By the Eagle Garage Doors Mo crew · St. Louis, MO
Every January, when an Arctic front drops St. Louis into the single digits, our phones start ringing before sunrise — and it's almost always the same call: a loud bang from the garage in the night, and a door that won't open in the morning. A torsion spring has snapped.
A garage door spring is a coil of steel that winds and unwinds thousands of times a year. Cold makes that steel less flexible, and a spring that has already used up most of its rated cycle life — typically around 10,000 cycles, or 7–10 years of normal use — is at its most brittle exactly when the temperature bottoms out. The cold doesn't cause the failure so much as schedule it: a tired spring lets go on the hardest night.
Before it snaps, a spring often warns you. The door feels heavier when you lift it by hand. The opener strains or stops mid-travel. You can see the coils stretched wider apart than they should be, or a fine line of rust working through the coil. If your door is past seven years old and has never had spring work, it's worth a tune-up inspection before winter rather than an emergency call during it.
Three things. First, don't try to open the door — without the spring it weighs 150–300 pounds and the opener can't lift it safely. Second, don't use the opener repeatedly; a straining motor burns out fast. Third, call a technician the same day. Spring replacement is a same-visit job with the right parts on the truck, and springs should always be replaced as a matched pair — the surviving spring has lived the same life as the broken one.
An annual fall tune-up catches spring wear while it's still a plan instead of an emergency: we measure spring condition, check the balance the spring is supposed to hold, and tell you honestly how much life is left. In the St. Louis metro and the Metro-East, that one autumn habit is the difference between scheduling a spring and being stranded by one.
Call (314) 207-8459 — 24/7 across St. Louis and the Metro-East, quoted in writing before any work.
