A garage door weighing 350 pounds is mounted with a few small garage door springs. These type of springs, though small in size, support the entire weight of the door. They do this by virtue of the spring tension or the torsion. This is the reason for their name “torsion springs”.
It is critical to select a suitable spring for your garage door, making it essential. If not, your garage door will collapse and crash posing a huge safety hazard. There are so many factors you have to bear in mind before you choose the right spring. These include the spring size, the number of windings, the direction of the winding, etc.
We asked our Fort Lauderdale garage door repair company expert to explain this better.
Evaluating Factors When Selecting A High-Quality Torsion Spring For Your Garage
Torsion springs are found usually attached to the garage wall on top of the door. Check the following factors from our garage door repair experts before you choose the standard torsion spring.
Wind Direction
Before buying a torsion spring, you must know which way it is wound. If you look at the springs from the interior of the garage, you will find 2 springs separated by a divider or a stationary cone. The spring to your left is a right-wound spring and vice versa. In case you have broken springs, you must be careful to order the springs with the correct wind direction.
In many cases, color coding is present on the winding cones and cable drums to distinguish between both types of wind springs. For a left wind spring, both the cone and drums are black. On the other hand, the color is red for the right wind direction.
This winding direction is crucial as an h spring has to rotate in a particular direction when the door is lifted or lowered. If you fit a wrongly-wound spring on each side, the heavy garage door will not work.
Wire Size
To know the wire size of the springs, take a tape measure and measure the length of 10 coils in inches. Now, refer to the wire size chart on the internet to find the actual size of the spring wire as per your measurements. You can take this measurement even if you have a broken spring as you will still be able to find 10 evenly-spaced coils.
Larger wire size is usually recommended by garage door professionals for heavier doors weighing over 350 pounds.
Inside Diameter And Overall Length
To know the inside diameter of the torsion spring, all you have to do is check the stationary cone. It might have markings like 1.75 or 2. This refers to the internal diameter of the spring in inches. If this does not exist, you can measure it yourself.
Determining the length of the spring can be done by calculating the distance from one end to the other. This overall length has a major role to play in the winding capacity of the garage door torsion springs.
Extension Springs And Their Color Codes
It is very easy to choose extension springs for your garage door as they have a color-coding system. This color-coded system tells us the lift capacity of the spring. The color sequence is as follows- tan, white, green, yellow, blue, red, brown, orange, gold, and light. These correspond to lifting power of 100 lbs, 110 lbs, and so on.
Here one thing to remember is that these color codes are only for extension springs. The Standard types of torsion springs come only in black or red for right and left wind respectively.
This color indicator also helps a residential garage door technician to know the thickness and gauge of a wire without measuring it.
Accessories To Buy Along With Garage Door Springs
With garage springs, you must also buy winding bars, safety cables, etc. winding bars are used to wind the springs. 2.58” diameter springs use 0.5-inch winding bars.
Always check the cables before spring replacement. Even if one is damaged, replace both. Check the automatic garage door opener too.
Long-life Torsion Springs
If you want your springs to last long, you can go in for long-life torsion springs. New springs last for max.15,000 cycles. By increasing the spring size, you can extend its life by 4 times.
Garage door spring repair or garage door spring replacement has to be done by reliable garage door repair experts. They can take accurate measurements and also procure the suitable replacement springs for you, if necessary. Seek the help of garage door repair service technicians in Fort Lauderdale offering quality service & great customer service such as Eden Garage Doors Repair. They will guide you on the types of garage door spring system to buy and offers professional installation at affordable prices.
Contact our Fort Lauderdale garage door repair technicians at (954) 526-9810 now for your garage door repairs, garage door spring repair, garage door opener repairs, new garage door installations, and also for other garage door services.