How To Find Out If Your Garage Door Spring Is Broken

For homeowners, their garage doors are a vital portion of their whole home. Some people are using the garage door as a passageway to the inside of their house more often than the main door. Well, this could be funny at times but it is actually true. And, the endless cycle of opening and closing your garage door continuously happens day by day. 

A garage door system is composed of various components necessary to the functioning of the garage door itself. You probably knew that every garage door system has movable items like hinges, cables, or rollers and even fixed structures like tracks and panels. Each of these does a job of securing the full performance of the garage door. 

All those mentioned components experience tension and pressure and different degrees of stress. But, among all of them, the part experiencing the most stress are the springs. Well, they are designed to experience it anyway. They have the shortest lifespan among all the components which is measured in cycles. Have you ever wondered how to find out if your garage door spring is broken? 

The Signs That Your Garage Door Spring Is Broken

Here, we will let you know the signs so that you will know if you are already in need of a garage door repair service.

Your Garage Door Is Opening Slow And Partially

One of the many signs of a broken garage door spring is when yours suddenly started opening slower than usual. Typically, a garage door system has two springs supporting the tension while opening and closing. And, if one of them breaks, it would be difficult for the other to handle all the stress. At first, you would think that this sign is leading you to an issue with your opener but you are wrong. Garage door openers are actually programmed to rely on the springs, to begin with the lifting mechanism. Once the door reaches halfway, then the opener takes over. 

Partial opening of your garage door is actually the main sign that one of the springs is broken. 

Shaky Door Opening And Fast Closing

You should know that your garage door will open and close smoothly if there are no issues with it. When garage door springs are broken, the whole system will be unbalanced, often resulting in fast closing or shaky door opening. The fast closing of your garage door is due to the insufficient resistance of the remaining spring to slow the process of closing. 

Your Panels Are Crooked Or Bent

Another possible sign is when your garage door panels are crooked or bent. Do you know that having a replacement for your garage door panel is much more expensive than replacing the springs? And, the cause of the bending of the panel is the misalignment of the springs.

The Noise Or Sudden Bang

The most obvious sign among all is the noise coming from the broken garage door spring. Since the springs are handling a huge amount of energy, when one breaks, then a tremendous release would take place. This is causing the loud noise or a sudden bang once the spring goes out flying from the garage door. If you heard such noise, be cautious enough and do not try opening or lifting it to enter inside as your safety could be at risk. Keep in mind that since the other spring breaks, the other is handling all the pressure now. And, this might trigger the shortening of the lifespan of the remaining. Added to this, you should not let your garage door to work with only one spring functioning because this will increase the damage and even affect the other components. Do not wait for the other parts to get broken as well. 

Prevent Your Garage Door Spring To Get Damaged

In order to prevent the damage in your garage door’s spring, you should understand well the reasons and main causes. Being proactive enough is good. Preventing the situation to happen rather than dealing with it once it occurs is always much better. 

Here are some points to remember. 

• Make sure to anticipate when your spring will fail based on its lifespan . 
• Moreover, check out that you got the proper size of the spring to be installed. 
• Rust is a factor as well so try lubricating the components when needed.
• The quality matters as well so choose springs with high quality. 
• Do correct garage door maintenance practices.