2026-04-26 7 min read
If you've lived in Spencer long enough, you've probably heard it. a loud bang from the garage, like someone fired a gun inside the house. You go to investigate and find nothing obvious. Then you press the opener button and the door barely moves, or doesn't move at all. That bang was your garage door spring snapping, and it's one of the most common service calls we get every winter in Medina County.
It's not random bad luck. There's a real reason springs fail more often between November and March in this part of northeast Ohio, and understanding it can help you get ahead of the problem before it leaves you trapped in your own garage on a January morning.
Spencer sits in Medina County, squarely in Ohio's snow belt corridor. The area sees regular freeze-thaw cycles throughout winter. temperatures might hit 45°F on a Tuesday and drop to 12°F by Thursday. That thermal cycling is brutal on metal.
Garage door springs are made of tightly coiled steel. When metal gets cold, it contracts and becomes more brittle. Every time the temperature drops sharply, the steel in your springs experiences stress. Add in the repeated mechanical stress of opening and closing the door. the average homeowner cycles their garage door 3 to 5 times per day. and you have metal that's simultaneously being thermally shocked and mechanically worked.
Most residential torsion springs are rated for 10,000 cycles. That sounds like a lot, but at four uses per day, you'll hit that number in under seven years. If your springs are original to a home built in the late 1990s or early 2000s. and many Spencer-area homes are. they may already be living on borrowed time.
Before diagnosing the problem, it helps to know which type of spring your door uses.
Torsion springs run horizontally above the door opening, mounted on a metal shaft. They work by storing rotational (torsion) energy as they twist. Most modern homes with double-car or heavier steel doors use torsion springs. These are the type that make the loud bang when they snap. the coil essentially explodes under tension.
Extension springs run along the horizontal tracks on either side of the door and stretch to provide lifting force. They're more common on older, lighter doors and single-car setups. When they fail, they can whip around dangerously if there's no safety cable running through them.
If you have an older home in the Spencer or Lodi area, it's worth checking whether your extension springs have safety cables installed. If they don't, that's a hazard worth addressing before a spring fails.
Springs rarely fail without sending a few signals first. Here's what to look for:
- The door is slow or struggling. If your opener sounds like it's working harder than usual, the spring may be losing tension. - The door won't stay up. A healthy spring holds the door open without the opener. If it starts sliding down on its own, the spring is weakening. - Visible gaps in the spring coil. A torsion spring that's lost tension or partially failed will show a gap. typically a 2,3 inch separation. in the coil. You can see this with a flashlight. - Uneven movement. If one side of the door rises faster than the other, an extension spring on one side may be weaker or broken. - Rust. Springs corrode over time, and rust accelerates metal fatigue. Ohio's humidity. especially during spring thaw. speeds this up significantly. Learn more about how moisture affects your door system in our guide on garage door weather seal maintenance.
First: do not try to operate the door. The opener is not designed to lift the full weight of the door without spring assistance, and running it in this condition can burn out the motor or strip the drive gear.
Second: do not attempt to replace the spring yourself. Torsion springs are under hundreds of pounds of tension even when the door is closed. Releasing that tension without the right tools. a winding bar set, a solid understanding of spring sizing, and experience with the process. can result in serious injury. This is not a YouTube-and-hope kind of job.
You can safely use your manual release mechanism to open the door by hand if you absolutely need to move a vehicle, but be aware the door will be heavy without a functioning spring.
Call a qualified technician. A standard torsion spring replacement in the Medina County area typically takes under an hour and is one of the more straightforward repairs a garage door professional handles. Garage Door Spencer stocks common spring sizes and can usually get to Spencer, Wadsworth, and surrounding communities quickly.
If you have two torsion springs (most double-car doors do) and one snaps, you're going to hear the question: should we replace both?
The honest answer is yes, almost always. Both springs have the same age and wear history. If one failed, the other is likely close behind. Replacing both at the same time saves you a second service call in six months and ensures the door lifts evenly. The labor cost for doing both at once is only marginally more than doing one.
- Lubricate springs twice a year. once in fall before temperatures drop, once in spring. Use a silicone-based spray or dedicated garage door lubricant, not WD-40, which can dry out the coil and attract grit. Our chain maintenance guide has more on proper lubrication practices. - Watch for rust and treat it early. Light surface rust can be treated with lubricant; deep pitting means the spring needs replacement. - Don't ignore slow operation. A door that's suddenly struggling is telling you something.
If you haven't had your spring tension checked in a few years, it's worth scheduling a quick inspection. especially heading into another Medina County winter. Contact us to set up a service visit and we'll check spring condition, lubrication, and balance while we're there.
Q: How long do garage door springs typically last in Ohio's climate? A: Most residential springs are rated for 10,000 cycles, which translates to roughly 7,10 years for an average household. Ohio's freeze-thaw cycles and humidity can push springs toward the lower end of that range, especially if they're not regularly lubricated.
Q: Is it safe to open my garage door manually if a spring breaks? A: You can use the manual release to open the door, but be cautious. without a functioning spring, the door will be significantly heavier than you're used to. Never let go of the door while it's open, and don't attempt this if you have a broken extension spring with no safety cable. Call a professional instead.
Q: Can I just replace the spring with one I buy at a hardware store? A: Springs need to be precisely sized to your door's weight and height. Using the wrong spring can cause poor balance, faster wear, or make the door unsafe to operate. It's not a part where guessing on size is acceptable, and the installation itself carries real risk without proper tools. Professional replacement is the right call here.