Can Garage Door Springs Kill You?

A garage door spring can kill if not handled properly. It is a well-known fact that hiring a professional garage door repair company is vital if you need your garage door spring replaced. Garage door springs can be very dangerous if not handled properly. But can garage door spring kill you? The answer is YES, garage door springs can kill a person or cause severe injuries. The amount of energy stored in a garage door spring is enough to break bones, cut off fingers and even send a slipped winding bar with a speed of a bullet.
Sadly, every year homeowners worldwide get injured or killed due to garage door spring incidents. Therefore, as the best-rated garage door repair Calgary offers, we urge homeowners to skip on this DIY project.

There are countless online tutorials on how to replace your garage door spring, but is it really worth the risk? Depending on your location, a garage door spring replacement will cost you a few hundred dollars, and you’re good to go for another 7-10 years until the spring breaks again. Consider the danger you expose yourself to by attempting garage door spring replacement by yourself. Having this job done for you professionally is well worth the money.

When Can Garage Door Springs Kill You?

The garage door spring by itself isn’t dangerous until you wind it up. Same with a broken garage door spring. Once the spring snaps, it releases all the tension, meaning it is safe and can’t cause any harm. However, there’s usually a set of two springs at least on a double garage door. And the second spring will still be under tension even when the first one breaks. So if you decide to replace your garage door spring on your own, make sure you unwind the operational spring before doing anything else.

Which Garage Door Springs Are The Most Dangerous?

There are different types of garage door springs, and some are more dangerous than others. The three types of garage door springs are:

Torsion garage door springs.
Extension garage door springs.
Torquemaster garage door springs.

Torsion garage door springs are the most common springs in North America. They have been around for a century and are proven to be very reliable. Torsion garage door springs are used both in residential and commercial applications. With regards to safety, torsion springs are located way above your garage door. Therefore an average homeowner never comes in contact with them, and in return, torsion springs don’t pose any threat if left alone. However, if not handled correctly during a DIY garage door spring replacement, they can cause severe injury or even death.

Extension garage door springs have been around for a while as well. However, they lost their popularity to torsion springs. Extension springs are rarely used in commercial applications and are less versatile than torsion garage door springs. Depending on the location of the extension spring, it may pose a severe threat to the residents. An older non-sectional steel garage doors used to have two large extension springs on the sides. And those two were exposed entirely, causing safety concerns, especially for families with small kids.

Torquemaster garage door springs were explicitly designed for lighter Wayne Dalton garage doors. Those springs come enclosed in a metal tube, which is both an advantage and a disadvantage. Being enclosed makes this type of spring the safest, yet it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be careful working with them. You can still get severely injured by a torquemaster garage door spring if you do not follow the correct procedures. However, for an average homeowner, this is the safest garage door spring type. Unfortunately, being enclosed inside the tube, meaning you can’t see whether they are broken or not.

In some cases, a garage door opener will have enough power to operate a Wayne Dalton garage door even with a broken spring. The reason for that is a lower R-value of those doors, hanse the lighter weight. The downside is the accessive wear and tear of your garage door opener and potential damage to the top section of the door.

How Dangerous Is It To Replace Garage Door Springs?

A garage door spring can kill if not handled carefully. Therefore we strongly suggest thinking twice before attempting to replace your garage door springs by yourself. That said, it’s not an impossible task. It can be done with proper tools, knowledge, and basic skills. The only question here is the risk-reward benefit. Is the risk of injury worth a few hundred dollars that any garage door repair company will charge you for garage door springs replacement? Consider the time invested in measuring the springs, finding them locally or buying online, the risk of purchasing the wrong spring if not appropriately measured, etc. Hiring a professional garage door repair company will take this headache away, and your garage door will be running like new.

Conclusion

If you were wondering whether garage door springs can kill you or not, we hope we answered the question and explained why you should avoid replacing the spring by yourself. Safety should always be your first priority, and if you decide to handle the spring replacement on your own, make sure you have the right tools and guidance.