, it will take years for a spring to break.

When a spring breaks, you will need to have it replaced by a good garage door repair service.  These springs are dangerous and this is not a job for the homeowner.  Garage doors usually have two springs – one attached to either side of the door.

Always replace the springs in pairs, even though only one spring is broken.  It is important that the door is lifted evenly and as garage door springs age, they become weaker.  Installing a strong new spring on a door with an old weak spring will cause uneven lifting and jamming of the door.

In addition, if one spring breaks the other is not far behind and it is less expensive to install both springs at the same time than it is to have the garage door technician make two trips to your home a few months apart.