In most cases garage door springs are not something that lasts forever. In fact every spring that is made has a predetermined amount of cycles in it. What do we mean by cycles? We are talking about the complete open and close of the garage door. That is one cycle. We typically sell most new garage doors with a standard torsion spring that has a 10,000 cycle rating. What does that mean to you? It means that if you were to open and close your garage door 10,000 times the spring would most likely fail. The real question is how many cycles do you think you are going to get out of your spring before it fails.
How Garage Door Spring Life Is Measured
Every spring has a cycle rating, which is typically listed on the can that the spring comes in. This cycle rating is the number of complete opens and closes of the garage door that the spring is rated for. A standard torsion spring that is included with most new garage doors has a cycle rating of 10,000 cycles.
Households who use their garage door more will burn through the cycles much faster. A typical household that opens and closes their garage door 4 times per day (2 in the morning and 2 in the evening) will go through 1,460 cycles per year. This would mean that a 10,000 cycle spring would last approximately 6-7 years in these types of households.
However, a household that uses the garage as their primary entrance and exit will open and close their garage door 8-10 times a day. This will burn through the 10,000 cycles in 3-4 years.
How Colorado’s Climate Affects Spring Life
Most consumers have a sense of how long something might last based on the number of years they typically last for most people. While that can give you a good starting point for estimating the life of garage door springs in Colorado, springs are rated by the number of cycles (open and close of the door) rather than the number of years.
Temperature cycling, one of the greatest factors to affect how long garage door springs last, is more extreme in Denver than just about anywhere else in the country. With 40 to 50 degree swings in temperature from night to day in the spring and fall it causes the metal of the springs to go through thousands of cycles of expansion and contraction. This combined with the normal mechanical stresses of opening and closing the door causes fatigue of the metal which in turn can lead to cracks and eventual failure of the spring.
The rust-protective coating on springs will deteriorate faster in dry air with high amounts of UV exposure. Such environmental conditions are typical for Colorado and can cause surface rust to develop on springs. The presence of surface rust will further accelerate fatigue cracking of the spring.
Spring tension is also reduced in cold weather, due to spring contraction. This means that your springs will have to work harder in the cold months to achieve your desired door balance. This can result in premature wear on your springs.
What This Means for Denver Homeowners
In general a residential springs have a rated life of 7 to 9 years before needing replacement. However, for garage door springs in Denver the average rating life is 5 to 7 years. As mentioned before garages that are used frequently as entrances to homes will have springs fail in as little as 3 to 4 years.
This is not a defect, springs have a finite lifespan. Colorado’s demanding environment simply makes them wear out faster.
High-Cycle Spring Upgrades
The best thing for home owners in the Denver metro area who want to avoid service calls and have garage door springs that last longer is to get High-Cycle rated springs when they need to be replaced. High-Cycle rated springs are rated to go up to 100,000 cycles or more depending on the grade. This means that they last 2 to 7 times longer than the standard rated spring. The extra cost to get High-Cycle springs is $50 to $100 for each spring and is well worth it if you use your garage a lot. This would mean that for home owners that use their garage as the primary entrance to their home or for attached garages where the door is used a lot more than normal, the extra cost will pay for itself in a very short amount of time.
Cost is usually not a problem when it comes to the cost of high-cycle springs. Typically a high-cycle spring would only add $50 to $100 to the price of a normal spring. When you think about it; this is a very small price to pay for a product that will last up your life of spring replacement significantly.
However, for garages used as a primary entrance to homes, attached garages with doors that are used very frequently or homeowners that simply wish to have fewer garage door service calls over the life of their opener’s life then we highly recommend purchasing High-Cycle springs.
Signs Your Springs Are Approaching the End of Their Life
There are obvious signs of failure before a spring can snap.
1) The door moves more slowly than it used to. As the spring loses tension, the opener has to work harder to lift the door. If your door has slowed down over the past year or so, it is time to have the springs inspected.
Door does not open straight and has a tilt to it. This can be caused by a spring that is losing tension unevenly or one spring in a two spring system wearing out faster than the other.
A door that becomes extremely heavy and falls when lifted by hand indicates worn springs.
Visible wear to the spring. This could be rust, a gap in the coil or cracks in the spring surface.
What Happens When a Spring Breaks
A broken garage door spring is usually a very loud event and can sound like a gunshot in your garage. In most cases when a spring breaks you are in the house at the time. A broken garage door spring causes the door to become to heavy for the garage door opener to lift and as a result the door will not open. NEVER attempt to manually open a garage door that has a broken spring as it can fall and cause serious injury or damage to property.
It is very important to not attempt to manually open a garage door that has had a broken spring. The door will become extremely heavy and could fall and cause serious injury or even damage to your home.
Same-Day Spring Repair Throughout Denver Metro
We fix and replace garage door springs all over the Denver Metro area. With same day service available for most requests we can get your garage door working properly in no time. Most jobs take less than an hour. With a complete selection of all the most common springs and sizes in stock we can usually get you going immediately.
Smart Garage Door Service is always happy to replace one or two springs. We will always inspect the other spring and give you an honest assessment of whether it is close to failure or not. We do not replace parts that do not need to be replaced. On the other hand, we would not leave you with a spring that is close to failure without telling you first.
