Garage door spring safety
Do not adjust, wind or replace a garage door spring yourself. Springs and their cables stay under high tension, and a mistake can cause severe injury or death.
If something already looks wrong
A gap in a spring, a spring sagging at the side, a loose cable or a door that is suddenly heavy all call for the same response. Stop using the door, keep people clear and get a contractor to look. See also a loud bang and a car stuck inside.
Why springs are dangerous
A torsion spring stores energy by being wound, and an extension spring by being stretched. When either lets go, the energy comes out in one motion.
Cables, drums and bottom brackets share the load. If one of them fails, the door's weight lands where nothing was meant to hold it.
This site gives no steps for spring work on purpose. The job takes the right tools, parts matched to the door's weight and training.
At home
Safe to do
- Look and listen. Report any visible gap in a spring or any new noise.
- Keep children and pets away from the door while it moves.
- Keep the remote away from small children, and the wall control at least 5 feet up.
Leave alone
- Any bolt on a spring assembly, including the set screws on the winding cones.
- Springs bought online or made for a different door weight.
- The opener's release with the door up, if a spring might be weak.
- A long bar or tool near the winding cones.
If you change the door
Springs are matched to the door's weight. Adding insulation or windows can make the old springs wrong for it, which strains the opener and every moving part. Ask the contractor to check the balance after any such change.
Ready to talk to a contractor?
Call this number and say what the door is doing. The contractor who answers is independent of this site.