Reminds me of the old engineer joke: "Did you know you can save $27.00 if you build your own refrigerator?"
I don't know it, and searching got me nowhere. Could you expand?
How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)
191–200 of 344 posts
Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is pretty much zero risk if the car is either jacked correctly or put on ramps correctly. Dummies that rely on a single 1.5mm o-ring not blowing out on their hydraulic floor jacks are gambling with their life. Always operate on flat terrain, always chock the wheels, always use the parking brake, always use jack stands, always verify no movement in the vehicle by rocking it, never rely on the floor jack.
Ramps are very good. I don't know why anyone would use a jack for an oil change...
Lazyness. I've been under a car dozens of times with them, never had an issue, but know it's not the best practice and try to use jackstands... but it's just so much quicker!
Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)
#193I 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…
> Notably, "unintentional fall" is the #1 cause of emergency department visits for adults [1]
The vast majority of those are the mundane falling down the stairs or the elderly in bathtubs, not anything to do with roofs.
Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)
#194Mine is broken and I'm waiting until I have enough savings to pay someone experienced to do it for us.
I've worked on all sorts of things, but I don't want to risk my health that recklessly.
Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)
#195I 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…
> you also could not pay me enough to crawl around under a poorly jacked-up car. Indeed, but it’s not difficult to set yourself up with multiple failsafes. By the time I’m set up to get underneath a car, I’m in a safer situation than driving the car given how many things would have to go wrong for the car to fall on me.
I use truck stands that will hold up several times the weight of the car. After I put it on the stands, I also give it several hard shoves to make sure it is secure.
Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)
#196It's interesting whenever this comes up on Reddit and there are a hundred comments parroting how dangerous this is, but on closer inspection you can see the comments cannot discriminate between important details - eg. talking about how dangerous extension springs are, having no clue that they are different than torsion springs. Always fun to see how many people will pretend they have knowledge on a subject they have no experience in.
Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
I’m not an expert in how springs break but wouldn’t an ejection of material require the spring breaking in at least 2 places that are close enough to not loop around the rod? I’m curious if anyone’s ever been hurt by one breaking (other than when actively working on it).
I’ve also never heard of a shrapnel-based injury. Only door falls or torsion bars breaking arms.
I’ve actually replaced these in two houses, and yes, they’re dangerous, but honestly a little common sense and a straightforward (printed, with a buddy double-checking) list of steps you take with each quarter turn.
It’s super important to have the right torsion bars. Don’t try to invent your own.
Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)
#198People think garage door springs are like diffusing a bomb. It's not that bad if you are competent and have the correct equipment.
Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
They are surprisingly heavy, which is why you need such a beefy spring. When my spring broke a decade or so ago, I wasn't able to lift the door on my own, and with the assistance of my wife we were just barely able to lift it. Looks like they can easily be 200-500 lbs depend on materials (steel isn't light, but it's lighter than wood for this application), and I guess the issue is that you have to lift hundreds of po…
Could it be made of lighter material. Ironic how the garage door is perhaps the most armoured part of a house
It’s less ironic in areas subject to hurricanes. They have a very large area. One of the most damaging possible sequences in a hurricane is when the garage door blows in, then the wind just blows the whole roof off.
Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)
#200It's interesting whenever this comes up on Reddit and there are a hundred comments parroting how dangerous this is, but on closer inspection you can see the comments cannot discriminate between important details - eg. talking about how dangerous extension springs are, having no clue that they are different than torsion springs. Always fun to see how many people will pretend they have knowledge on a subject they have…
> hundred comments parroting how dangerous this is
And every time a similar post or question is made the same responses are parroted again.
I’ve read so much Reddit in college that I would play a game where id try to guess what the top voted comments would say. After a while it becomes tiring to read the same things over and over again.