One of my garage door extention springs broke. Checking things out via google it appears there is now a color code for springs. My old springs did not have a color code so I weighed the door, I came up with 154lb's. The door is a 10' x 7' older wooden door in really decent shape. The door springs of course don't come in 5lb increments as 155 would be ideal. I cannot find any reference as to if you should go to the next larger size or go to the smaller size. Red is for 150lb's, Brown is for 160lb's. Anyone know which springs I should use?
When I broke one a couple of years ago, I simply took the broken one to a local garage door outfit. They looked at it, and simply gave me the right spring. DO be careful, as those suckers are under a LOT of tension!
I'd go to the next larger spring. I had similar problem and weighed the door. I wound up having to go 2 sizes up to get it balanced correctly. Also, the old spring was a lot larger diameter than the ones available today at the home centers. Not sure what quality/kind of spring you'd find today at a garage door company vs HD.
Also, make sure you use safety cables. They were not common in older doors. The new springs will come with them. And replace in sets.
Thats where the problem started. This actually started about a month ago, thats when one of the springs broke, there was no color code on it, age unknown, atleast 15yrs. I started at Home Depot, they were useless then brought it to a place that installs garage doors, they asked me a bunch of questions, ie what the door was made of, dimmensions etc and they gave me a couple replacement springs, a couple cables and 2 safety wires that run thru the springs and said to do them in pairs, just like everything on the web recomends. I installed them and the door opened on it's own so I assumed I did something wrong and had to loosend the springs a whole lot just to get the garage to stay closed. Loosened them so much that when it's open all the way the open the springs just hang there. Yesterday I was out cleaning the garage and said let me take a look at the springs again as it was on my "honey do list". Double checked on the web that I was doing the cables and everything correctly, I was. All the websites said springs are based on the weight of the door, so I decided to weigh it, it came in at 154 (did it a few times to verify, opener and current springs disconnected). The springs the door place gave me are Green
220's which are the same length but almost twice diameter than of the original springs, I questioned them on the diameter then and they said thats how the new ones come for my style door wooden door...explains the magical automatic opening of the door! Can find anything about different diameters on the web, but all the sites say to match what you currently have, but do not say that a 3"Green is ABC pounds and a 1.5" Green is DEF pounds. Unfortunately the old springs were thrown away a few weeks ago or I would have waited until tommorow and brought them to another place. Got the
160's now, trying to find the motivation to go out and change them....the couch is looking way too tempting today on a cold a rainy day here in MA.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.