Your garage door’s springs might be the two most important parts of the entire overhead door system. While the tracks, trolley and opener guide the garage door’s movements, it’s the torque or tension of the springs that actually do the lifting and lowering work. So when your garage door’s springs wear down and/or break, getting them repaired ASAP is key.

But what if only one spring needs fixed?

Why Garage Door Spring Replacement is Performed in Pairs

There are two types of garage door springs; each type comes in a set of two. Extension springs, typically found on older and manual garage doors, are stretched along either side of the garage door; they use tension to help the opener move the door. Torsion springs, the standard and preferred type of garage door spring, are two small coils found at the center top of the door at one end of the trolley track. Torsion springs use torque to help the opener lift and lower the door.

Regardless of the type of garage door springs you have, they’re only rated to last a certain length of time before they inevitably fail. And since they work together, when one spring goes, chances are the other one will break soon after.

Some homeowners try to save money by replacing only the broken one, but this can lead to more repair costs down the road. If the second spring breaks in the following months, you’ll have to pay the fee for another service call in addition to a replacement spring.

The other important factor to consider here is the balance of a garage door. An overhead door needs to be properly aligned and balanced in order to move functionally day in and day out. If you have one brand new spring bringing its best game and another tired spring just doing the best it can, you’re left with unbalanced movement. This can cause a cascade of other issues like uneven wear on the rollers or your garage door opener motor burning out way sooner than it should.

Are There Any Exceptions to Replacing Both Garage Door Springs?

With that being said, there may be one situations where you can get away with replacing just a single spring. No matter how reputable the brand of your garage door springs, there are rare times where a defect in the metal causes a spring to fail years before it should. In those cases, since your second spring is not near the end of its rated lifespan (typically 10,000 or more cycles) and there are no visible signs of rust or damage, then it’s probably fine to leave it as is.

If you’re unsure, we recommend discussing this with the technician at time of visit. A reputable garage door repair company should provide an honest assessment on whether replacing the second spring is beneficial or not. We’ll take into account the age and wear of the spring, frequency of use of your garage door, and other factors like balance and what kind of garage door opener you have.

As far as garage door repair costs go, getting your springs replaced isn’t a big hit to your wallet. And it seems even less so when you consider that the alternative could be as bad as your garage door failing and needing completely replaced! At the end of the day, your garage door springs are too important to chintz out on; if even one of them is looking sketchy, prepare yourself for the possibility of replacing both, and give us a call.