Get out the Yellow Pages and your Visa card.
Really.
Torsion springs are dangerous, and -- no offense intended -- replacing one is not a job for someone who needs to ask how to do it. Call a pro.
People don't read. There are two types of springs common to garage doors. Torsion wound springs and coil springs. The OP has the latter, a very simple 15 minute job. Torsion springs have some inherent danger unless done properly. The doom and gloom guys that said to call a pro either don't know about coil springs or did not take the time to figure out what is 26" long.
Depends a lot on the type of spring. You're probably thinking of extension springs, which any idiot can replace without much danger. Sounds to me like the OP has torsion springs (an extension spring would likely be more than 26" long), and those can be *very* dangerous.
The danger with torsion springs isn't pinched fingers -- it's *amputated* fingers and broken bones.
Easy to do. You can buy them at any home center. Be sure to read the load rating as they differ from singe, double etc. Measure your door to get it right.
I NEED to repeat the above. Aperently you guys think that this is just another easy job for the do-it-yourselfer. NEVER EVER try to fix/replace torsion springs on garage doors, they can easily KILL you! Sorry to pop anyones bubble, but this is serious! I have delt with voltages of 30KV and above and still I would never try fixing these, they are just too dangerous! A slip of the hand and your dead, or even if you do everything right it may still maim you. Even specialized repairmen get maimed and killed doing this, the DIY way is not the best way this time!
A repairman is only a few hundred dollars, save yourself the hospital trip. Get a pro!
I just remembered that a friend told me how he got his springs stretched. Much better than mine. He called his neighbor who worked in construction and asked if he had anything to stretch them. The guy said yes and came right over. My friend said the guy was about 5 ft. 8 in. tall and about three feet wide with arm like logs. The guy took a hold of the spring, the veins in his neck and arms stood out and he stretched the spring and hooked it up.
The last time I purchased double sets of springs. They had a bracket that allowed two smaller springs on each side. Those I could stretch. However, I had to work about an hour adjusting the brackets because the combined springs were too strong and the door would not stay closed.
Mine always broke on the end. Someone I know had the spring go through the garage roof and land in his back yard (no safety cables).
Now I have torsion. Much safer.
I almost killed myself screwing around fixing a garage door. Call a pro. But watch all for ripoff outfits. The ones with full page ads in the yellow pages that advertise $29 service charge. They are crooks in my experience. They will tell you you need $1000 of repairs. It is BS. An honest job is about $150 to $200 with springs. You might call Wayne Dalton if they have a store near you. They fix all brands near me and are very reliable.
Extension spring at
Sorry to pop your bubble, but this is not a torsion spring, but a coil spring. READ the description.
Dan, while I agree with you in principle, I think you put a bit too much spin in your post.
Every garage door extension spring I've ever seen broken failed right where an end loop was bent off the body of the spring, as expected.
When I torch them and form a new end loop I am careful to use as little of the active spring as possible, which means I remove no more than one active coil to create the new end loop.
I just counted the coils on one of the new pair of 150 pound springs I installed on one of my 7 foot single width garage doors last week. There's 145 active turns in it.
Using one turn to make a new loop removes less than 0.7% of the active turns which is about 3/4" when fully extended, not the 3 or 4 inches you mentioned, and I won't believe the designers left that little safety margin there.
I've ALWAYS used safety cables in the extension springs of the garage doors in every home I've owned, knowing that those springs will eventually break. When an end loop snaps off it's faster for me to form a new one than to make a shopping trip.
I've never had one of the end loops I've made break, but when the OTHER loop breaks off the same spring that's when I feel it's time to give in and buy a new pair of springs. You're right about the low cost, the ones I bought last week at Home Depot cost $13.95 each and came with brand new safety cables too.
FWIW, I've never readjusted the cable lengths on the door we mostly use, it's always balanced well enough after I've relooped or replaced springs on it. The other door, which we only open about once a week, has never suffered a spring break.
But, I just measured the springs with the doors closed and on both of our home's doors there's about an inch of difference in the stretched lengths of its springs, either as set by the original installers 21 years ago or perhaps the result of uneven stretching of the cables since then.
Jeff
I wasn't aware the pros are born with this knowledge. Didn't they have to "ask how to do it?" Is this not simply a learned technique, versus an inherently death-defying trade? Does this require special tools, versus stuff that you can find in a hardware store? If you don't know, you oughtn't be concluding whether or not someone can do it.
Hard to trust those who are gullible enough to believe that obscuring email addresses reduces spam. One little slip, and ...
Trade-toady bunk. By your logic, NEVER EVER try to:
Drive a car Climb a ladder Push a running lawnmower Go for a swim Encounter strangers on a sidewalk Cross a busy street etc.
Many worthwhile activities carry lethal hazards that are managed by careful qualification, knowledge and practice.
Hi, I had similar experience. Could've lost a finger. I learned how to do it first with proper tool. IMO, it's not worth for DIY'er. Let a pro handle it. And soak the springs with oil to prevent premature metal fatigue and failure. Tony
Because you didn't know the proper techniques, correct?
Tell us the story.
"Richard J Kinch" wrote
Doing a garage spring isn't rocket surgery. One can do it with a couple of tools and a couple of pieces of rebar.
Just as using an axe is not a complicated thing, until you learn, the potential for serious injury due to slip ups and inexperience are high.
It's not something to learn on. It's something to have a pro come and do. Fingers are worth more than the Franklin an experienced workman would charge to change one. A guy who changes ten a week will know how to do it.
Yes, the average Joe could learn to do it, but changing one now, then fifteen years from now when it fails does not build experience very fast.
And an inexperienced person messing with a bag of snakes like a broken garage door spring is just plain dumb. Ignorant is never having been told how to do something. Dumb is doing something you don't know how to do, and not heeding the cautions.
Steve
With that type of logic, we never would have evolved from the trees to the savannahs... Real men look at a problem and then figure out how to solve it... Quiche eaters call the 'experts'...
And it's not worth your life to drive to work today. Stay home.
And how do you measure caster, camber, which are angles, with string and paint cans? Or even toe in/ out for that matter, when a difference of less than 1/16" will destroy a set of tires?
Apparently you can't or won't read. The OP has made it clear several times now that he has extension type springs, so stop the hysteria.
We think it's an easy job, because it is. If you read the thread, the OP has stated several times that he has the extension type of spring, not the torsion type. That was quite clear from the very first post. As to what is dangerous, that is up to the skills and knowledge of the individual. There are lots of people that shouldn't work on electricity, but I rarely see such hysteria directed toward them.
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