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How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)

truetex.com

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Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)

#12

Post by MarkusWandel »

I did one on the "do it with the spring relaxed and the door up" plan. The door isn't that heavy, you can just lift it with your hand to help the opener lift it up, and done. But cramped!! Getting the lift cable nicely wound on the lift pulley, giving it a bit of preload (pull) and getting it attached to the bottom of the door, all with the raised door in the way, and doing both sides, let's just say my supply of swear words was severely depleted by the end. But I did get it done, and no dangerous forces were involved.

Whereas I saw a professional do it in about 5 minutes flat on the "wind the spring and block it and then hook everything up with the door down" plan. But that can kill you if you do it wrong.

Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)

#13

Post by JKCalhoun »

levocardia wrote: post #5

I had a teacher in high school who was blinded (I think only in one eye) trying to do this repair. You could not pay me enough money to do this repair. >This work is risky, but the risk is comparable to doing your own car repairs, or climbing on the roof of your house to clean your gutters. Notably, "unintentional fall" is the #1 cause of emergency department visits for adults [1], which is why I'd hire a professiona…

Yeah, I'm a DIY'er and I noped-out of this one too.

Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)

#14

Post by JKCalhoun »

TheGRS wrote: post #8
wackget wrote: post #4

Is there something I'm missing? A quick search of YouTube reveals tons of garage door spring replacement videos. It doesn't seem like the knowledge or parts are difficult to obtain.

Its widely known as one of the most dangerous DIYs you can do. I think typically people working on them will get pushed off their ladder suddenly from the tension in the spring releasing.

I worry more about a steel bar being thrown out with ample centrifugal force or coming around and taking a whack at your jaw.

Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)

#15

Post by JKCalhoun »

superkuh wrote: post #2

What an incredible web page design. It loads and paints instantly on any browser in existence and reflows faster than any site I've seen. The content is front and center and there's a ton of it. This is what peak website performance looks like.

Ha ha, and the compression artifacts on the images: how you know it's gonna load fast.

Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)

#16

Post by toomuchtodo »

I do not recommend DIYing this work, but I do recommend springing for the high cycle (20k cycles) torsion springs if offered by your installer (TLDR larger wire size and a few inches longer to optimize for longevity). They are a bit more in material cost, but will save you labor costs, which will only go up in the future. Also, depending on your living arrangement and situation, an unexpected spring failure can be annoying AF if you can't get vehicles in and out of the structure.

Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)

#17

Post by bluGill »

wackget wrote: post #4

Is there something I'm missing? A quick search of YouTube reveals tons of garage door spring replacement videos. It doesn't seem like the knowledge or parts are difficult to obtain.

There are several different springs, some are more dangerious than others. It isn't hard to safely replace any spring. However it isn't always obvious what is safe or unsafe and mistakes can kill.

Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)

#18

Post by abracadaniel »

martinky24 wrote: post #3
superkuh wrote: post #2

What an incredible web page design. It loads and paints instantly on any browser in existence and reflows faster than any site I've seen. The content is front and center and there's a ton of it. This is what peak website performance looks like.

Yeah but how will I get ~customized ads~ served to me? What if big-ad-tech doesn't know I'm tangentially interested in garage door opener content??

You will miss out on having your YouTube feed filled with garage door videos for the next 3 years as well.

Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)

#19

Post by glasss »

wackget wrote: post #4

Is there something I'm missing? A quick search of YouTube reveals tons of garage door spring replacement videos. It doesn't seem like the knowledge or parts are difficult to obtain.

Probably the year this was published, the blog said the first version was in posted in 2002

Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)

#20

Post by the__alchemist »

levocardia wrote: post #5

I had a teacher in high school who was blinded (I think only in one eye) trying to do this repair. You could not pay me enough money to do this repair. >This work is risky, but the risk is comparable to doing your own car repairs, or climbing on the roof of your house to clean your gutters. Notably, "unintentional fall" is the #1 cause of emergency department visits for adults [1], which is why I'd hire a professiona…

Thank you. I agree on all examples. Absolutely not worth the risk. Not even close. I wince thinking about when I changed my own oil in my 20s... Potentially throwing away so many good years, for so little gain. The car danger can be mitigated if the work is done under a professional lift.
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