Take Care Of Your Springs And Your Garage Door Will Last You For A Long Time
Posted on: 30 July 2015
The life of your garage door, as rated by the manufacturer, usually includes both the door and its mechanisms. If one of the mechanisms causes the garage door to no longer work, then the garage door has "failed." By contrast, the mechanisms themselves, such as the torsion and extension springs, have their own life cycles independent of the door as a whole.
The Cycle Life of the Torsion and Extension Spring
At a basic level, the spring cycle life is an indication of how many times you can use the door with that particular spring. Once the spring cycle life ends, the door will need new springs to continue operation.
If you want your springs, and therefore your garage door, to work for you longer, then you need to make sure that you use your garage door properly. You also have to make sure that you don't frequently expose the springs to corrosive elements.
Leaving the garage door open – When you leave your garage door open, you leave the springs exposed to the elements. Heat on a sunny day, cold air in the winter, moisture, and temperature fluctuations; all of these things can lead to premature wear on your garage door springs. Always close your garage doors when not in use.
Exposing the springs to chemicals – If you regularly use any kind of chemicals when cleaning or working inside of the garage, you should try to keep these things away from the garage door mechanisms.
Unless you know the chemicals are not a corrosive danger to your springs and other garage door parts, you should try to mitigate contact as well as you can.
A lack of maintenance – Your garage door and its mechanisms require routine maintenance. Many people think their garage doors will just work and continue to work without any effort on their part. This isn't true. If you look through your garage door or spring manufacturer's specifications, you will likely find maintenance guidelines that you should follow.
Superfluous usage – You should always use your garage door as intended. If you're constantly raising it, lowering it, or putting any kinds of pressures on it for no reason, then you're prematurely aging it.
Garage doors and their underlying mechanisms can last you a long time before they need repair or replacement. However, you have to make sure that you're not putting too much wear on these things unnecessarily.
When It's Time to Replace Your Torsion or Extension Springs
Eventually, your springs will start to fail. Your garage door will stop behaving normally and may give you trouble when you try to use it. Otherwise, a spring can outright break or pop. When that occurs, you should contact a professional garage door repair contractor to swap out your springs for new ones.
It's possible to do it yourself, but it's an involved process and dangerous as well if you don't know what you're doing. A professional garage door repair service like DSI Door Services North Shore will know how to choose the proper replacement springs and install them. This will ensure that your garage doors will continue to work for you for years to come.
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