Garage door balance is essential to maintain if you want a functional garage door. Without balance, your garage door would barely function and only be a safety hazard. Each part of your garage door plays an important role in ensuring its operability. One of the most vital garage door parts that helps maintain balance is the spring. In fact, the role of springs in garage door balance cannot be understated. 

The Role Of Springs In Garage Door Balance

Caring for your springs will help keep your garage door balanced. However, you’re probably wondering how exactly springs impact this balance. Keep reading this blog to learn more about the role of springs in garage door balance.

Torsion Springs In Garage Door Balance

In order to fully understand the role of springs in garage door balance, you must first understand the two main spring systems found in garage doors: torsion and extension. Torsion springs are found above the garage door header. To balance a garage door that runs on torsion springs, you will need locking pliers, a C-clamp, a winding bar, set screws, a wrench, and a ladder. 

After turning off and disconnecting the garage door opener and closing the door, you’ll put locking pliers on the torsion tube and attach a C-clamp to keep the tracks in place. Once you’ve moved to one side of the torsion tube, you’ll use the winding bar to loosen the set screws in the winding cone. A second winding bar will be used to keep the torsion bar secure against the header while you adjust and tighten the torsion springs as needed. 

However, to keep the springs from getting too close together, you’ll also need to expand the torsion spring just a little. Once it’s in a desirable position, use a wrench to tighten the screws so you can finally remove the winding bars and unclamp the springs. If you test your door and it moves smoothly, your torsion springs will have successfully ensured the balance of your garage door. As explained in the balancing process, the role of torsion springs in garage door balance is to provide a sufficient counterbalance to the weight of your garage door, allowing for smooth operation.

Extension Springs In Garage Door Balance

Unlike torsion springs, extension springs are attached to both sides of the garage door and to the track hanger. They either stretch or shrink when the garage door moves. Like torsion springs, they also help maintain the balance of your garage door. Adjusting the balance of garage doors with extension springs requires fewer steps.

In this case, you’ll keep the garage door open, then turn it off and disconnect the motor.  You’ll keep the door open with locking pliers or C-clamps. Then you’ll use a ladder to reach the track hangers, so you can adjust the extension springs as needed to achieve the right balance. Ensuring these springs are even will keep your garage door nice, balanced, and operational. 

Keep Your Garage Door Springs In Shape With Garage Door Repair Houston!

We hope this blog has helped you understand that the role of springs in garage door balance is to maintain it for sufficient operation. While torsion and extension springs work differently, they both do their part to keep a garage door perfectly balanced. However, you may have noticed that the balancing procedures for both systems require hands-on attention that you may not feel comfortable attempting yourself. 

For this reason, we recommend that you reach out to a professional garage door service to adjust your springs for garage door balance. Luckily, you have access to the best garage door repair team here in Houston. Contact us at Garage Door Repair Houston to get your garage door balance back in shape.