Garage Door Spring Safety
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Garage door spring safety starts with respect for what springs do: they store enough energy to lift a door weighing a couple hundred pounds. That energy is why a broken spring makes a loud bang, and why amateur spring work causes serious injuries.
Do
- Stop using the door and the opener once you suspect a broken spring.
- Keep children and pets out of the garage until it's fixed.
- If the door is down, leave it down. If it's stuck open, keep cars and people out from underneath it.
- Test the opener's auto-reverse every month: lay a 2x4 flat under the door and close it. It should reverse when it touches the board.
- Look at your springs and cables once a season for gaps, rust or fraying.
Don't
- Don't loosen the set screws on a torsion spring or touch its winding cone.
- Don't use screwdrivers or rebar in place of real winding bars.
- Don't pull the emergency release when the door is open and a spring is broken. The door can free-fall.
- Don't remove the bottom brackets. They're attached to cables under full spring tension.
- Don't run an extension spring door without safety cables through the springs.
If a spring is broken and the door is open, don't try to close it by hand. Call a garage door technician.
Opener safety basics
Openers made for the U.S. market since 1993 must have entrapment protection, such as photo eyes near the floor, under federal rules (16 CFR Part 1211). Mount the eyes no more than about 6 inches off the floor, and keep the wall button out of kids' reach.
Reference: 16 CFR Part 1211, Safety Standard for Automatic Residential Garage Door Operators.