Guide

Is Your Garage Door Spring Broken? Here is How To Tell

Four signs a torsion or extension spring has broken, what is safe to check yourself, and what replacement costs from the Scottsdale company that fixes them.

The clearest sign is a loud bang followed by a door that will not lift, or only lifts a few inches before the opener strains and stops. If the door feels far heavier than normal when lifted by hand, or there is a visible gap in the coiled spring above the door, the spring has broken. Stop using the opener before anything else gets damaged.

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Four Signs The Spring Has Gone

A broken spring is usually obvious once you know what to look for, and knowing the difference between a spring problem and something else saves a wasted service call. Here is what actually points to a broken spring.

A loud bang or crack from the garage, sometimes when nobody is touching the door. That is the coil letting go.
The opener hums or strains and the door stops a few inches up instead of opening fully.
With the opener disconnected, the door feels far heavier than one hand should have to lift.
A visible gap in the coiled spring above the door, or a slack, tangled cable if you have the side-mounted extension type.

Torsion Or Extension: Which One Do You Have

Most Valley homes have a torsion spring, but plenty of older or lighter doors still run extension springs. It matters, because they fail differently and one of them is far more dangerous to be near when it lets go.

Torsion springs

Mounted on a metal bar directly above the door header and wound tight against a shaft. This is the stronger, more dangerous system under tension, and it is what most doors built or upgraded in the last twenty years use.

Extension springs

Run along the tracks above the door and stretch as the door closes. They are lighter duty, common on older single doors, and should always have a safety cable threaded through them so a broken spring cannot whip loose across the garage.

A cracked or shredded cable

Springs and cables share the load, so when a spring goes the matching cable often frays or goes slack at the same time. Fraying strands or a loose cable at the bottom bracket usually means a second repair riding along with the spring.

One spring or both

On a two-spring door, both springs have lifted it the same number of times. If one has broken, the other is usually close behind, which is why we replace both on about 98 percent of two-spring jobs rather than waiting for a second service call.

When it is not the spring

A dead opener capacitor, a disconnected trolley, or a misaligned sensor can also stop a door and none of those involve the spring. The giveaway is weight: if the door is heavy to lift by hand with the opener disconnected, it is the spring. If it lifts easily by hand but the opener still will not run it, look at the opener first.

What Is Safe To Check Yourself

Unplug the opener first, always. Then look up at the spring: one continuous coil is fine, a visible gap means it has broken. Pull the manual release and try lifting the door a few inches by hand. It should move with one hand; if it barely budges, treat it as broken even without a visible gap.

A broken torsion spring replaced and the door re-balanced runs 180 to 290 dollars per spring, fitted, the same in all 35 cities we cover. A high-cycle spring rated for 25,000 to 50,000 cycles instead of the standard is 80 to 120 dollars more per spring. The 35 dollar service call comes off the price if the work goes ahead.

Do Not Touch The Spring Yourself

A wound torsion spring holds enough force to break fingers or worse if it is handled with the wrong tools. This is not a repair to learn from a video. We carry the winding bars, the correct size spring for your door's weight, and the experience to do it safely, and we treat every one of these jobs with that same caution.

One Way To Catch It Before It Snaps

Springs are rated for a number of open-and-close cycles, and a standard builder spring is good for around 10,000, roughly five to seven years of normal use before it is due. A 100 dollar tune-up checks the coil, the cables, and the cycle wear before it becomes a Saturday morning with the car trapped inside.

Answers

Questions People Ask About This

Can I tell if my garage door spring is broken without opening the door?

Usually yes. Unplug the opener and look up at the spring above the door: one continuous coil is fine, a visible gap means it has broken. On an extension-spring door, check the springs running along the upper tracks instead of the header.

How much does it cost to replace a garage door spring?

180 to 290 dollars per spring, fitted, the same in all 35 cities we cover. On a two-spring door we replace both about 98 percent of the time since they have done the same number of cycles. The 35 dollar service call comes off the price if the work goes ahead.

Is it safe to run the opener if the spring is broken?

No. Running the opener against a broken spring is the fast way to strip the gears or burn out the motor, turning one repair into two. If a vehicle needs to come out, two adults can sometimes lift the door by hand, carefully, but call it in rather than repeat that.

Can one spring break and the other still be fine?

It happens, but it is rare. Both springs on a double door have lifted it the same number of times, so if one has failed the other is usually close behind. We will show you the wear on both before recommending replacing just one.

If You Would Rather We Just Looked At It

This is what we do all day. Every job is priced on the price list, the service call is 35 dollars and it comes off the price if the work goes ahead, and you get the exact number on the phone before anyone is booked.

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