What Size Garage Door Springs Do I Need

Garage door springs, similar annihilation else, somewhen get worn out after a number of opening and closing cycles, and demand to be replaced periodically.

If y'all encounter signs of vesture – loose, sagging springs, gaps between coils, or fifty-fifty a complete break betwixt sections of a spring – it's time to swap them out for a new set.

Continuing to operate your garage door as usual if your springs are showing signs of wear, or if just one of them is broken, this puts a good amount of actress stress on your garage door opener, and will cause your motor to habiliment out quicker, resulting in a much more than expensive repair.

If you plan to replace or repair your garage door springs, the first step is figuring out what type of springs you have on your door. While at that place are a handful of garage door jump types, the vast bulk of residential garage doors use either torsion springs or extension springs, so nosotros're going to focus on those.

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Torsion vs. extension springs

The quick and easy manner of figuring out what kind of garage door spring y'all accept is merely past seeing where the springs are located. Torsion springs are commonly used for newer garage door installations, and sit horizontally above the eye of your garage door.

To find out if you lot have torsion springs, close your garage door and have a look above the centre of the door. If you lot see a pair of springs running sideways, yous're on team torsion. While you lot're looking at your newfound torsion springs, bank check to meet if there are any gaps, breaks, or stretching.

If you lot heard a loud, gunshot-like noise from your garage in the recent by, it could have been the snapping of a torsion bound. That's considering these springs are very tightly wound, hold a lot of tension, and make a loud noise if they snap.

Extension springs, on the other paw, can be plant running parallel to the garage door tracks on either side of your garage door. You can easily spot them when you close your garage door – they should exist suspended a few inches above the garage door tracks, running most the length of the runway.

What size garage door springs do I have?

garage door spring measurement Torsion springs require a few measurements – the wire diameter, the inside diameter, and the length of the spring. You'll as well demand to know if the jump is a left-hand wind, or a right-hand wind.

All y'all demand to figure information technology out is a tape measure, your broken bound, and a calculator. Lay your broken jump out in forepart of you and count out twenty coils, measuring with your tape measure out the distance those 20 coils accept.

So, take the distance and divide it by 20, and this is the bore of your wire. While the length of 20 coils is usually somewhere around 5 inches, information technology's of import to be precise. Being off by even a fraction of an inch can lead to ordering the wrong jump size.

The within diameter of your garage door springs is written on either the winding cone or stationary cone attached to the spring. These are the metal pieces fitted to your spring. Bank check to see a letter or couple of letters (this tin can vary by brand) followed by a number. If yous meet P-200 stamped on the cone, information technology means information technology's a two-inch inside diameter. Alternatively, y'all might simply find the size stamped on there in inches – such as one three/iv".

To mensurate the length of a torsion bound, you'll need to do your measurement when there's no tension on the spring – and so don't try this if the spring is up and installed over your garage door. You will also demand both sides of a broken spring, if your bound snapped.

Mensurate the length of the spring with your tape mensurate, or measure each one-half and add. And that's information technology! It's good to note that y'all can exist off by about ¾ of an inch here and information technology shouldn't make too much of a difference.

To find out whether your spring is a left-mitt air current or right-manus air current, look downward directly at the top of the spring where the coiling starts. If the scroll runs clockwise, y'all accept a correct-hand air current; if it runs counter-clockwise, information technology'south left-hand wind.

How to measure extension springs

garage extension spring For extension springs, you'll demand to know both the length of the bound, every bit well every bit the weight that information technology's intended to hold. If you put a 90-pound jump on a 110-pound door, for example, it'll terminate upwardly looking like a stretched out telephone cord. (If you don't remember what a telephone cord looks like, a simple online prototype search should do the play a joke on.)

More often than not, most residential garage doors are either vii or viii feet tall. Seven-foot doors usually use a 25-inch spring, and viii-human foot doors use a 27-inch spring. All the same, considering precision is of import, we'll show y'all how to mensurate it past mitt.

First, make certain your garage door is closed. Unplug your garage door motor unit from the power source, and release the garage door itself by pulling on the brightly-colored release cord hanging downwards towards the front of the door.

Then, lift your garage door manually – you lot might need another hand or ii for this. If only i jump is broken, lift from the broken bound side, otherwise lift from the middle.

In one case the door is open, clench a vice grip inside the track below the cycle, merely under the bottom of the garage door. This will keep your garage door from endmost.

So, hop up on a ladder and measure the length of the bound with a tape measure. You can as well counterbalance your garage door with a regular mechanical bathroom scale.

Heart the scale in front of your closed garage door, making sure the garage door is disconnected from the opener afterward pulling on the release cord. Then, lift the door slightly – it may be heavy – and slide the scale underneath. Allow the door down slowly, and record the weight.

Brand Puls your garage door get-to

Puls garage door repair Yous can give your newly-taken spring measurements to a Puls technician and allow them take your garage door jump repair from there – or you can merely let them have intendance of your repair kickoff to terminate, including measuring your garage door springs.

If you get your garage door springs replaced or repaired with Puls, your technician volition even throw in a 25-betoken garage door inspection, absolutely free.

It'due south super easy to book a fourth dimension slot – just hop online, enter your location, choose the time that'due south all-time for yous, and then sit back and await for your technician to arrive at your door. Most of the fourth dimension, you can even have a certified Puls technician at your home that same day.

Then what are you waiting for? Book an engagement with a certified Puls technician, and you could have everything squared away within as little equally the same 24-hour interval - it'southward that like shooting fish in a barrel.

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Jake Sherman is a professional person writer with a background in journalism. He is fascinated by dwelling appliances and how they work. He enjoys breaking down complex topics and explaining them in interesting means. He has been a Puls staff author for two years. When he's non writing, he enjoys trotting around the globe, trying unfamiliar foods, and testing unmarked doors to see if they're locked.