Why would a garage door spring break again so soon after it was replaced?
A torsion spring is picked for two numbers, the weight of the door and the number of times it will open and close. When a replacement lets go after months instead of years, one of those numbers was off for this door or this house, or the spring that broke was never replaced at all. Garage door spring repair after a second break starts by working out which.
The first break on a Sand Springs door is rarely a mystery. The wide steel two-car doors on the postwar buff-brick ranches mostly still carry their original springs, long past their cycle life, and a spring that old breaking is the expected end. A spring that went on recently is a different case. It came with a working life, the spring page puts a standard one at 10,000 cycles, and it should have had most of that life left.
Did the new spring break, or the one that was left on?
On a two-spring door, the first thing to settle is which side failed. If the spring in two pieces is the one that was not changed last time, the early break has a plain cause, the years it had already worked. If it is the newer spring, age does not explain it, and one of the next two questions usually does.
A spring hung recently usually looks cleaner than one that has sat over the door for a decade, with less rust and grime on the coils, and the invoice from the last visit may say whether one spring or both went on. Look from the floor and read the paperwork, and leave the shaft, the cones and the springs alone. A spring that has not broken is still holding its full wind.
When the old survivor is the one in pieces, this is the situation the spring page’s two-for-one rule is written for. Springs installed together wear together. Leave one on, and the door gets a second service call on the old spring’s schedule rather than the new one’s.
Was the spring rated for how often this door runs?
Every standard spring carries a cycle rating, and the count runs out on use, not on the calendar. The spring page’s example is a Prattville household with kids at four cycles a day. A house that runs its door twice that often reaches the end of the same rating much sooner, so a correctly sized spring can still be the wrong spring for that garage.
The houses that spend cycles fastest are easy to recognize. The garage is the everyday front door, and nobody has used the one on the porch in years. A teenager starts driving and the door runs every time someone leaves, comes back, and leaves again. None of that is unusual. It changes how many cycles the house puts on the door in a year, and a spring picked for an average household wears out on that schedule instead.
The maintenance guide’s method of tallying a week of door cycles is worth doing before the next spring is chosen. Springs built for a longer cycle life exist. Whether one belongs on this door is a choice to make in the conversation before the next spring goes on, when the rating can still be picked to fit the house.
Has the door gotten heavier since the spring was sized?
Sometimes the door changed after its springs were picked. An add-on insulation kit fitted to a plain steel door, a replaced section that is heavier than the one it took out, or a heavier insulated door like the ones toward the lake hung on springs that were never resized. A spring sized for the old weight works harder on every cycle and wears out sooner.
The insulated-door guide covers insulation kits that add weight to springs wound for the old door. On the wood doors near downtown, paint and damp do the same thing slowly, which is the subject of the guide to sizing a spring to what an older wood door weighs now.
What should change on the next spring visit so it lasts?
The next visit should size the spring from the door as it hangs today and from how the house uses it, not from the label on the spring that broke. The spring page’s visit steps already work this way: the door made safe, the spring sized to this door, the hardware checked with the tension off, the door balanced and the opener set to it. After an early break, a few of those carry more weight than usual.
- The door weighed or balanced as it is now, with whatever has been added to it, rather than matched to the old spring’s size
- Both springs replaced on a two-spring door, so neither side is running on old wear
- A cycle rating chosen for how many times this household runs the door
- Cables, drums and end bearings looked over while the tension is off, since a worn bearing or a frayed cable adds drag the spring carries too
- The opener’s force limit reset to the balanced door, so the motor is not covering for a spring that is a little light
The last item is easy to overlook. An opener left set to push hard will lift a door that is slightly out of balance without complaint, and nobody in the house notices the spring is short of its job until it breaks early again.
For what replacing both springs costs, the price board puts a single torsion spring at $180 to $350 and both springs on a two-spring door at $260 to $450. The board has no line for a longer-life spring, so that one gets priced for the door in question.