Chances are that you did not even know this was a thing. Yes, your garage door has a balance that it needs to keep to work properly. If there is some trouble with your garage door opening and closing, then it might be off balance. Some say that this is more important if you have a garage door opener, and it is important, but not more so. We will go into why and how to check your garage door’s balance. But first, what balances your garage door? How can you tell if it needs to be adjusted?

Garage Door Springs

These springs do a lot more than you might think. Of course, your garage door has many moving parts that enable your garage door to operate normally. You should definitely keep them all in good working order at all times. This goes double for your garage door springs. What are they? Well, there are two types; Torsion Springs and Extension Springs. Torsion springs are typically mounted directly above the garage door, and sometimes in the rear of the garage in the more aged houses. Extension springs are generally mounted right above the garage door frame.

Both have the same purpose; to counteract the flow of gravity. They allow your garage door to be opened manually a bit easier. An obvious importance here is that this puts less stress on both you and your electric garage door opener. Contrary to popular opinion, both are equally important. Opening a garage door manually that is off balance or with springs broken is a literal pain. Your garage door opener will also wear out faster in either case as well.

Checks and Balance 

So how can you check the balance of your garage door? Well first off, there are no tools and no long list of instructions. First, check to see if your garage door makes a lot of noise when opening or closing. If it does, then there is sign number one that it is off balance. If you have an electric garage door opener, disable it by pulling the manual operation chord on the garage door opener. This should allow you to manually lift the garage door. If it is not easy and you have never had a problem lifting it before, then you likely have a problem. That problem is your garage door being off balance.

How Do You Fix This

Well, you personally DO NOT fix this. Under no circumstances should you attempt to balance your garage door by yourself. Garage door springs hold up a lot of weight and anyone less than a professional should not work on them. Garage door springs breaking or snapping off have been known to cause serious, even fatal injuries. Then there is the property damage they can do to your garage and your vehicle. Just give Stanley Garage Door & Gate Repair a call at (866) 496-1889. Garage door balancing is a service we have offered for decades and our service techs are quite good at it.