As any homeowner knows, garages take a lot of damage- from cars bumping into them as you pull in too fast, to inclement weather taking its toll year after year; they’re just not built to last forever. But as long as you take care of them and perform regular maintenance tasks like lubricating hinges and rollers and making sure your garage door opener sensors are clean and functioning properly, your garage doors will continue opening and closing smoothly day in and day out-helping you avoid costly repairs down the road.
One crucial maintenance task that many homeowners overlook, however, is regularly inspecting and replacing their roll up garage door springs– but it doesn’t have to be this way!
In this blog post, we’ll show you how easy it is to measure garage door springs so that you can replace them before they break and cause damage (or worse) to your home or car. So, grab a measuring tape, and let’s get started!
Measuring The Roll Up Door Spring of Your Garage Door
Roll-up door springs are accountable for smoothly lifting up and down the garage door. This way the opening and closing of the door can be done with maximum ease. With frequent use, torsion springs weaken and breaks. And that’s why it has to be replaced. But before you can replace them, you need to know what size spring you need. Measuring your garage door’s torsion springs is a simple process that only takes a few minutes.
You will need to measure the following:
· The Length of The Roll Up Door Spring
Firstly, measure the overall length of the spring. To do this, simply uncoil the spring and measure it from end to end with a tape measure. Or if the coil is broken, uncoil both the parts and measure the length of each of them separately and add them to get the total length of the spring but don’t include the cones. Usually, the length of the 20 coils is 5 inches.
· The Size of The Wire (Thickness of The Wire)
The size of the wire is primarily the thickness of the wire, and to acquire the right measurement for this, the spring should be compressed and then a measurement of 20 coils should be taken. Divide the figure by 20 and you’ll get the thickness of the spring wire. Most often, this measurement is stamped on the stationary cone with the spring.
· The Inside Diameter
This is much simpler to measure as you need to take off the spring for this purpose. Simply, with a measuring tape, measure the spring’s diameter. But if are facing difficulty to do so, just look for the marking on the winding. Usually, the residential springs have a diameter of 175 or 134 for 1-3/4” while some commercial doors (lightweight) may also have springs with an inside diameter of 1-3/4”.
· Examine the Wind of The Spring (right hand /left hand)
To determine the wind, examine the top part of the spring where the coiling start. You will be having a right-hand coil if it runs clockwise. And lefthand coil if it runs anticlockwise.
Conclusion
Roll up springs are an integral part of any garage door, and if they aren’t working properly, your door won’t open or close. That’s why it’s important to know how to measure torsion springs so that you can replace them when necessary.
Now that you know how to measure garage door springs, you can order a customized roll up spring just according to your needs. Remember to always measure the length, inside diameter, and wire size so that you get the correct replacement spring for your door.
