Garage Door Springs: Basics and Types to Consider

There are several important components in a given garage door setup, and one of the most vital from a functional standpoint is your spring setup. Garage door springs play a major role in allowing the garage door to rise and fall safely, and knowing how they work and how to care for them is important for long-term garage door care. 

At Crawford Door Sales, we’re happy to offer a huge range of commercial and residential garage doors, plus important information on all their components — springs included. In this two-part blog series, we’ll go over everything you need to know about garage door springs — what they are, their types, how to care for them, and more.

What Are Garage Door Springs?

For those just learning about garage door springs, they may seem like a fairly straightforward component. In reality, there are many different types of garage door springs (which we’ll get into in more detail below), and each serves a very specific purpose. In general terms, however, garage door springs are designed to help balance your garage door as it opens and closes.

This is done through an approach known as counterbalancing, which uses the weight of the door to create tension in the springs. This tension is what allows your garage door to be lifted and lowered with relative ease, as the springs take on a good portion of the door’s weight.

Types of Garage Door Springs

As we just alluded to, there are several different types of garage door springs available on the market. Here are two of the most common:

• Extension springs: Located above the horizontal tracks of your door, or sometimes along the sides, extension springs are made to contract and stretch to enable door movement. There are both sectional and one-piece extension springs. This is one of the older types of springs and isn’t used as much in newer garage door setups.
• Torsion springs: Mounted on a rod above the garage door’s opening, torsion springs are designed to twist when the garage door is being opened or closed, providing counterbalance and tension. This is one of the most common types of springs used in garage doors today.

With extension springs, use of the door’s pulley system is a major part of the process. When the door needs to open, the springs unwind and pull on the cables, which then wind around the pulleys to lift the door. Torsion springs don’t use a pulley system, but work by torque — as the garage door is lowered, the springs twist tighter to provide resistance.

In part two of our series, we’ll go over the expected lifespan of garage door springs, plus how to care for them and what to do if they’re failing. For more on this, or to learn about any of our garage door installation or repair services, speak to our team at Crawford Door Sales today.