Garage door question

[Boondox]

I have a three-bay garage: one bay for the Kubota, one for the Mini, and the last for livestock supplies and such. They are the four panel type that follows a track, not the solid door type that tips out.

The garage door opener on the center door will no longer open the door. The light comes on, but all the opener does is make a brief humming sound before giving up. At first I thought the opener had broken, but when I removed the chain and pushed the remote, the little sproket turned just fine. Then I figured the chain might be loose or off track, but it was just fine.

The thing is, when I release the door from the opener and raise or lower it by hand, the door is heavy. Way heavier than the other two doors. We're talking bending at the knees and using proper ergonomics because it's so heavy I'd hurt my back doing it another way. So I compared the springs and noticed that those in the bad bay hang down a couple of inches when the door is closed, while the springs in the other doors are fairly taut.

These doors were installed in the 1960s and to our knowledge the springs were never replaced. Could my problem just be old, tired and worn out springs? Is there something else to check?

TIA, Pete

 

[Jimbrown]

The tension on the springs is normally adjustable either by turn buckles or by moving hooks on the end of the spring to add more tension.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Pete,
As Jimbrown wrote, the springs are adjustable. But be very careful, with spring that is roughly 40 years old you run a serious risk of breaking it and when they snap all heck breaks loose. They can be a serious hazard and cause injury. It is best to stand on the side of the track away from the center of the door when adjusting a spring, that way if it breaks and goes flying, you will be out of the flight path.

Before adjusting the spring, you might want to check the door opener itself. It should have an adjustment to increase/decrease lift force, it may be that it is out of adjustment.

 

[Inspector507]

The springs, IMO, should be fairly taut when the door is closed. Might be time to try to adust/shorten the cables.

 

[shvl73]

New springs are cheap and easy to replace. After 40 years it would be a good idea to replace them. At the very least, get some safety cable that runs through the center of the spring, before adjusting the tension. That way if they break, which they can do with some degree of force, the cable keeps the pieces from hitting bystanders or valuable items.

 

[Bird]

I agree with the other guys. Those springs normally come with a complete loop on the ends, I believe, but in the last house we had, the installer had simply cut off part of that loop to leave a hook on either end to make it easier for him to install I guess. I never thought about it or paid any attention to it until one of them broke one day and shot that spring to the front of the garage with enough force to knock a hole in the sheetrock. And that's when I bought all new springs and installed them myself and as mentioned above, I ran a safety cable through the springs so if one ever broke, it wouldn't do too much damage.

Is there something else to check? Maybe. I don't know what kind of door opener you have, but some, at least, are adjustable for power. They can be adjusted for the amount of power needed to lift the door, and for the amount of resistance they encounter when closing before they reverse themselves.

 

[beenthere]

Don't know for sure, but had that happen once, and the doors became very heavy. Turned out they were a sandwich construction, that had de-laminated, and water was getting inside, causing the doors to become waterlogged. I drilled weep holes in the bottoms and they 'P'd" for three days, draining out a lot of trapped water. Of course, they were starting to decay, so I replaced them when I could afford it.

May not be your situation, but the problem reminded me of my old problem.

 

[thcri]

As the others have said, more than likely your springs. Unless you are really familiar with tightening them be very careful as I have heard of many people getting hurt on them. If you have a local garage door guy have him give you a quote to tighten them. He may give you one right over the phone.

murph

 

[Boondox]

Thanks everyone! I think the springs are worn out since they offer very little in the way of assistance. Once the door starts coming down it tries to rush to the ground, and if I lose my grip it crashes shut with a resounding THUD! And in looking over the responses it seems the safest thing to do -- since I really have no idea how old the springs are -- would be to replace them and install a safety cable.

Okay, so now I have another weekend project! pb

 

[BB_TX]

Boondox - Is a spring broken? Is this the kind that has springs on a long shaft just above the door? Most of these type doors have two springs. I had one spring break a couple years ago and it did exactly what you describe. Door so heavy the opener could not open it. And it was hard to raise by hand. I looked in the yellow pages and called a garage door service and they replaced the spring.
It is also possible that the collar slipped. You have to wind up the spring using two steel bars inserted in the collar and then tighten the collar with two set screws. If the collar slipped releasing the spring tension, it would be the same as if the spring broke.