How Garage Door Springs Work

How Garage Door Springs Work

All garage door springs have the same purpose in their short life and this is to lift the door, keep it steady at any height and lower it down without crashing it. There are springs for lightweight doors and for heavy doors, for high and standard lift systems but they all have the same job to do, though they do it in a different way. Extension garage door springs will move the door in a different way than torsion springs. The door moves the way it should, which means it will go up, outwards or will roll up. Each of the two spring types will work in a different way.

Do you have extension or torsion springs? Find out how they work

Springs operate differently since they're installed to obey the commands of doors with particular requirements. Of course, the extra weight of the door might require an extra set of extension springs or an additional torsion spring and in some occasions both types of springs might be needed. For average doors, only one set of extension springs will be required since they go in pairs. Each will be installed in one of the two sides of the door and will be hooked on the pulley at one side and an S-hook or eye bolt on the opposite side.

When the overhead door is closed, the extension springs remain extended. This allows them to keep up their energy in order to use it when the door opens. When stretched coils are called to contract, they release tension and this is the force that will open the door. When the panel is in its full opening position, the extension springs will remain compressed, and thus their tension is released to the minimum point.

Torsion springs do not actually stretch and contract. They wind and unwind as the door closes and opens. They have a shaft around them or passing through them and when the force of the door's weight is put on them, they start winding and applying torque to the shaft so that the door can be lifted. They have to rotate in the right direction and that's why there are left and right winds for torsion spring garage door systems with two springs – one on each side. The right wind has coils which turn counterclockwise and the left one has coils which go clockwise, so that the springs can wind and unwind properly. This is how springs balance and open the door!

Garage Door Repair Alpine, http://www.automaticgaragedooralpine.com, 858-410-1905