Dale · Homeowner persona
The garage door spring snapped on a cold morning
Who they are
Dale is in his fifties and uses the garage door every day, twice a day at least. He has never thought about how it works because it has always just worked.
Their home and door
A two-car garage with the same steel sectional door that came with the house, a torsion spring above the opening, and a chain-drive opener.
What went wrong
On the first properly cold morning of the fall he pressed the button, heard a loud bang from above the door, and the door would not move. It had been fine the day before.
What they searched
- “garage spring repair”
- “garage door spring replacement”
- “can you use wd40 on garage door springs”
What they learned
- A sharp bang like a gunshot inside the garage usually means the torsion spring has broken. Source: Why won’t my garage door close?
- Standard residential torsion springs are rated for about 10,000 cycles. Cold does not cause the break; cold steel is more brittle, so a worn spring tends to give out on a cold morning. Source: Why garage door springs break in cold weather
- Springs are not a DIY job: do not wind, unwind, replace or adjust a torsion spring without training and the proper tools. Source: Why garage door springs break in cold weather
Watch the explainers
Dale heard a loud bang above his garage door and now it won't open: what to do
Why a garage door spring snaps on a cold morning
This situationBroken garage door spring: what happened and what to do →
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