If a mousetrap can hurt, a garage torsion spring is frightening

Leave garage door repairs to the pros

Have you ever set a mousetrap and had the spring slip so that your fingers were caught in the trap? Hurts like heck, doesn’t it? For it’s size, the spring is a powerful little bugger. It’s only a little more than an inch long and about one-quarter inch in diameter but it will snap the trap shut with enough force to, well, leave a mark.

If a mousetrap can hurt that much, just think about what the torsion springs on your garage door can do.

A garage door can have one torsion spring or come in a set of two – a left-hand spring wound to the left and a right-hand spring wound to the right. The springs generally range from 16- to 48-inches long. They range in inside diameter from about 1-3/4-inches to 2-5/8-inches (commercial is usually anything above 2-5/8-inches and runs to 3-5/8-inches).

Those torsion springs are designed to raise garage doors that can weigh as much as half a ton. They’re rated by Inch Pounds Per Turn. Depending on the inside diameter of a spring for a residential application, and the wire comprising the spring, those springs can be loaded with as much as 50 IPPT. This refers to the inch-pounds of force from each turn of the spring.

If you multiply the IPPT by the number of turns in the spring, you should arrive at the total inch pounds of force generated by the spring. It’s possible that you’ll have 10 coils of the spring in 1-1/4 inch. 

As an example, let’s suppose you have a 30-inch spring 10 coils per 1-1/2 inches. Let’s also assume that the IPPT is 36.1. That spring has 200 coils, each packing a punch of 36.1 IPPT.

Make no mistake about it; if a mousetrap will leave a mark, a garage door torsion spring will take off a finger, an arm or something even more vital.

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, close to 30,000 individuals suffer injuries each year from garage doors that include fractures, crushing, and amputations.

The point is that repairing a garage door is not a DIY type project. There are some times when you want to call in a professional. And when the garage door requires service, that’s one of the times to call a professional. And when the repair refers to garage door springs, there’s no question about it.