Your garage door weighs between 150 and 250 pounds. The springs do the heavy lifting — literally. They counterbalance the weight of the door so that your opener can raise and lower it smoothly. When a spring breaks, the door becomes dead weight, and most homeowners in Huntsville find out the hard way: they press the button and nothing happens, or they hear a loud bang from the garage and have no idea what just occurred. Here is how to figure out if a broken spring is your problem and what to do about it.
You Heard a Loud Bang in the Garage
This is the most common way homeowners discover a broken spring. The sound is sudden, sharp, and loud enough to be heard from inside the house. Many people assume something fell off a shelf or that someone tried to break in. What actually happened is the spring snapped under tension and unwound rapidly, releasing all of its stored energy at once.
If you heard a bang and your door will not open, a broken spring is almost certainly the cause.
The Door Will Not Open or Feels Extremely Heavy
Try pulling the emergency release handle — the red cord hanging from the opener rail — and lifting the door manually. If the door barely moves or feels like it weighs a ton, your springs have failed. A properly functioning door with intact springs should feel light enough to lift with one hand. If it takes everything you have just to get it a few inches off the ground, the springs are not doing their job.
Do not try to force the door open. Operating a garage door with broken springs puts dangerous stress on the opener, the cables, and the door panels.
There Is a Visible Gap in the Spring
Take a look at the spring mounted above your garage door — it runs horizontally along a metal shaft above the door opening. If the spring is broken, you will usually see a clear gap where the coils have separated. On a functioning spring, the coils are tightly wound with no gaps. A broken one will have a visible space of one to two inches where the break occurred.
If you have two springs (most residential doors in the Huntsville area do), check both. Even if only one has broken, the other is likely close to the end of its lifespan as well.
The Door Opens a Few Inches and Stops
Some openers have enough power to partially lift a door even without functioning springs. If your door opens six to eight inches and then stops or reverses, the opener is hitting its force limit because it is trying to lift the full weight of the door without spring assistance. The opener’s safety system kicks in and stops the motor to prevent damage.
This is actually the opener doing its job correctly. The problem is not the opener — it is the springs.
The Top Section of the Door Bends When Opening
If you notice the top panel of your door bowing or bending forward when the opener activates, that is a sign of spring failure. Without the springs balancing the load, the opener pulls from the top of the door while gravity holds the bottom. The result is a bending force on the top panel that can cause permanent damage.
If you see this happening, stop using the opener immediately and call for a spring repair.
What to Do If Your Garage Door Spring Is Broken
Do not attempt to repair or replace the spring yourself. Garage door springs are under extreme tension and can cause serious injury if handled improperly. This is one of the few home repairs that genuinely requires a professional.
Here is what you should do:
Disconnect the opener by pulling the emergency release handle. This prevents the opener from trying to run with a broken spring and potentially damaging the door or the motor.
Do not try to open or close the door manually unless you can do so without forcing it. If it is stuck, leave it.
Call a garage door spring repair professional. Most spring replacements in the Huntsville area take about an hour and cost between $150 and $350 depending on the spring type and whether one or both springs need to be replaced.
If your door is stuck open and creating a security issue, treat it as an emergency — we offer responsive emergency garage door repair for situations where your home is exposed.
Need a spring replacement in Huntsville, AL?
Call (256) 415-4055 and we will get your door working again.