How to open garage door with broken spring

If you’re wondering whether you can open your garage door even if the spring is broken, there’s a good chance you’re stuck on one side or the other of it. Sorry about that.

The good news is that you can open the door. The bad news is that it may not be easy—and it’d be better if you didn’t.

If you’re able to get where you’re going another way, do that and then contact Overhead Garage Door or call us at 888-459-3720 to talk about quick, safe garage door spring repair available 24 hours a day in the northern Chicago area.

If you absolutely need to get that door open right now, here’s what you need to know.

How do I know if my garage door has a broken spring?

First things first, try to determine why your door won’t open. There are several common reasons why your garage door won’t open or close, some of which won’t require a call to a garage door spring repair company.

There are two main ways to know you have a spring problem:

1. Your opener motor is working but the door isn’t moving, or you may hear the opener straining to lift the door.
2. You hear a loud pop like a firecracker. That was the spring breaking, and it was probably the most exciting part of your day.

Can I use my opener remote to open my garage door?

If you have a broken spring, do not attempt to use the opener to open your garage door. It doesn’t matter if you have the best opener on the market: Don’t use your opener at all.

Using your opener with a broken spring can result in all sorts of expensive problems, such as:

• Cracking or crumpling the door panels
• Stripping gears in your opener
• Burning out your opener motor
• Bending the rails
• Parts of the opener carriage breaking off
• In rare cases, the opener may pull itself off the ceiling

Is it safe to open a garage door with a broken spring?

As professionals in the industry, we advise you do not attempt to open your garage door if the spring is broken. A quick explanation of doors and springs will help explain why.

Your door is equipped with two kinds of springs:

• Extension springs on either side of the door, along the rails, help counterbalance the weight of the door as it is raised or lowered.
• Torsion springs across the top of the door help do the heavy lifting.

Garage doors are generally made from wood or metal; they can weigh in the area of 500 pounds. If one or more of those springs is broken, you will be lifting that weight all on your own.

For safety reasons alone, it is better to call a reliable garage door spring repair service such as ours. Contact Overhead Garage Door, Inc. at 847-546-6600 for garage door repair in northern Illinois.

How to open your garage door without the opener

If you must open your garage door but cannot use the opener because you have a broken spring, we recommend:

1. Get help from a second person. Again, the door will be very heavy.
2. Use extreme caution! Protect your back, be careful not to pinch your fingers, and don’t let the door fall on your feet.
3. You will have to open the door manually. You may have done this in the case of a burned-out motor or a power outage, but remember, you had the help of the extension springs, before. This time, you will need to lift the door’s entire weight.
4. Disengage the door from the opener. To do this, look for a handle on a rope hanging 18″ or so from the J-arm of the opener and pull on it until the mechanism unlatches.
5. Carefully lift the door until it settles in place along the horizontal rails.

As you lift, keep in mind:

• The door may simply be too heavy to lift. Don’t try to be a hero.
• Do not bend the panels by pushing on them or yanking them too hard.
• Watch your fingers between the panels.
• Keep the door level to avoid bending the rails.

To close the door behind you, simply reverse the steps. Be aware that this may be more difficult because you will have to hold the door all the way down.

Do not let it crash down or you’ll be replacing more than the springs. Again, we recommend you find a second person to help. More strongly, we recommend contacting a professional to fix your garage door issue quickly. The garage door may be too heavy to lift manually. Our garage door repairmen are available 24/7 for emergency garage door spring repair. You can reach us at 847-546-6600 for garage door repair in northern Illinois.

Is it dangerous to replace a garage door spring?

Remember that firecracker pop we told you about? That was the sound of metal not only snapping but releasing a whole bunch of energy. If you do not know how to properly replace a garage door spring, you do run the risk of injury from springs snapping back at you or the door falling.

Before you attempt to replace a garage door spring on your own, you might want to read this brief article about why you should hire a professional for garage door spring replacement.

How much does it cost to replace a garage door spring?

Garage door spring replacement costs between $150 and $400 on average. There are several factors that can affect the cost of garage door spring replacement, including the door size, type, number of springs, number of doors, and location. Our garage door technicians can answer any questions you have about garage door spring replacement cost – contact us today.

How long does a garage door spring last?

Most garage door springs will function great for 10,000 cycles or more. Depending on how often you take your car in and out, that could be anywhere from 6 to 10 years.

Contact Overhead Garage Door for fast spring repair

If you don’t want to take the risk of manually opening your garage door (and we don’t blame you), contact us online or call us at 888-459-3720. We’ll give you a free estimate and get you back to the good old days of hitting the opener from the comfort of the driver’s seat.

Can I manually open garage door with broken spring?

What happens when the spring on the garage door breaks?

Can you manually lift a garage door?