Most broken springs announce themselves with a bang from the garage at a moment when nobody is touching the door. The next thing people usually do is press the opener button, which is the one thing worth avoiding. Here is how to confirm a broken spring, what to do and not do, and what the repair involves.
Signs a spring has broken
- A loud bang from the garage, often while the door is closed and nobody is using it.
- A visible gap in the coil of the spring above the door, usually a couple of inches wide.
- The opener strains and stops after lifting the door a few inches, or runs without moving the door at all.
- The door feels extremely heavy if you try to lift it by hand.
- Loose or slack cables hanging beside the tracks, since the cables lose tension when the spring breaks.
- The door slams down fast in the last foot or two of closing, or closes crooked.
On older doors with extension springs along the side tracks, a broken spring may be hanging from its safety cable or lying on the floor.
What to do right now
- Stop using the opener. Unplug it if it keeps trying to run. An opener lifting a door with no spring help can strip its drive gear or bend the top section.
- Leave the door where it is if it is closed. A closed door with a broken spring is secure and not dangerous.
- Don’t pull the emergency release if the door is open or partly open. Without the spring, the door can drop.
- Keep people and pets out from under the door.
- Note how many springs you have and whether they are above the door or along the sides. That helps the tech bring the right parts.
Door not working right now?
Toledo Garage Door Service repairs broken springs, snapped cables, off-track doors and openers across Toledo and Lucas County, with the price given before any work starts. Request service online and we’ll call you back.
Why springs break
Springs wear out by metal fatigue. Every open and close flexes the steel, and after enough cycles a crack forms and the spring fractures. Standard springs are commonly rated around 10,000 cycles. Rust speeds that up, which matters in a damp or salty garage, and an incorrectly sized spring wears faster because it is working outside its intended range.
In Toledo, a lot of springs break on the first very cold mornings of winter. The cold is not what wore the spring out, but cold steel is less tough, so a spring that was already near the end of its cycles is more likely to let go then. If your springs are original and the house is around eight years old or more, a fall inspection is cheap insurance.
How long springs last
| Daily cycles (open + close) | Life of a 10,000-cycle spring | Life of a 20,000-cycle spring |
|---|---|---|
| 2 a day | About 13 years | About 27 years |
| 4 a day | About 7 years | About 14 years |
| 6 a day | About 4.5 years | About 9 years |
| 8 a day | About 3.5 years | About 7 years |
Real life varies with rust, sizing and maintenance, but the pattern holds: the more the garage is used as the main door, the more high-cycle springs pay for themselves.
What the repair involves
A tech measures the old springs and the door, safely releases any remaining tension, replaces both springs on a two-spring door, inspects the cables, drums and bearings while the tension is off, then winds the new springs and balances the door so it holds halfway open on its own. The opener's force and travel are reset afterward. It is usually about an hour on the job. Prices are in our spring replacement cost guide.
If your car is trapped inside
Tell us when you call so the visit can be prioritized. Do not try to lift the door with a broken spring to get it out. If the springs turn out to be intact and the problem is the opener, the door can be released and opened by hand. See how to open a garage door manually for how to tell the difference safely, or book spring replacement.