Garage door experts - torsion spring question.

I was going to try. I watched some YouTube videos and it looks pretty simple. I rarely ever call anyone to do anything. Unless it’s electrical or a major plumbing issue (see my toilet thread)

quote:

---

Are you trying to replace it yourself? This is one of the things I’ll always get an installer to do. There’s a ton of energy stored in these things.

---

Everyone on here says that, but it's really not that difficult or dangerous as long as you take your time. I've done it a few times and it's actually pretty easy.

As far as the original question, I used a larger spring once. It has a stronger lift which can cause an issue with the garage door opener stopping on the way down because it feels more resistance, but those springs are close enough to where it should be ok.

Barely any extra money to have it done for you. I do everything except torsion springs and coil over springs.

As long as your close in size you will be ok.

You will have to adjust the number of turns you put back into the spring when you rewind.

Really need to replace both springs while you are there. The second one is not far behind if they are both original.

You can get any size you want on the inter webs in a few days.

As far as the danger it’s no more dangerous that working under a car with jack stands. As long as you do it properly. I would recommend getting the proper bars that fit the spring bosses and not trying to use rebar or something else that doesn’t fit well.

ETA: saw it was a single spring setup so never mind on replacing the second spring.

I did a little more research and I found the website of the company where I bought my torsion springs 8-10 years ago: DDM Garage Doors Torsion Springs FAQ page

DDM has lots of information about changing the springs yourself and your options on springs, one or two springs, converting to two springs, how to determine what size you need, and different life cycle options based on size of spring. The torsion spring table is at Table for Torsion Spring Options.

My garage door opener was recently fried by lighting. While it's being replace, I could lift and lower my garage door with one hand and about 3 pounds of force. DDM's website helped me find the correct springs for my garage door instead of the set of springs the installer happened to have on his truck.

fricked with one of these things in an industrial door once. My dad almost lost an arm. Thought the tension was out of it. Thing hit him 7 times before he could pull away. Nothing broke but looked like he was beat with a tire iron. Don’t frick with them things unless you know wtf you doing. We didn’t

I forgot to add I found the torsion springs based on the weight of the door, it's one of the middle tabs in the "Find My Spring" table.

This table could be helpful if you outsource the repair by knowing if the installer is using the correct torsion springs or give you the option to negotiate beefier springs which will last longer--are you planning on keeping this house or moving in 5 years?

Properly sized torsion springs will increase the life of your garage door opener by minimizing the strain on the motor and gears.

I helped a buddy put a whole new door in after one of the hurricanes blew his in. But I remember fighting keeping the cables on the pulleys on the ends of the bar more that fighting the coil springs.

I think as long as you're close and heavier, then you'll be fine. It's a bit of a pain to do because you have to take a whole side off and usually it's cramped. It's all in how you load up the spring. I can't remember how I got my baseline load (It was like 26 turns or something) but I ended up fine tuning it until the door felt like nothing.

It was around 2hrs work for my first but a lot of that was just figuring out how to get the ends apart. I used a company called overheaddoorparts.com. It was fast and easy and they gave you the rods to load the spring.