Why springs snap on the coldest mornings
A torsion spring is rated in cycles — ten thousand is standard, about seven to ten years of twice-a-day life. Every open and close spends one. But the break itself loves January up here: steel contracts in the cold, a spring already fatigued to the line gets that much more brittle, and the first cycle of a sub-freezing high-desert morning is the one that finds the crack. That’s why the calls cluster in cold snaps, and why a door that felt “a little heavy” in November is a snapped spring in January. The spring gives warnings — the gap, the noise, the heaviness — weeks before the bang.
Torsion vs. extension — and why it matters
Torsion springs sit on a shaft above the door and lift by torque; extension springs run along the horizontal tracks and lift by stretch. Torsion is the modern standard — smoother, longer-lived, and safer when it breaks, because the shaft contains the snap. Extension springs, common on older mountain garages, release their energy loose: a broken one without a safety cable through it becomes a whip. If your door runs extension springs, ask about safety cables at the same visit — it’s a small part that matters on the day the spring lets go.
The part nobody should DIY
A wound torsion spring stores enough energy to lift a four-hundred-pound wall. Loosening the wrong set screw, or winding with a tool that slips, puts that energy through your hands and face in a fraction of a second. It’s the one garage door job with a genuine injury record among homeowners — and it’s also one of the fastest jobs on the truck, because the springs in the common sizes ride on board. Some DIY is thrift. This one is a coin flip with a loaded spring.