Are you having issues with your garage door opening? This can be very frustrating. Especially when you find yourself trying to pull into your garage while it’s pouring rain (as luck would have it). Been there, not fun. There are three common causes for this, and chances are, one of these applies to your garage door.
Let’s discuss the first possible issue.
Many times a garage door can fail to open due to a broken or faulty spring. The health of your garage door spring is vital to allowing your garage door to open. This is because the spring carries a tremendous amount of tension to maintain the weight of your garage door. Importantly, the pull that the spring provides will decrease the amount of work required by the motor. Depending on the weight of your garage door, this can easily exceed what your motor can lift on its own. This can quickly become a problem because it puts strain on the garage door opener, causing it wear out more quickly.
So here’s a good way to test the spring.
First, disconnect the motor and manually lift the garage door. Now let go. Upon releasing the garage door, it should stay in place. Try this from the knee, waist, and shoulder level. This is a torsion spring balance test. If the garage door is too heavy or won’t stay in place after you’ve released it, this is a very good indicator that the spring is the issue. In some cases, if you have broken spring, you won’t be able to lift the garage door at all. When completing this test, be sure to practice caution or, even better, have someone there to hold the other side of the garage door in case it falls suddenly.