Broken spring? Leave the door closed and call.
The spring does the lifting, not the opener. With the spring broken, the door weighs what it really weighs, and the opener, or your back, takes all of it. Keep the door down and call or text.
- On site: About 1 hour, both springs
- License CGC15***68
Signs this is your problem
- Look at the bar above the closed door: one spring has split into two pieces, with open space between them.
- The lift cables hang slack beside the door, a sign that shows up with a broken spring and with a cable problem.
- The opener runs, the door shudders up a hand's width, and the opener gives up or reverses.
- The door slams on the way down instead of settling onto the floor.
- On an older door, one of the long springs running beside each upper track has snapped or hangs loose.
The new spring is sized to the door
A spring copied from the broken one can be wrong, because the broken one may have been wrong too. So the tech measures it (wire size, inside diameter, length and wind direction) and then checks the door itself: its height, its weight, and anything added to it since it was installed, like insulation or reinforcing struts. The new spring is chosen to balance that door.
With the tension off, the cables, drums and center bearing get a look too. On a two-spring door, both new springs fit in the same hour. Once the door is back together, it runs open and closed several times and gets a balance check by hand: a balanced door stays put halfway up.
Hands off the spring bar
The spring above your door is wound tight enough to carry the whole door by itself. Loosen a set screw or a winding cone without the right bars and the cone spins, throwing whatever is in your hand. Don't wind, unwind or tighten anything on the spring bar, and don't pull the red cord with the door up.
In a lot of Fort Myers homes the garage is the front door, and a broken spring can leave the car stuck inside. Need it before morning? Call first, and we'll tell you whether it can safely come out before the repair.
Usually, it's just the spring
An opener that strained against a dead spring tends to run normally again once the door is balanced, so a broken spring is rarely a reason for a new opener. An older door with sound sections and straight tracks keeps working with new springs. Cables only go on the price if they're frayed or rusted at the bottom corners, and the tech shows you before they do.
Questions about broken spring repair
Plan on about an hour with the tech, and that covers both springs on a two-spring door: measuring, installing, balancing and several test runs.
Not with the opener and not by hand, because without the spring the door's whole weight lands on the motor or on you. Call first, and we'll tell you whether it's safe to raise it or better to wait for the repair.
Because it has lifted the door exactly as many times as the one that failed. It's a separate line on the written price, and the choice is yours: one new spring next to an old one works, it may just mean a second visit sooner.
Look before the tech leaves. New coils are clean, with no rust spots or pitting, and look nothing like the broken spring on the floor. Ask to keep the old one if you want to compare them side by side.
Tell us what the door is doing
A person answers, day or night. Describe the door or text a photo, and you'll hear what it probably is, how long the fix takes and when a truck can get to you.