Thanks TXSkeeter! I believe you could be correct on both issues. The Door Repairman that told me the doors would have to be replaced before selling was not trying to sell me doors. He was encouraging me to keep the doors. He said in the San Diego, CA area many are of this type (since hard winters are not expected). IâÂÂll try to contact him to see if he can help me find heavier springs. The openers have worked since the mid 80s (with repairs), they or I could use a little help. I feel one set has stretched more from âÂÂCyclesâÂÂ/Use because it feels heavier. As far as I know these type doorâÂÂs weight is not balanced to stand open at any point. The springs should carry the bulk of the weight. I have seen single and double sheet metal doors that were almost impossible to open due to broken springs. ThatâÂÂs the #1 reason I w/n want a double wide door. They are handy with todayâÂÂs Trucks. Plus, if the house w/n designed âÂÂGood Newâ with the span for the double door, I feel you will get some sag. There is 2.5 âÂÂof 2X4 just above the case openings below the 3/4â Ply 2 Cabinet Units mounted vs built in. The 2X4 can go if needed to fit panel doors due to screws cabinet to framing and threaded rod bottom of cabinet to above supports on top of truss ceiling joists. The Over Kill in the 70s was my nature âÂÂBut Not TodayâÂÂ. Brass bushings and tempered bolts are fitted in the arms to allow more years. We or I had planned to move bake to a Simpler Life after retirement but things and Grands have changed. We moved here in 1973 on the last street, now there are miles of streets/homes south of us to the next towns. Enough Said!

Balance is the least of the problems. Those springs and the steel rods to tighten them will do a real job on you if you do not keep them under control. There is no 'safety' on the spring. As you torque it up you have to keep moving the rods from one hole to the next, while never letting them slip. After you get the spring torqued up correctly you have to tighten the clamp, while still holding the spring. Did I mention how much force they need even with a 1 foot set of rods? It will be worth the few $$ to have someone else tighten them.

torsion springs are strong and deserving of respect, but it's not anything a resonably competent do it yourselfer can't handle. The only problem is finding bars to fit the holes in the spring winder. I had the ends of some 3/4" x 15" steel bars turned down to fit the holes. I have used these numerous times and not had any problems. I do make sure the bars are inserted fully and they are long enough so I can use them and keep my head and other valuble parts out of harms way if one does slip. do it yourselfers who are not resonably competent wind up springs using pipe wrenches or wooden dowels or 3/8" pipe, and they get hurt.

Here is a simple explanation to explain how and why springs break. Take a piece of coat hanger wire and bend it in two. Now straighten it out, and then bend it in two again. Keep doing this. We all know that the wire will eventually break, depending on two things, How many times you wobble it back and forth, and the quality of the wire to begin with. The same thing is happening to your door. Every time the door comes down, the spring winds up to full tension. Every time you open the door, the spring un-winds. All your doing is wobbling metal back and forth, just like the coat hangar wire. This is a long winded way of saying, springs break because of the "number" of times the door goes up and down. (we call it cycles) Springs are available in various calculated cycle lifes. Some of the builders grade doors that you would get in a new subdivision can be as low as 5 thousand cycles. Most new higher end doors have 15 thousand cycle springs. Lets say you have the higher end springs, at 15 thousand. If you have a door that goes from the garage into the house, then chances are, that is your main entrance way into the house, through the garage. If so, then it's not unusual for your door to go up and down a minimum of 10 times a day. Thats 3650 times a year, and at that rate, your 15 thousand cycles would be used up in just over 4 years. If your garage is used for parking or storage and not as an entrance into the house, then the spring would last many years longer. You can request springs that can be made with a calculated cycle life of 50-100 thousand cycles, but like anything else, the price will be commensurate. Some of the older doors really do have springs that lasted 30-40 years. Keeping the springs oiled, or well lubricated so that the coils can rub on each other smoothly as the spring twists, will enhance the life of the spring. If springs are allowed to get rusty, then the springs will jerk and make a chunk-chunk sound as the door is being opened. Bus driver is right on when he says the cold affects them. Springs that are close to the breaking point will be pushed to the breaking point by very cold weather. When the temperature goes real cold in December, we get a rash of calls for doors that won't open in the morning, all of them with broken springs. (steel contracts when it's cold, causing more stress on the spring) Torsion springs are not something you want to fool around with. Next time to get a company to intall springs, get them to "up" the cycle life as high as they can. They have charts and graphs that allow them to do that. I hope this has helped.