Can Garage Door Springs Explode? What Really Happens When One Breaks

No. A garage door spring does not explode the way a tire or a tank can, but it can break with a bang loud enough to sound like a gunshot. A torsion spring, the kind mounted on a bar above the door, almost always stays on its bar when it snaps. The real danger is an extension spring, the kind that runs along the tracks on each side, if it has no safety cable through it: when it breaks, it can whip across the garage. The rest of the risk comes from trying to fix or adjust a spring yourself.

Torsion Springs: A Loud Snap, Usually Contained

• The bang is the spring letting go. A torsion spring is wound tight to hold up the weight of the door. When the steel finally cracks, the stored energy is released all at once, and that is the noise people hear from inside the house.
• The pieces usually stay on the bar. The steel bar runs through the middle of the coil, so the broken halves spin and stop there. You will usually see a gap of an inch or two in the coil.
• The door gets very heavy. With the spring gone, nothing holds up the door. The opener may strain, lift it a few inches and stop, or the door may drop fast if someone lifts it by hand.

Extension Springs: The Ones That Can Fly

• Where they are. Extension springs stretch along the horizontal tracks on both sides of the door. Many older detached garages around Detroit, Warren and Royal Oak still use them.
• Why they are riskier. An extension spring is stretched every time the door closes. If it breaks with nothing holding it, the spring and its hooks and pulley can shoot across the garage hard enough to break a window, dent a car or hurt someone standing nearby.
• What stops that. A safety cable is a thin steel cable threaded through the middle of each extension spring and tied off at both ends. If the spring breaks, the cable catches it.

If your spring has already broken, our guide to a broken garage door spring covers what to do and what not to do while you wait for a technician.

Why It Happens More Once It Freezes

Springs wear out with use, and the cold often finishes off one that is already tired. Steel gets less forgiving in freezing weather, and a door that is a little stiff on a cold morning makes the spring work harder. The Detroit News reported in early October that Detroit's average first freeze comes around October 26, so those mornings are here now. That is when we start getting calls about a bang in the garage and a door that will not go up.

Check Your Extension Springs for a Safety Cable

If your door has extension springs, look along each one with the door closed. You should see a steel cable running straight through the center of the coil, fastened at the wall end and at the track end. If there is no cable, or it is frayed or loose, do not try to add one with the door closed: the springs are fully stretched then. Call us and we can fit safety cables when the springs are safe to work on.

If You Hear a Bang in the Garage

• Do not run the opener. The opener is not built to lift the full weight of the door, and forcing it can damage the opener and bend the top section.
• Keep people and pets away from the door. A door without a working spring can come down fast.
• Do not touch the spring or the hardware. Leave the winding cones, the bottom brackets and the cables alone. They can still be under tension even after a spring breaks.
• Leave the door where it is and call. If the door is closed, it is safest to keep it closed until a technician arrives.

When to Call Us

Call us at (313) 236-4558 if you heard a bang, if one spring looks broken, or if your extension springs have no safety cables. Our garage door spring replacement crews work across Metro Detroit, including Detroit, Troy, Royal Oak, Warren, Southfield and Livonia, and we check the garage door cables and rollers on the same visit. What the job costs depends on the door and the springs it needs, so call (313) 236-4558 for a price on your job. We are open Sunday through Thursday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM and Friday from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM, and you can also reach us with the Contact Us button below.