From my experience fielding calls, most people think that the motorized opener hanging from the ceiling of their garage is what opens and closes their garage door. The opener does help the door along, but the mechanism doing most of the work is actually the torsion spring. The configuration of torsion springs vary by door so we are just going to touch on the most common type today on a steel sectional door. This spring or springs are located above the inside of the door, running horizontally along a torsion tube. These springs are wound to hold mechanical energy and then convert that energy to lift and slowly lower the door.
The time when most people become aware of their torsion spring is when it breaks. This can happen in varying degrees of damage and drama. Sometimes it breaks in the middle of the night and is not noticed until someone tries to open the garage door (that worked just fine yesterday) to no avail. Other times, especially if there is only one long spring compared to two smaller ones sharing the load, the door opens or begins to open, then there is a loud sound, usually a “pop” or “bang”. Then the door comes crashing back down, usually breaking cables and knocking rollers out as it goes. A garage door is usually hundreds of pounds and cause ha Now that we have gone over what torsion springs are and what they do, the next post will let you know how to take care of your springs and try to prevent a failing spring and a falling door as much as possible.
