Garage Door Heavy to Lift by Hand? San Diego Spring Repair

What you are seeing

It used to be that you could raise the door with one hand during a power outage. Now it takes two hands and a grunt, or it will not come up past your knees.

The opener may sound strained, run slower than it used to, or stop and reverse partway up for no clear reason. Or the door comes down harder and faster than it should when you let go.

All of these say the same thing. The springs, not your arms and not the opener, are meant to carry the weight of the door, and they are no longer doing it. That matters for the opener as much as for your back, because the opener is next in line to fail.

What usually causes it

Worn springs. Springs are rated in cycles, one open and one close. Standard residential springs are commonly rated around 10,000 cycles, and a household that runs the door four times a day uses about 1,460 a year. Near the end of that life they lose tension, and the door gets heavier long before one breaks.

A broken spring. On a two-spring door, the survivor carries part of the load, but the door feels far heavier.

Torsion or extension.

• Torsion: one or two springs on a shaft above the opening, used on most doors built since the 1990s. A break leaves a gap of about two inches in the coil.
• Extension: a pair of long springs along the horizontal tracks, on older and lighter doors. They stretch, rust and lose pull over time.

What you can safely check in two minutes

Never run the opener with a spring that looks broken, and skip the lift test if anything above the door looks damaged.

1. Look. From the floor, check the springs and cables. A gapped coil, a dangling spring or a slack cable means stop and call.
2. Disconnect, door closed. Pull the release cord only with the door fully down. On weak springs, an open door can drop fast.
3. Lift to waist height by the handle, fingers clear of the section joints, then let go slowly, hands ready.
4. Read it. A balanced door stays put or barely drifts. If it drops, the springs are weak. If it rises, they are too tight. If it will not pass your knees, set it down and stop.

If it failed, lower it and leave it closed until the springs are fixed.

Which repair fixes it

• Worn or broken torsion springs: spring replacement, sized to the weight and height of your door, then the door balanced so it holds at waist height.
• Stretched or rusted extension springs: replaced as a pair, with safety cables through them.
• A frayed cable or a worn drum making one side drag: cable and drum replacement.
• Dry or rusted rollers and hinges adding drag: rollers and hinges.
• A Wayne Dalton TorqueMaster: the springs sit inside the tube and need their own parts and tools.

Fix the springs before the opener. An opener is built to guide a balanced door, and a heavy one strips its drive gear and can bend the top section.

When a repair stops making sense

Springs are worth replacing on nearly every door, because no door works without them. The exceptions come from the door itself.

• Sections that are cracked, rusted through or badly bent, on a door you plan to replace soon anyway.
• A one-piece tilt-up whose wood or hardboard has rotted or split. Parts for most tilt-ups are still available, so the decision rests on the door, not the hardware.
• A door where the springs, cables, rollers and opener are all worn out at the same time.

A new door is a job for a licensed contractor, and we will tell you plainly when that is the better spend. Our guide to fixing or replacing a garage door sets out when each one pays off.

Across San Diego

Which springs you have depends largely on when the house was built. West of I-805 in Chula Vista, older homes are more likely to have extension springs or a one-piece tilt-up, while the neighborhoods east of the freeway mostly run torsion springs.

In Olde Del Mar, many remodeled homes carry custom wood, cedar or carriage-style doors. Those doors start out heavy, and when the finish wears they take on moisture in the ocean air and get heavier still, so their springs have to match the real weight of the door. Our custom wood door page covers them.

Where we see this

We cover all of San Diego County, same day in most cases. Some of the places we work:

• Chula Vista
• Coronado
• Imperial Beach
• La Mesa
• El Cajon
• Santee
• Poway
• Escondido
• Carmel Valley
• Mira Mesa
• Scripps Ranch
• Rancho Bernardo
• Mission Valley
• Normal Heights
• All service areas

Related guides

• Torsion vs Extension Garage Door Springs: What's the Difference?: How torsion and extension garage door springs work, how to tell which you have, pros and cons, safety cables, conversion and what each means for repair.
• Broken Garage Door Spring: What to Do Right Now: Heard a loud bang in the garage? How to spot a broken spring, why the door stays shut and the opener off, and what to do while you wait for the repair.
• How Long Do Garage Door Springs Last? Cycles, Years and Signs: Garage door springs are rated in cycles. See how many years 10,000 and 20,000 cycles last at 2 to 8 a day, coast versus inland wear and the warning signs.