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Re: Garage door springs

To: Matt <mbarre@juno.com>
Subject: Re: Garage door springs
From: Trevor Boicey <trevor@boicey.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 13:47:18 -0400
Matt wrote:
> Is this an issue just with long springs on the sides of the door?  
> The only springs I have had on my last 5 houses were the torsion 
> springs that are around a bar across the top of the door?  No doubt 
> there is a bunch of energy in that but I don't think that 
> configuration is a candidate for catastrophic failure...

   I have three of those on my three garage doors.

   They break, and it's loud and surprising, but safe. Actually when 
they break, the friction of the coils unwinding can actually make smoke. 
(oily smoke from the light oil coating on the coils)

   I have broken two, and both right at the end, losing only a few 
coils. The conventional wisdom out there is "replace the spring, don't 
just reattach the new end". But both times I just reattached the new end 
and they've been fine for years.

   It's a LOT more work to get the spring off than to just spin it on 
again, so unless somebody comes up with a reason why this is actually 
unsafe, to me it's worth a try.




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