Why Do Garage Door Springs Break? - DDM Garage Doors Blog

Posted August 3rd, 2018 at 4:42 pm by Dan Musick

An image of a variety of torsion and extension garage door springs.

Manufacturers make garage door springs from wire. Garage door springs break because every time you open or close the door, the wire bends.

This is easy to understand if you have ever bent a small wire or a paper clip in order to break it.

Hands are bending a paper clip over a wooden surface.
You can break a paper clip by bending it roughly 20 times

If you bend the wire of a paper clip back and forth, the wire will fatigue and break at about 20 bends.

The same is true of garage door springs, only they last longer. Because manufacturers usually design the springs for bending, instead of only twenty bends the door will open and close 10,000 to 15,000 times before the springs break.

On garage doors that use torsion springs, the wire bends around the tube or shaft as the door operates. On garage doors with extension springs, the ends pull. This separates and bends the coils as the door operates. The resulting tension fatigues the metal, causing it to break.

A view of a garage door spring coils being separated.

Regardless of the type of spring that is on your garage door, eventually it will wear out and break. See our YouTube video titled, “Garage Door Springs,” for an overview of garage door springs in general.

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