The springs are undeniably a very important part of every garage door. They are responsible for all the heavy lifting and work along with the garage door opener to ensure smooth and efficient working of the garage door. Since these components are used the most, they face wear and tear quite often too.
Sometimes the repairs are enough to make them work again, but replacement is the only option left when they are not. If you have to replace your garage door springs, follow the guide shared below to choose the best spring for your garage door.
How to Choose the Best Torsion Spring
Table of Contents
1. Find Out the Size of the Wire
Normally, measuring the size of a garage door spring from left to right with the help of tape is what most people do. However, correctly determining the size of the wire is the key to choosing the best springs for your garage door. This may seem confusing, but measuring wire size is very easy.
All you have to do is run the tape at different distances between 10 to 20 coils. Next, you need to compare the measurements you found with the wire measurement chart. An excellent source of information for these comparison charts is the internet which can be used to determine the wire size based on your measurements. If you have a broken spring, you can easily determine the type you require based on the wire size.
Read Also: How to Keep Spiders Out of Garage?
2. Determine the Inner diameter
An important thing to figure out before selecting the best spring is the internal diameter of the spring that has to be replaced. This is usually a simple process as most of the doors are engraved with this reading. By Master Lift Professionals if you look at a fixed cone or a winding cone, you’ll see numbers like 2.0 and 1.75.
Looking at the first value, it means that the diameter of the spring is 2 inches. However, if you don’t see such a number, you’ll have to measure it yourself. By putting the spring on a flat surface, move the tape across the spring’s inner diameter. The value you measure will be the inner diameter of the spring.
3. Measuring the total length of the spring
If you are still wondering how to select the best spring for your garage door, try measuring the total length of the springs. Make sure that you measure the length from one end of the spring to another. Determining the length is important because it tells you the winding capacity of the spring. However, measure this length in 1/4 inch increments and do it while the door is closed.
4. Determining the Wind Direction
Before buying a garage door torsion spring, you should determine the accurate direction in which it is wounded. This will help you find out if you need to replace the right spring, the left spring, or both. This step is usually much easier than gathering all the necessary details that need to be put together before choosing the torsion spring. If you look inside the garage door, you may see two different springs on the other side of the bar hanging above the door.
Normally, a fixed cone splits these two apart. However, some doors don’t have this mechanism. Hence you will need to determine the direction of the wind. If their endpoints point clockwise, the spring is left-handed; else, it is right-handed. Wind direction must be determined correctly for the springs if you want your door to function properly. Ideally, each spring should rotate in a particular direction to raise or lower the door. If you buy the wrong spring, the garage door will break down.
How to Choose the Best Extension Springs
There are two methods for selecting the best extension springs for a garage door. One of them is by finding the color codes, while the other is by comparing the weight.
1. Find the color code
Color codes make it easy and quick to choose the best extension spring. They help you to determine the total lifting capacity of the spring accurately. This is very important because the door’s weight varies, and it requires proper and required lifting capacity to function properly. Hence with the help of color code, you can easily figure out the best extension spring for your door.
2. Weight Comparison
If you don’t find the color-coding method effective, you can compare the weight of your door to find the right extension spring. For that, you will need a scale and some clamps. Place the clamp under the lower roller and then remove the torsion spring. Slowly place the end of the door on the scale. The weight indicated by the scale is the size of the extension spring you need to purchase for your garage door openers for heavy doors.
Conclusion
The above guide includes all the details and basic concepts needed to choose the best springs for any type of garage door. So, now that you know how to purchase the right garage door springs, when are you replacing yours?
