Garage Door Springs & Cables Cape Town

Why springs fail, and how they tell you

• Springs have a cycle life, not a calendar life. A standard spring is made for a set number of open-and-close cycles, and every cycle takes a little of it away.
• Household use decides the date. Two cycles a day is gentle; a household where the door runs a dozen times a day gets to the end of a standard spring far sooner.
• Coastal air accelerates corrosion. A spring near the sea corrodes in the coils and at the winding cones, so it fails earlier than the same spring inland.
• A snap is usually sudden and loud. A door that has been getting heavier for months, and then will not lift at all, is a classic broken spring.
• A single spring on a double door is a design that fails without warning; a matched pair that fails one at a time is easier to live with but should still be replaced as a pair.
• Cables fray, stretch and jump the drum. A frayed cable is a cable about to let go, and it should be replaced before it does.

The safety rule that matters most

• Never try to wind, unwind or remove a garage-door spring. The tension in a torsion spring can release instantly and cause a fatal injury. This is not a do-it-yourself job at any level.
• Do not ask for a spring to be supplied loose so you can fit it. A contractor who agrees to that is handing you a hazard.
• Do not run the opener when the spring has failed. The motor will try to lift the full weight of the door and damage its gearbox or capacitor.
• Do not walk under a door that is held open by one cable or by a single spring.
• If the door is jammed part-way and the car is inside, the safe route is a repair call-out, not force.

What a spring job should include

• The door's weight measured or calculated, so the new springs match it. Springs copied from the old ones are often the wrong spec if a previous owner fitted whatever was available.
• Both springs replaced together, and any broken cable or bent drum replaced at the same time.
• A full balance check afterwards, with the door left where it should stay when released halfway.
• The opener's force and travel limits reset, because the load on the motor has changed.
• A service of the rollers, hinges and track while the door is already apart, which is cheaper than a second call-out.
• Cycle life explained: if the door runs many times a day, ask about a higher-cycle spring rather than the cheapest one.

What drives the cost of spring and cable work

• Whether both springs, cables and drums are replaced as a set or only the broken part.
• The spring's rated cycle life, because a high-cycle spring costs more and lasts longer.
• Whether the job includes a service of the rollers, hinges and track.
• The door's size, weight and height, and how much headroom the contractor has to work in.
• Whether a motor has to be reprogrammed afterwards, and whether the door needs a new drum or bracket.
• Ask for the spring spec and the cycle rating in writing, so a later failure can be checked against what was fitted.

Springs, cycles and why the spec matters

• A torsion spring is rated in cycles, so the question is not how old it is but how many times it has run.
• A matched pair is replaced as a pair. One new spring alongside a worn one leaves the door unbalanced and shortens the life of both.
• Springs must match the door's weight. A spring chosen by eye or copied from an old one is a spring waiting to fail.
• Coastal air is an accelerant. On the coast, ask about the spring's coating as well as its cycle rating.
• Never accept a spring supplied loose for self-fitting. It is a hazard, not a saving.

Where this work is passed on

Contractors who cover these areas take springs & cables work:

• Garage doors in the Northern Suburbs
• Garage doors in the Southern Suburbs
• Garage doors in the Table Bay
• Garage doors in the Helderberg