How long should a garage door spring last?

Springs are rated in cycles, not years: how to work out where yours are, and the signs that one is close to the end.

A spring is rated in cycles: one cycle is the door going up and coming down once. The springs most new doors come with are rated for about ten thousand.

Do the arithmetic

A family that opens the door four times a day uses about fifteen hundred cycles a year, so a ten-thousand-cycle spring lasts six or seven years. A door that’s the front door of the house, opened ten times a day, can wear one out in three. That’s why we fit twenty-thousand-cycle springs.

Signs it’s getting tired

The door feels heavier lifted by hand, or won’t stay put halfway up.
The opener strains or the door shudders on the way up.
On a torsion spring, gaps opening between the coils.

When one breaks

You’ll usually hear it: a bang like a dropped plank. Leave the door closed, unplug the opener and call. Don’t try to lift it.