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Ask most people what lifts their garage door and they'll say the motor. It isn't. The motor on a typical opener produces about as much pull as one adult arm — what actually lifts the door is a spring system storing and releasing energy on every cycle, with the motor doing little more than steering. That's why one failed spring instantly stops a perfectly healthy opener dead — the classic garage door that won't open — and why understanding springs is understanding the whole door.
What springs actually do
A double sectional door commonly weighs 80–150kg. Springs counterbalance that weight so precisely that a healthy door, disconnected from its motor, can be lifted with one hand and will float wherever you leave it. Every open-and-close cycle winds and unwinds the spring, flexing the steel — and steel that flexes eventually fatigues. That's the entire story of spring failure: not abuse, not bad luck, just metal reaching the end of its counted cycles.
The one-hand test
With the door fully closed, pull the opener's manual release and lift the door by hand. A balanced door rises smoothly with light effort and stays put at half height. A door that fights you, slams down, or won't budge has a spring problem — reconnect the opener and stop using the door.
Torsion vs extension springs
Garage doors run one of two systems. Torsion springs mount on a shaft above the door opening and twist to store energy — they're what nearly all modern sectional doors use, they lift more evenly, and they're the ones that fail with the famous bang. Extension springs stretch along the horizontal tracks on older and lighter doors, storing energy by elongating. Roller doors are different again: their spring lives inside the barrel the curtain wraps around, which is why a roller door with a tired spring feels heavy at the bottom of its travel.
- Torsion: above the opening, twists on a shaft — modern sectionals, smoothest lift, loudest failure
- Extension: along the tracks, stretches — older and lighter doors, should always carry safety cables
- Roller-door springs: inside the curtain barrel — failure shows as a heavy, hard-to-lift curtain
Extension springs need safety cables
An extension spring that snaps without a safety cable threaded through it becomes a steel whip. If your older door has bare extension springs, having safety cables fitted is a small job that removes a genuine hazard — ask for it with your next service.
How long springs last — and why less in Perth
Springs are rated in cycles, not years. Standard residential springs are built for roughly 10,000 cycles; a household using the door four to six times a day burns through that in seven to ten years. Two things shorten it. The first is exposure: damp and salt pit spring steel, and a pitted coil concentrates stress exactly where fatigue cracks start. The second is balance: a door running crooked or binding loads one spring harder than its twin, spending its cycles early.
What stretches spring life
- An annual service that re-tensions and re-balances the door
- Corrosion-protected springs on an exposed door — ask for them at replacement
- A light garage-door lubricant on the coils once or twice a year
- Fixing crooked or binding travel promptly rather than living with it
- High-cycle springs (25,000+) if the door is your main entry — they cost more, once
The warning signs before a failure
Springs rarely go without notice — most give weeks of warning that almost everyone ignores. The door feels heavier on the manual lift than it used to. It slams the last half-metre instead of settling. It rises crooked, one corner leading. The springs groan or pop as the door starts moving. Rust blooms on the coils. Any one of those is a booking, not an observation: a re-tension or a scheduled spring replacement costs less and hurts less than the same job as an emergency repair with your car trapped inside.
What happens when a spring breaks
The failure itself is unmistakable: a single bang from the garage, loud enough that neighbours ask about it. Look above the door and you'll usually see a clean gap in the coil — the spring has separated. From that moment the door is dead weight. The opener will strain and give up or, worse, drag the door partway and drop it. Don't run the motor, don't pull the manual release while the door is raised, and don't try to lift a spring-less double door by hand: it's over 100kg with nothing helping you and nothing to hold it up.
If the car is trapped inside
Say so when you call — trapped cars are triaged ahead of routine work, and safely raising a spring-less door to free a vehicle is routine for a technician and genuinely risky for anyone else. We bring the sizes your door's symptoms point to.
How replacement is priced in Perth
Spring work is quoted per door, and what moves the number is straightforward: how many springs the door runs, their size and cycle rating, whether it's a single or a matched pair, how easy the shaft is to reach, and whether you need us in standard hours or after them. A single spring is quoted supplied and fitted; a matched pair is quoted together; larger doors running three or four springs sit higher again. If the springs are sound but the door has simply lost tension, a re-tension needs no new parts at all. There is no call-out fee and the price is confirmed before any work starts. One buying note: when one spring of a pair breaks, replace both. They've flexed the same number of cycles, the survivor is close behind, and a pair costs meaningfully less than two separate call-outs — mismatched old-and-new springs also pull the door subtly crooked, which wears everything else faster. If a quote from anyone ever feels wrong, WA Consumer Protection is the state body that handles trade and consumer complaints.
Why this is never a DIY job
A wound torsion spring on a double door stores energy comparable to a dropped engine block. Releasing or applying that tension is done with winding bars in a set sequence, holding the bar against a force that will spin it violently if grip or footing slips. Emergency departments see the results of shortcut attempts: hand, wrist and facial injuries, mostly from people who watched a video and used screwdrivers instead of proper bars. The professional job takes under an hour and costs less than an X-ray. This is the one garage door repair where we'll say it flatly: don't. If you want a second opinion that isn't ours, Product Safety Australia is where the ACCC publishes recalls and safety notices for garage doors and openers.