Let’s see what the balancing system needs to do. The sectional garage door leaf weighs in average 100 – 300 lb, at large industrial garage doors their weight can reach 700 lb and even more. It’s heavy, is it not? And then the mechanism of balancing comes to the aid. There are two kinds, the good old tension springs, and their younger brothers, torsion springs. Let’s consider them in detail.

Tension Springs – as is evident from their name, work on tensile force. Work in pairs, always located on the right and left of the opening, vertically or horizontally. When the garage door sections move downwards, the springs are stretched (they accumulate energy), while moving the cloth upwards, they are compressed (give energy). Springs are always two, more precisely, four, but more on that later. They work independently of each other, driven by each of its rope.

Torsion springs – work on twisting, are located on the shaft, which rotates the drive cable, under the weight of the garage door. It accumulates energy when it falls down (thanks to the force of attraction and old man Newton), while not letting the garage door fall down, and gives this energy when the garage door needs to be lifted up. The shaft with torsion springs is always horizontal, above the opening of the garage door, or in the depth of the room, in case of low ceiling hat room. Torsion springs not only look impressive, but are also able to work with any weight of the garage doors. The fact is that they are selected individually, based on the size of the garage door, the weight of the garage door, and the intensity of use. In the case of very heavy doors, a two-shaft balancing system is used. To transfer torque between shafts, a tensioner chain is used.

Safety

What are the dangers facing the user of the automatic garage door? The first is a spring break at which the garage door collapses. At a weight of 200 lb – 300 lb, this is not very pleasant. If you hear suspicious noise, or you are not sure of the 100% correct operation of your garage door? Let one of our professionals come and inspect your garage door. If we find broken spring, we can replace it for you. Working on garage door springs can be dangerous, as they are under high tension. Stay safe. Have a professional do the work for you. At Ottawa Garage Door Experts, we are certified experts. That means we have the training and experience technicians to complete the job safely. Thanks to our fully-stocked service vehicles, we can replace broken springs. If anything breaks on your garage door call us for same day service or request an emergency repair service. We’ll take care of the rest