Your home is incomplete without a properly functioning garage door. The value that this appliance adds to your property cannot be put into words. However, in return, they ask to be maintained and looked after. Doing so requires you to regularly get your garage door parts inspected and repaired or replaced.

However, your garage door springs rarely ever come to mind when you hear the term garage door parts. The springs play a vital role in allowing your garage door to raise and lower. Even so, the importance of these parts is often neglected and undermined. If your springs are broken or worn out, your garage door might not even open. This is why you mustn’t disregard them as if they are a trivial part.

Whether it’s your garage door springs or any other part that is troubling you. Elite Garage Door Expert has a team of technicians, skilled and well-equipped enough to resolve all your garage door-related problems.

Garage Door Springs – What Are They?

Generally, there are two types of springs: extension and torsion spring. Newer garage doors come equipped with the latter. However, it is recommended that the extension springs be replaced by their torsion counterparts for older garage doors.

Both the springs look similar and can be described as long metallic coils. The springs differ in how they work; extension springs function by stretching and compressing, while the torsion springs work by twisting. Torsion springs are mounted on a shaft that is located just above the garage door. On the other hand, extension springs are placed on both sides of the upper tracks.

Why Do They Matter?

As discussed above, springs play a vital role in allowing your garage door to operate. In fact, without springs, your garage door will essentially be rendered useless. This is because the springs aid the garage door opener in lifting and reeling down the garage door. The garage door can weigh hundreds of pounds; the openers do not have enough power to lift a door this heavy without any assistance.

When the springs are deformed, i.e., extension springs stretch are stretched, or torsion springs are twisted, they exert a force on the door that helps counterbalance its weight. This means that the opener does not have to pull the door’s entire weight.

Simply put, without springs, your door opener wouldn’t have the necessary power required to lift a garage door.

Why Do Door Springs Break?

The failure of garage door springs can be associated with either of three main factors, which are as follows:

Rust

Rust is to springs as termites are to furniture. When rust settles in on your door springs, it will eat through them, deteriorating the material’s strength and thereby dramatically shortening its lifespan.

Moreover, rust also increases the friction on the spring coils; this hinders their movement, slowing down the motion of the garage door. Your springs will weaken more rapidly and eventually snap or get distorted out of functioning form.