It can be easy to open and close your garage door multiple times per day without thinking much about its operation. However, it's important to take some interest in the door's condition and, in particular, when it's giving you signs that it needs to be looked at by a professional. While a garage door can need to be repaired for any number of reasons, nothing is as crucial as a spring that is broken. Because it's under a significant amount of tension, a broken spring can hurt you or a family member. Here are three signs that your garage door spring is broken and that it's time to call a repair service.
A Simple Visual Clue
Perhaps the easiest way you can tell if your garage door spring has broken is that the scene in your garage will look slightly out of the ordinary and could catch your eye. In particular, the simplest visual clue that the spring is broken is that the door's pulley and cable system on either side is hanging limply. When the spring is under the correct tension, it will hold the pulley and cable in their usual position near the track. Because the spring often breaks violently, you might also see that the cable has wrapped around the track multiple times.
An Auditory Indicator
If you happen to be inside your home when the garage door spring breaks -- even if you've not necessarily close to the garage -- you'll likely hear a loud snapping sound. This sound will seem largely inexplicable, especially if the garage is empty. If you're near the garage or even inside if when the spring happens to break, the loud noise will almost certainly startle you -- it's extremely loud, sudden and violent. While you don't need to be concerned, you do need to book a repair visit from a garage door service.
Operation Clues
There are a variety of signs relating to the operation of your garage door that indicate the spring has broken. If the garage door was in the open position at the time of the spring breakage and you weren't aware of it, lowering the door could result in it falling very quickly. If only one of the two springs is broken, you can expect to see the door operating in a uneven manner. Either of these signs are an indicator that something isn't right and you should respond by calling a garage door service like Caspersen Garage Doors.
