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Door repair business advice (warning to consumers, you are not allowed to know this) Thinner wire is excellent for shortening spring lifetimes, lightening your inventory on a service truck, and getting paid for frequent service calls. This method of business occurs in many service industries worldwide. We have made it our business to empower you as a homeowner to take a stand against this practice while making your own educated choice. Welcome to DIYGarageRepair.com, The following information is designed to help you determine the type of garage door springs you have, how to measure your broken garage door springs and how to dissemble and re-assemble your replacement garage door springs. Garage door springs are designed to do virtually all of the work necessary to lift your garage door. Garage door springs, cables, brackets, and other hardware attached to the springs, are under very high tension and, if handled improperly, can cause serious injury. When dealing with garage door springs, you should take into account what type of door you have (sectional, tracked one-piece, jamb hardware (California style), or pivot hardware, and what type of spring you have. Garage Door Springs are available in two main types: extension and torsion. Garage door springs come in different lengths to accommodate various standard size doors, from single garage doors to double doors. Garage door springs are sized or adjusted at time of initial installation to balance the weight of the garage door. It is important when handling springs to prevent any nicks or scrapes to the wire. Spring pairs should be replaced together, since the mate is likely to fail soon after the first, and any possible savings in parts isn't worth the extra effort to repeat the work later. You must release the tension on the garage door springs before attempting adjustment or replacement. Springs are shipped from several locations around the country to minimize shipping time and cost. Correct spring size is determined by factors such as the weight and height of the door. For example, door springs are designed to accommodate the original intended weight of the door. If additional weight is added to the door sections after the original door installation, the door could become unbalanced such that operation is not smooth, possibly even resulting in damaged or broken springs. Also, the function of any opener on the door could be adversely affected such that a motor could become overworked or cease functioning. The safety of a garage door is directly attributed to the design of these components working together without any other added material. For example, adding weight, including hanging large objects, to any part of the door or track can obstruct the pathway of the door and can cause the horizontal track to twist, buckle or deform. This has the potential to allow the door to fall out of the horizontal track. Because doors are large, heavy moving objects that can weigh anywhere from 90 pounds to over 500 pounds, a door falling out of its tracks is dangerous to persons, and hazardous to property, under the door or in the area. Therefore, aftermarket accessories designed to allow consumers to hang objects from garage door track should be avoided. Garage Door Parts, including but not limited to sections, struts, track, hinges, rollers, cables, cable drums, bottom brackets, torsion spring shafts, rear track hangers, and fasteners, are designed to work together as an assembly under defined conditions such as door weight, wind load and cycle life. Please contact us to establish the correct part and to order your garage door springs. We hear this one all the time; "Whoever installed the old springs didn't quite get the weight and size just right" It is not unusual to find a repair service installing a slightly off-balance spring size that happened to already be on the truck during the service call. You cannot substitute a different spring and just tighten or loosen the winding to make it balance the load. To maintain cable tension under all operating conditions, the spring must retain about one turn of unspent wind-up at the top-of-travel position, which with the lift drum size and door height predetermines the number of turns of winding at the bottom-of-travel; and furthermore the torsion of the fully-wound spring at the bottom-of-travel must be slightly less than that needed to lift the weight of the door when translated by the lift drums. If you can accurately provide the weight of the door, or the size(s) of the old spring(s) (assuming they were well-matched to balance the door), then we should be able to tell you which spring sizes will work for you. Assuming you have torsion garage door springs, If you stand inside the garage, facing out, then the spring to the left is a right-hand-wound spring, and the spring to the right is a left-hand-wound spring. With extension type springs you can simply order a set based on the door height and weight. Depending on the age of your garage door springs, sometimes you can determine the wire diameter by the DASMA color markings. Reference our color chart here. Unwinding or releasing tension to your torsion or extension springs can be hazardous if you dont know what youre doing. Since the springs are winding 'up' when the door is closing and going down, the fully closed position is the most stressful on the steel and thus the most likely position at the moment of failure. Winding cones can have different socket sizes (such as 5/8 inch instead of 1/2 inch), so it is important to measure the socket and select a matching winding rod diameter. The winding cone has 1/2-inch round sockets every 90 degrees for the insertion of round winding bars. Right-hand versus left-hand winding: Springs are wound or 'laid' in either a left- or right-hand orientation. Inside diameters of the bearings, drums, and winding cones are sized to loosely fit that 1-inch diameter shaft. Repair of garage doors is a licensed trade in many jurisdictions, and manipulation of the market inevitably follows. When you call and say you have a broken spring, and ask for a repair price, you are told over the phone that the price is X dollars, which typically might seem a little better than the competition. When the repairman shows up and after looking at your broken door, he will casually tell you it will cost 2X the amount previously quoted. Heres another one; "The special-price don't-tell-my-boss trick" In this scheme, after the technician has worked on your door for a bit, he will notify you that he has discovered an additional repair needed, over and above the spring(s) quote. Very few homeowners are aware that garage doors require periodic maintenance. Garage Door maintenance proceeds as follows; hardware and springs of garage doors are important parts to maintain so your garage door keeps working for years to come. By keeping up with the maintenance for your garage door on a monthly basis, your door and automatic garage door opener will not fail prematurely. The leading causes of garage door failure and or replacement include lack of maintenance or being hit by vehicles. A proper maintenance schedule for a garage door includes lubrication of the rollers, bearings, pulleys, and springs once a year; washing painted steel surfaces several times a year; painting or refinishing wood surfaces as necessary; and making proper adjustments to the counter balance system as necessary to maintain door balance. Do not use silicon products on rollers or hinges. Keep garage door track clean and dry. Some of our customers have written us; "I not only saved hundreds of dollars, I received excellent video instructions and confidence to perform the job correctly and quickly -- the door works great again." "The instructions were easy to read and follow and the video was great! www.DIYGarageRepair.com
