Garage Door Springs

[Raizinman]

Both my garage doors work good. No noise, no jerking, and easy to go up and down. I just noticed that when the door is down, there are gaps in two of the garage door springs that I don't believe were there before. The door springs are easily 6 or 8 years old. I'm thinking that it is probably time to replace the springs. I have a few questions about it.

These are the safety springs that are near the top track and has a safety cable running through it. Not the torsion springs.

1) With the door up, it appears there is no pressure on the spring and it should therefore be an easy swap to put new ones in.

2) Are all garage door springs the same? Do I just go to Home Depot or Lowes and buy springs? Do they come in different lengths or tension? Are there Heavy Duty Springs?

3) Any tricks to installing these springs? They actually look pretty easy?

 

[boomerang]

I'm big on preventive maintenance but this is going too far IMO.

2) No | I doubt they'd have the ones you need as there are a myriad of different door widths, heights and weights if they even carry them at all. Last I looked, they weren't carried in the stores. | Yes and yes | If there are, why would you want them?

3) I'm certain you can find a video on YouTube showing the procedure.

 

[NutBucket]

Do you have a sectional door? If so, pay a pro. If not, just find the comparable replacement at the hardware store. Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it. If it makes you feel better, buy a spare spring but don't bother installing it until you have a failure.

 

[jaha2000]

There should be a paint spot on them somewhere. The color of that relates to the stifness of the spring, you match up at the store and away you go.

For comment number 1. Yes, you remove while the door is up, just make sure you support the door with a 2x4 so it does not come crashing down.

Agree with boomerang, if one brakes, i would replace them both. But i would not replace both just because.

 

[KMc]

Agree with jaha2000. I had to do this on both my doors over the past couple of years. If your springs were really old and don't have the paint on them, you can get a good estimate based on the size and material of door. Bought mine at Lowe's. Make sure you dismantle and replace one at a time, so you can use the other side for a template of where all the cables go.

 

[herm0016]

extension or torsion springs?

 

[Sabrewings]

2) No | I doubt they'd have the ones you need as there are a myriad of different door widths, heights and weights if they even carry them at all. Last I looked, they weren't carried in the stores. | Yes and yes | If there are, why would you want them?

Lowes carries them. I replaced mine on both of our doors earlier this year.

Just take the door up, one at a time unhook the cable from the door track bracket, replace spring (should come with a new cable too), and rehook cable. Make sure the safety cable is coming through the center of the spring. Our house didn't have that cable when we moved in and one broke one day and scratched the wife's car (which is why I ended up replacing them).