Wheaton, IL · Same-day service
Garage Door Extension Spring Replacement in Wheaton
Extension springs run along the horizontal tracks, one down each side, stretching as the door comes down. Wheaton has a lot of them, because the doors on post-war ranches and split-levels were built that way and plenty were never converted.
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They fail differently from torsion springs. Instead of a bang and a dead door you tend to get a door that lifts crooked, binds against one track and stops, while the opener keeps trying.
Telling Which Kind You Have Before You Call
Stand inside with the door shut and look up. A steel bar running across the wall above the opening with springs coiled around it is torsion. Two long stretched springs running back over the tracks, parallel to the ceiling, are extension springs.
It is worth knowing, because the parts, the fitting and the safety kit are all different. Say which you have when you book and the truck arrives carrying the right springs.
Safety Cables Are Not Optional
A stretched extension spring stores real energy. When one snaps it whips along the track, and with no containment cable threaded through the middle it goes wherever it likes. Through drywall, into a car roof, occasionally into a person.
A surprising number of older garages in town still have none. Every extension spring we fit gets a safety cable anchored at both ends. If your springs are sound and only the cables are missing, we would far rather add them than walk away from it.
The Parts Around the Spring Age Too
Extension systems pull through a pulley and a lift cable on each side. The sheave bearings dry out, the pulley starts to wobble, and the cable saws a groove into it until a strand lets go. New springs on tired pulleys buys a few months, not years.
We change springs as a pair whichever one broke, since both have taken identical loads, and we look over the cables, sheaves, S-hooks and track hangers at the same visit.
Other work we do in Wheaton
- Torsion Springs
- Roller Repair
- Panel Replacement
- Smart Openers
- Commercial
- Custom Doors
- Maintenance
- Safety Inspection
- Lubrication
- Spring Replacement
- Opener Repair
- Installation
- Emergency Service
- Cable Repair
- Track Repair
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Questions
Wheaton questions about this job
Can extension springs be converted to torsion?
Usually, and on a heavy or wide door it is worth doing. Torsion gives smoother travel, better balance and keeps the stored energy on a shaft rather than beside your car. The limit is headroom above the opening, which is tight in some of the older Wheaton garages, so it is a measurement question rather than a preference.
Only one spring broke. Why replace both?
They went in on the same day and have done the same number of cycles, so the survivor sits at the same point in its life. Running a new spring against an old one also leaves the door pulling harder on one side. Pairs keep it square.
Why does my door lift higher on one side than the other?
That is the classic extension-spring symptom. One spring has lost tension, or one lift cable has slipped in its drum, so the door racks in the opening. Keep using it and it will come off the track. Stop and have it looked at.
Book Wheaton extension springs
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Emergency service available · Free on-site estimates