Alicia SedorDavid H. Showed up within 1/2 hour and immediately replaced the garage door springs. He even placed a brace on one side of garage door to make it more stable since the brace/bolts there were bent. Very pleased with him as he informed me of every step of what he was doing. Would I recommend him/company?… you bet I would. The service is very professional and the job is very well done. Thank you David for your great work.janet sebadeJohn was very knowledgeable, kind and considerate when it came to replacing the springs on my garage door. He explained everything he was doing. The office manager I spoke to was also so very sweet and informative. She was able to get me on the schedule right away. I have used this company in the past and I highly recommend them.Eric SchowService was courteous and prompt, communication was great, and the price was reasonable. I’ve used them twice, and would definitely use them again.Aaron SchroderSimply the best! Don’t waste timing checking out the other vendors, this is the one. I called on a Monday morning to have my garage door keypad checked out and after less than 2 hours it was fixed. The whole team was amazing to work with and John S. was exceptional on site. He guided us through the changes and made us feel comfortable with the whole process.Mario GarciaEffective, efficient and responsive that is what customers want.Lise WahlinThis company is so professional .Bill WalkupAbraham was great--very helpful. I'll certainly call for him again when we need garage door maintenance. Thanks, BillChristopher PadavickProfessional service completed as promised. Thank you for explaining the usage procedures afterwards.Debbi KeelerCarol GunninEntry Systems were very easy to work with. Got a service appt. the very next day. Jacob was professional and diagnosed the problem quickly, made the repair and now our keypad and remote are working. Would highly recommend Entry Systems!
Top 4 Signs Your Garage Door Spring Might Be Broken
- There is a noticeable gap, space, or a visual separation in the coil of the torsion spring. Does it look like your garage door spring broke in half?
- The garage door is very heavy and won't open and the garage door opener makes a weird grunting noise.
- The garage door is still too heavy to lift when the garage door opener is disengaged and it is in manual.
- You press the button to open your garage door, and it goes up a foot and stops.
Garage Door Spring Adjustments
When your door seems heavy, sometimes a spring adjustment can help balance the door, but sometimes we may recommend replacing the springs depending on the age of the equipment.
Should I Grease my Garage Door Springs?
Yes, it is a good idea to grease your torsion springs. Once we install springs, we apply a lubricant to them so that they look nice, and this also prevents friction when the springs wind and unwind.
We also use garage door lubricant to lubricate hinges and rollers, the center bearing and end bearing plates, and everything that pivots and turns to keep the door moving smoothly and quietly.
What do garage door springs actually do?
Garage door springs counterbalance the weight of the door so that it is lighter, balanced, or neutral.
When someone lifts a heavy door, it stays up and does not put extreme stress on the garage door opener when it is opening.
To be safe, the garage door needs to be balanced and stay in any position you leave it in.
You don't want it to have the tendency to fall quickly and be unsafe. Garage doors should be able to be lifted by almost anyone of any age or build, so no one should have to muscle it.
The motor is only designed to lift between 15-25 pounds, it is not designed to muscle extremely heavy doors.
Even if you can program it to do so, you are cutting the life of the motor in half or less.
Garage door opener manufacturers tell us that they make them stronger, knowing that the homeowners will put them on very heavy doors, but they will only last half as long as a professional model. This is because a professional knows putting a motor on a very heavy door creates problems.
Balance is important to us as professionals and when we come out, we check the balance every time, even if we are only there for a motor issue or maintenance.
If your door is not balanced, it will crash if you were to accidentally disengage the motor when it is fully open. It can be very dangerous when the cord is accidentally pulled or snagged, and the door falls down very fast on whatever is below it.
As a professional, our goal is for no one and for nothing to ever break, get damaged, or hit by the door. If the door hits a car or someone with the motor, it is designed to reverse to keep them safe.
But if your garage door spring breaks and you disconnect that motor, nothing will stop the door from crushing what is beneath it.
Can you repair a garage door spring?
No. Unfortunately, many people call and ask if a garage door spring repair is possible, however, torsion springs are not intended to be repaired. We always recommend replacing garage door springs instead of repairing them.
This is because the reason why the torsion spring broke is not usually due to manufacturer failure or a homeowner's misuse of their garage door.
Most overhead garage door springs break because of wear and tear and there is a number of cycles that the torsion spring is designed to lift.
Standard torsion springs lift ten thousand cycles, which is ten thousand ups and downs of the garage door.
Cycles are not an exact science, but more of a projection, and you can get springs that are projected for more cycles like our high-cycle replacement springs, which last around twenty-five thousand cycles or more.
Even if it was possible to do a garage door spring repair, it would break at a different point in the coils, as the spring has been worn down and it is now brittle, so a garage door spring replacement is now necessary.
FYI: The torsion tube or torsion shaft is typically reused and is what the spring is mounted on against the header. They are not typically replaced unless they are worn out, rusted, or painted over.
How long should my garage door torsion springs last?
This depends on the type of garage door torsion springs you have installed in your home because there are different types of springs.
Read our descriptions below, and you can always contact us if you are unsure about which spring type you have.
Types of Garage Door Springs
Standard Garage Door Springs
Standard torsion springs installed in most homes are oil-tempered or galvanized and have the industry-standard rating of 10,000 cycles.
The life cycle for standard garage door springs is approximately 5-7 years. This depends on how many times you open and close your door daily.
Extension springs are used when you have a flip-up one-piece door, a DIY version of a spring system used on a sectional door, or if you live in the Midwest.
Extension springs are not popular in Southern California anymore.
High-Cycle Springs
High-cycle springs are engineered by the manufacturer for heavy or high-usage garages.
This means that compared with standard garage door springs they are more powerful and can withstand higher degrees of pressure for longer time spans.
Therefore, they are rated for a longer life expectancy. Traditionally, high-cycle springs have been used most often in commercial applications, such as communities with hundreds of residents, retail stores such as Costco, or service companies like UPS.
High-cycle springs use a larger wire size and the replacement spring itself will be longer in length, with more coils using less under pressure.
Our garage door repair technicians carry 25,000 cycle springs on all of our trucks, which are roughly two and half times the life of a standard spring.
Spending a little more money upfront on your new springs, as you do with premium vehicle tires or wiper blades, means that you don't spend as much in the long run, and you won't have the inconvenience of a broken door as often.
Why would I need special order torsion springs?
Special order springs are typically needed for garage doors that are custom.
Steel torsion springs are usually standard for the most part unless you have a custom home where you built the garage to a special height or width. Otherwise, we have the standard sizes on our technician's trucks.
Custom is usually referring to wood door springs, because every time a wood door is built, it is then weighed, and the springs are custom made to it.
Everything added to a custom wood door adds weight, including the bracing, hinges, glass, decorative hardware, or even painting it.
Therefore, each custom wood door weighs a different amount and needs the correct spring to match its weight. Otherwise, the door might be light on the top and heavy on the bottom.
When we visit your home and see that there is a broken spring, we will measure and confirm what is needed and if it needs to be special ordered.
There is a way for our garage door technicians to temporarily repair broken springs that need to be special ordered by using a tool that clamps the spring back together temporarily which may require additional labor.
How do you calculate the number of cycles I need my springs to have?
To calculate the numbers of cycles you first need to consider how many people live in your home and how often the door is used.
Two-occupant households often leave and return at different times in the morning and evening.
Each opening and closing of the door is a cycle, so a typical two-occupant household uses 4 spring cycles per day or 2 ups and downs per person per day.
Using your calculator, take 4 cycles multiplied by 365 days in a year equaling 1,460 cycles a year.
This would mean you would only get a little more than 6.85 years out of standard cycle spring.
What exponentially increases the cycle use is high-occupancy homes or using your garage as your front door or main point of access.
Other factors to take into consideration are weekends, holidays, vacations, multiple people leaving at the same time, and how many people live in your home.
Your garage door springs will last longer if you use your garage door less, but we want to use our garage door freely. However, if you want your springs to last longer, we suggest high-cycle springs.
If we know your garage door usage will be 10 times a day and you don't want to replace your springs for another 10 years, we would calculate 10 x 3650, which would come out to a 36,000-cycle spring.
How do I get my car out of my garage if there is a broken spring?
It is possible to get a car out of the garage with a broken spring by assisting the garage door opener.
You must be very careful because this can worsen the situation and you can get injured.
It is common for a car to get trapped in the garage because the spring will break after the door closes, not after the door opens.
When an Entry Systems garage door technician comes out, we use the garage door opener motor to lift, and the technician assists the motor by making up the difference of the lifting power of the broken garage door springs.
Are you looking for a temporary fix for a broken garage door spring? If there is only one broken spring (or only one garage door coil broken), it is possible to muscle it with someone else and lift it up but be careful because it will come down very fast.
If there are two springs, the other spring is still wound even if one broke, so you still have half the power applied.
Unless the door is extremely large or heavy, our garage door technician will make up the difference after the button is pushed, but it needs to be lifted at the right speed, not too fast or slow.
This is because if you lift it faster than the motor it will stop because it will think that something is pushing against the garage door, and if you lift it too slow the motor will realize that the door is dragging.
For more information on what to do with a stuck closed or open garage door with a broken spring, check out our blog on emergency garage door service.
Can you fix your own garage door spring?
No, we absolutely do not recommend that a homeowner replace or engage in adjusting torsion springs themselves.
Torsion spring replacement should be done by a trained garage door professional because springs can be very dangerous to work with.
Entry Systems does not sell torsion springs to non-professionals to do a DIY repair.
Many people are naive about the possible injuries that can occur if they do not know what they are doing. Working with springs is dangerous because they are under an incredible amount of pressure or torque, even the lightest of doors that are seven-foot-high door is wound up seven times.
Our technicians use a winding bar to add or remove spring tension.
People often get hurt because they don't have the correct tools, they don't know the correct techniques in regard to how to hold the tools and how to stand, and they don't know where the power is coming from or where the dangers lie.
Throughout the process of a spring replacement, we know how to be in control, but if you have never done it before you don't know where to control it and when the pressure is coming.
One must be very cautious and confident while you are doing it as many people have been hurt trying to do it themselves over the years.
One of the most common injuries is to one's hands, and we have even met people who had such bad nerve damage they were unable to practice their profession that required the use of their hands.
Entry Systems is known for its exceptional customer service. Our automatic gate and garage door company also offers service to the entire automatic gate and garage door system, including general garage door repairs, and garage door installation, and we have new garage door remotes available.