Your garage door may be acting up, but you aren’t sure what the problem is. Maybe the door spring is one possible culprit, but you’re not sure if that’s the problem or if it’s something else. In this quick list, we’ll go through the most common broken garage door spring symptoms. If your garage door is exhibiting one or a few of these symptoms, there’s a good chance it’s broken and needs replacing.
One of the first things most homeowners notice about a broken spring is the door cables will become disconnected and fly every which way if the spring is no longer working. The cables themselves are fine. They just need a working spring to be able to function properly.
Does your garage door seem to open just fine for a few inches, but then it stops and refuses to go any farther? This is a safety feature of many garage doors. It prevents the door from being opened when the springs are broken.
YOU HEAR A LOUD NOISE IN THE GARAGE
Homeowners might hear a loud sound in their garage and think someone is trying to break in. But they look in the garage and find no one there. In reality, the sound was most likely made by door spring unwinding and creating a crashing sound in the door mechanism.
THERE’S A GAP IN YOUR TORSION SPRING
This is the most definite way of determining if your spring is broken. Look for a gap of a few inches in the middle of your torsion spring.
THE TOP OF THE GARAGE DOOR IS BENT
Some types of garage doors will bend at the top if you try to open them with a broken spring. This is due to the immense weight the mechanism is now trying to lift without the aid of the spring.
THE GARAGE DOOR CAN’T BE LIFTED WITH THE EMERGENCY ROPE
Your garage door should have a red emergency rope hanging from the opening mechanism. If you pull on this and the door fails to open, your spring is most likely broken.
GARAGE DOOR MOVEMENTS ARE JERKY
If this happens, you might have only one spring broken in a two-spring system. This means the mechanism is still strong enough to lift the door but not strong enough to do it smoothly.
THE CABLE IS HANGING DOWN
When the spring breaks, the entire system is thrown out of sync. The pulleys and cables might become loose and be left hanging down from the ceiling.
Whether or not you can tell if you have a broken spring, this is definitely not something a homeowner should attempt to repair. Always call a professional for spring replacement!
