My garage door spring snapped at 6am and I almost lost a finger

I was walking into the kitchen for my morning coffee last Tuesday when the spring let go with a bang that sounded like a gunshot. The door dropped about a foot before the safety cable caught it, and I stood there staring at the twisted metal for a solid minute wondering what just happened. Has anyone else dealt with a sudden spring failure mid-service, and did you try to fix it yourself or just call a pro right away?

2 comments

2 Comments

hayden_rivera6d ago

Man you got lucky with that safety cable catching it. My neighbor had one snap while he was standing directly under the door and it came down like a guillotine blade, put a crack in his concrete slab. Did you actually check if the torsion spring was the original one from when the house was built or had it ever been replaced before? Because those things have pretty specific life cycles based on cycle count, and if you don't know the age you're basically gambling every time you open the door. I'm asking because I'm trying to figure out if there's a pattern here with older springs failing at weird hours.

irisg575d ago

My neighbor had a spring fail during a storm a few years back, and it took us both a while to notice the pattern. I think what you are getting at is right, but it goes beyond garage doors. Everything in a house has a hidden lifespan you never think about until it breaks. The furnace filter, the water heater anode rod, the little rubber seals on the washing machine hoses. They all sit there quietly doing their job until they don't. Then you are left scrambling at 6 in the morning with a door that won't open. It is the same with my car's timing belt. You ignore it for years because it works fine, and then one snap leaves you stranded. We get used to things lasting forever because they seem fine, but they are all wearing out from the inside.