Broken Garage Door Spring? Here's What You Need to Know

A broken torsion spring is one of the most common reasons a garage door suddenly stops working. And when it goes, it usually goes fast - no warning, no gradual slowdown. One day it works fine, the next your door won't budge or feels like it weighs a ton.

Here's the thing most homeowners don't realize: your garage door opener isn't actually doing most of the lifting. The springs are. When a torsion spring breaks, all that tension is gone, and your opener is left trying to move a door it was never designed to lift on its own. That's how motors burn out and cables snap.

A dual-spring setup - like the one visible here - is actually the smarter configuration. If one spring breaks, the second one can sometimes keep the door partially functional. But we'd never recommend running a door long-term on a single working spring. The remaining spring takes on double the stress and tends to fail soon after.

Torsion spring repair isn't a DIY job. These springs are wound under serious tension and need to be handled with the right tools and training. Attempting it without experience is genuinely dangerous. We've seen the aftermath, and it's not pretty. Getting a professional out quickly is always the right call.

If your door feels unusually heavy, moves unevenly, or stops working out of nowhere, a spring issue is usually the first place we look. Catching it early - before it damages other components - keeps the repair simple and the cost down.