Broken torsion spring? What to do first, and why it isn't a DIY job

How to tell the spring is broken

You don't need a ladder to check. Stand inside the garage with the door closed and look up at the shaft above the opening.

1. A gap in the coil. A healthy torsion spring is one tight, continuous coil. A broken one shows a clear split, often a few inches wide.
2. A bang with nobody near the door. Springs often let go while the door is sitting closed, so the noise can come out of nowhere.
3. The opener hums but the door barely moves, or it lifts a few inches and stops.
4. Cables hanging loose at the bottom corners of the door instead of sitting tight on the drums.
5. The door looks crooked or one side rises ahead of the other.

What to do right now

1. Keep kids, pets and cars clear of the opening.
2. Unplug the opener so nobody triggers it from a remote or the wall button.
3. If the door is closed, leave it closed. If it's stuck open, don't try to bring it down by hand.
4. Don't pull the red emergency release while the door is open. Chamberlain's own guidance is to use it only when the door is fully closed, if possible, and never as a handle to raise or lower the door.
5. Call a garage door technician and describe what you see: gap in the coil, loose cables, door position.

If your car is trapped inside, say so when you call. That changes how the visit gets scheduled.

Why torsion springs aren't a DIY repair

Plenty of garage door jobs are fine for a handy homeowner. Torsion springs are not one of them, and that view comes from the people who make the doors.

• Clopay strongly recommends that only a trained garage door professional install standard torsion springs.
• DASMA, the door and operator manufacturers' association, warns that springs wear out and that injury can result when they break.
• The parts around the spring are loaded too. DASMA says lift cables should be replaced only by a trained technician and that bottom brackets are under extreme tension.

What a proper spring replacement includes

• Securing the door so it can't move while the old spring is unwound.
• Matching the new spring to the door's weight and height, not just copying the old part number.
• Checking cables, drums and bearings for damage the break may have caused.
• Balancing the door and testing the opener's reverse feature before leaving.

How long a torsion spring should last

Clopay says most garage door spring systems are designed to last 10,000 cycles. One cycle is one open plus one close. Clopay also flags original springs on a door used daily for 7 or more years as due for replacement.

Turning 10,000 cycles into years

This is plain arithmetic from the 10,000-cycle figure, not a promise. Door weight, balance and care all move it.

Why breaks often show up on cold mornings

Cold is hard on worn steel, and Clopay points out that it can leave springs more brittle. Greenville-Spartanburg's normal January low is 32.1°F (NWS, 1991–2020 normals), so a worn spring that held all fall can give out on the first hard freeze.

Replace one spring or both?

If your door has two springs and one broke, DASMA's advice is to replace both. They were installed together and have run the same number of cycles, so the survivor is close behind.

We explain what failed and give you the price before any work starts. See garage door spring repair for how we handle spring calls across Greenville and the Upstate.