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Garage door extension springs joe 11-02-2006
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Posted by joe on November 2, 2006, 1:13 pm


I replaced the garage door extension spring with the same (I thought)
strength springs now the opener struggles a little. The existing springs
were "orange" so they were probably (maybe) 170# springs. I could only find
brown 160# replacements so I used them. Would 20# total difference cause
the opener to struggle?

OR....
The old springs were double..one INSIDE the other...not next to each other.
The springs were quite old and I'm guessing, again, that they needed 2
spring to get that much strength. Looking at the pattern of the orange
paint they used it looks like they were painted AFTER one was inserted in
the other. Based on this I'm _guessing_ that the two spring together make
one 170# spring. Or am I wrong on this and the old springs were actual two
170# springs!?

thanks



Posted by Jeff Wisnia on November 2, 2006, 1:28 pm


joe wrote:

> I replaced the garage door extension spring with the same (I thought)
> strength springs now the opener struggles a little. The existing springs
> were "orange" so they were probably (maybe) 170# springs. I could only find
> brown 160# replacements so I used them. Would 20# total difference cause
> the opener to struggle?
>
> OR....
> The old springs were double..one INSIDE the other...not next to each other.
> The springs were quite old and I'm guessing, again, that they needed 2
> spring to get that much strength. Looking at the pattern of the orange
> paint they used it looks like they were painted AFTER one was inserted in
> the other. Based on this I'm _guessing_ that the two spring together make
> one 170# spring. Or am I wrong on this and the old springs were actual two
> 170# springs!?
>
> thanks
>
>

I can't answer your question authoritively, but what I did when I had to
buy new springs for my garage door was use a bathroom scale plus a brick
and a foot and a half piece of 2 by 4 to measure the weight of the door
in the "almost" down position using the brick and 2 by 4 to create a
lever which multiplied the scale capacity by two. Then I bought a pair
of springs rated for that weight door.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.


Posted by avid_hiker on November 2, 2006, 3:29 pm



I am no professional about garage door springs, although I do believe
that you can adjust the tension of the spring at the end of the cable.
I would not think that 170 -180 should be much of a difference/safety
wise. This should take care of the prob.


Posted by joe on November 6, 2006, 8:12 am


Turns out the old "double" spring was a 300# springs...the color coding was
arbitrary back then. Picked some up at a garage door store and we're back
in business.


>I replaced the garage door extension spring with the same (I thought)
>strength springs now the opener struggles a little. The existing springs
>were "orange" so they were probably (maybe) 170# springs. I could only
>find brown 160# replacements so I used them. Would 20# total difference
>cause the opener to struggle?
>
> OR....
> The old springs were double..one INSIDE the other...not next to each
> other. The springs were quite old and I'm guessing, again, that they
> needed 2 spring to get that much strength. Looking at the pattern of the
> orange paint they used it looks like they were painted AFTER one was
> inserted in the other. Based on this I'm _guessing_ that the two spring
> together make one 170# spring. Or am I wrong on this and the old springs
> were actual two 170# springs!?
>
> thanks
>



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