About Garage Door Springs and Your Safety

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Small but exceptionally sturdy, garage door springs hold an unbelievable amount of torque in such a tiny space. When they break, the sudden release of energy can be devastating to any person or property nearby, and that’s not even considering the effects it will have on the opener or the door itself. If you have an automatic system with overhead or torsion coil springs attached, and you haven’t given them much attention, then here are a few reasons why you should start doing it immediately.

The slow damage

The damage that broken springs could wreak on your door may not always be immediately noticeable, but overtime they will cause a severe misalignment within the system which will put unnecessary strain on all of its components. These systems are generally not designed to put up with this stress for too extended an amount of time, and every part will suffer as a result. If you’ve been letting this go on for too long, avoiding necessary garage door spring replacement will undoubtedly render your door useless sooner or later, as it won't be able to move if even one spring is broken.

The curse of the flying spring

Setting aside the light-hearted heading, a faulty spring can be exceptionally dangerous, if not deadly for anyone unlucky enough to be around the door when it happens. They hold so much tension which is needed for the smooth operation of the door, and when that tension breaks it has to go somewhere. This can (but doesn’t always) result in the spring becoming an unnervingly projectile which can cause severe harm to people and property. Extension springs, while being of excellent quality, doesn’t offer quite the same structural integrity of torsion springs, which although slightly more expensive, are a much better option for those looking for a long lasting product where this type of mishap is less likely to occur.

How garage doors become deathtraps

Many people have automatic openers installed to give them and their family a better sense of security. But a broken spring, can in some cases, lead to the failure of the door in such a way that it can come crashing down unexpectedly. This would obviously be terrible for any people, vehicles or property which happens to be in range of the disaster. There are measures that should be put into place however as a backup, to ensure that this never happens. The garage door cable is absolutely imperative to keeping you and your family safe around the door since they are designed to take the load which is supposed to be held by the spring, should it fail. This means greater safety for you, and secures the health of your door, so above all, the safety cable should always be in good shape, because you never know when it might save a life.