Fix it
Broken garage door spring
A broken spring is the most common serious garage door fault and the easiest to identify: the door suddenly weighs what it actually weighs. A double door is 150 to 250 pounds, and the springs are what make it feel like forty. When one goes, all of that lands on the opener, which is why the opener then fails too.
Do this first
Look at the spring on the bar above the door. A broken one has a clean gap of an inch or two in the coil. Do not try to lift the door. Do not run the opener again — you will burn out the gear.
Before you touch anything
Never change your own springs
A torsion spring on a double garage door holds enough stored energy to break an arm, take out teeth, or worse. It is wound under tension with two steel bars, and if one slips it goes at the speed of the thing it was holding up. People are seriously injured doing this every year, and some are killed. There is no YouTube video that makes this safe, and the part costs less than the emergency room.
Need it today?
MF Garage Doors
Door stuck, spring gone, car trapped — ring, do not fill in a form.
Call (863) 592-2143Repairs and service within 40 miles of Sebring — Avon Park, Lake Placid, Wauchula, Arcadia, Lake Wales, Bartow, Frostproof and Winter Haven.
New doors and replacements across central Florida — Tampa, Orlando, Lakeland, Winter Haven, Kissimmee, Clermont, and everywhere between.
0 of 3 are yours to fix
What it usually turns out to be
| Cause | How to tell | What happens next | Yours? |
|---|---|---|---|
| The spring reached the end of its cycle life | A clean break, and the door is seven to twelve years old on a standard spring. | Both springs are replaced together even when only one has gone, because the second is the same age and will follow within months. | Call somebody |
| Rust | The break is flaky and orange rather than clean, and the coil is dry. | Replacement, and a lubrication schedule afterwards. Coastal Florida is hard on springs. | Call somebody |
| The wrong spring was fitted | It failed inside a couple of years, or the door has always been hard to hold halfway. | The spring has to be matched to the door's weight and height. A high-cycle spring costs a little more and lasts two to three times longer. | Call somebody |
What it costs
$220 – $400
For one torsion spring, supplied and fitted. National guide range, checked September 2026 — get it in writing.
Other faults
The repair
What actually happens on the visit
- Confirms it, which takes seconds — a gap in the coil above the door, or a door that is suddenly far too heavy to lift.
- Measures the spring: wire size, inside diameter and length. This is what decides the replacement, and it is why a price over the phone is a guess.
- Replaces BOTH springs, not the one that broke. The second is the same age with the same cycles on it and follows within months, and the labour is nearly identical for two.
- Winds them to tension with two steel bars, then balances the door by hand — it should stay put wherever you stop it.
- Resets the opener's force and travel to the new balance, and tests the safety reverse.
How long it takes. An hour to ninety minutes for a straightforward pair on a normal door. Longer if the shaft or the bearings are worn, or if the door needs rebalancing from scratch.
Next time
Can you stop it happening again?
Not really, and anyone who says otherwise is selling something. A spring is rated in cycles and it spends them whatever you do. What you CAN do is choose how many: a standard spring is about 10,000 cycles and a high-cycle one 25,000 or more, for roughly a third more money. Lubrication twice a year helps at the margin.