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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.
Why are we still using springs?
The people answering apparently don't know that you can use counter-weights, cables and pulleys instead of a torsion spring. It takes more space, but it rock solid and safer to fix. It is very common in some other countries.
They seem far safer, longer lasting, and cheaper and easier to repair than springs, but are more expensive to install, take up more space, and probably cost more all in all compared to springs.
I found this that also goes into it:
https://engineering.stackexchange.com/questions/8692/why-are...
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This is basically what the "early Internet" looked like that people often write paeans to. Lots of pages written by people very dedicated to a weirdly specific thing while also peppering it with nonsequiturs and their crazy theory about who runs the "real" government. It was fine, but hardly the glorious wonderland often portrayed. (Not that the current Internet is without its flaws, but if I want to learn something…
> It was fine, but hardly the glorious wonderland often portrayed. Probably down to personal taste, but I would happily take a thousand of these websites with strange, esoteric folk sharing knowledge in unconventional ways than another subreddit that's 70% non-sequiturs by volume, or a Stack Exchange thread that's just the same quesiton asked 400 times in broken english.
One scam/scheme not mentioned in the article is calling the phone number on the sticker of the vendor that installed your opener. Those are very valuable advertisement slots. Call anyone but them. There's not a ton of specialization in residential garage door systems.
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When my spring broke I called a someone local (maybe via Yelp), he came out within 30 minutes, replaced it in 20 and charged me $75. This was only a couple of years ago. Likewise with brake fluid changes. I can do it, but the risk/hassle just ain't worth it for the cost of a pro.
What are the risks of changing brakes? Never thought of that as a particularly risky endeavor before.
Air will compress and you could have brake failure. Also water, less common but happens, as the brakes heat up, can boil into gas and then also again you have loss of pressure and brake failure.
This is why I comment technique for race cars, which always have the risk of possibly boiling their brake fluid, will give a slight pump to the brake before coming up to a corner to pressurize the master cylinder and make sure that it does have a little bit of pressure pushback While you still have a little bit of space to react and ditch if something goes wrong
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I don’t understand why it’s even considered safe to have one of these springs in one’s garage without a solid shield of some sort. While the energy involved is small on the scale of energy storage devices ( Which brings to mind some rather different designs. A rather small motor with a lot of mechanical advantage can easily open a close a garage door, and if a DC or low voltage AC motor is used, it could do so quite…
If the garage door opener breaks, or the power is out, many people might have a really tough time opening the door manually without those springs. They might not be able to even do it at all. It is still, of course, a valid question to ask if it's worth having dangerous springs up there all the time for the rare event of the opener being inoperative. Or maybe we just shouldn't have doors that are that heavy?
I think that would be most people. Who can lift over 450lbs from the ground?
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I don’t understand why it’s even considered safe to have one of these springs in one’s garage without a solid shield of some sort. While the energy involved is small on the scale of energy storage devices ( Which brings to mind some rather different designs. A rather small motor with a lot of mechanical advantage can easily open a close a garage door, and if a DC or low voltage AC motor is used, it could do so quite…
If the garage door opener breaks, or the power is out, many people might have a really tough time opening the door manually without those springs. They might not be able to even do it at all. It is still, of course, a valid question to ask if it's worth having dangerous springs up there all the time for the rare event of the opener being inoperative. Or maybe we just shouldn't have doors that are that heavy?
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I do my oil changes top-side now, using an air-powered Mityvac (MV7300; no affiliation). That's the factory-recommended procedure for several brands now and works well on my Mercedes and Honda. I was skeptical at first, but did the extraction and then removed the drain plug and the oil I got from the bottom wouldn't have half-filled a shot glass, so that's good enough for me. As long as the filter is accessible from…
Thanks for the oil change recommendation. Video review that seemed legit if anyone interested: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xuYVe-mPsxw
One thing to note: you'll need about 5 CFM @ 90 psi to run the venturi, which is more than a little pancake compressor can give, but otherwise isn't crazy for even a medium portable compressor. If you don't have an air compressor and weren't planning to get one, I think they probably make a powered pump version and that would be a better choice.
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This isn't that bad for most people living in the US, given every major auto part chain in the country accepts the fluids for free (o'reilly, autozone, etc). There's often an auto parts store next to the supermarket or close by. Besides, for most cars we are talking about a once every 12-24 month event for only ~5 quarts of old fluid. You can show up with the used oil in any receptacle you like, there's no such thing…
there's a caveat to "most people living in the US" regarding what their lease/deed/HOA contracts/etc say restricting the working on one's car on premises. you'd be amazed at how restrictive they can be. in an apartment, you'll be lucky if they allow you to jack up your car to change a tire. opening the hood for anything more than adding fluids is also a no-no. even single family homes with strict HOAs do not want a c…
HOAs serve a pretty useful purpose: to coarsely/imperfectly segregate people who want to live in an HOA away from people who would never want to live in an HOA and vice-versa.
Those two groups are somewhat prone to having conflicts with each other and HOAs let both be happier than if they were to be annoyed by living next to each other.