A garage door spring almost never breaks quietly. Most Toronto homeowners hear a loud bang from the garage, then discover the door won’t open, or feels impossibly heavy. It’s an unsettling moment, but knowing what happened and what to do next keeps a broken spring from turning into an injury or a bigger repair bill.

What Actually Broke, and Why It Matters

The springs are the part of your garage door system that carry almost all of the weight. A typical door weighs well over 100 pounds; the springs counterbalance that so the opener — or your arm — only has to move a few pounds. When a spring snaps, all of that weight lands back on the door, which is why it suddenly feels like lifting a car.

Two Types of Springs

Most homes have either a torsion spring mounted on a bar above the door, or a pair of extension springs running along the tracks. Torsion springs last longer and fail more dramatically; extension springs are cheaper but wear out sooner. Either way, replacement is not a DIY job — they hold enormous stored tension, which is exactly what makes garage door spring repair something to leave to a technician with the right winding tools.

What to Do the Moment a Spring Breaks

Stop Using the Opener

This is the single most important step. Running the opener against a door with no working spring can burn out the motor, bend the tracks, or snap the lift cables. If the door is down, leave it down. If it’s up, don’t try to force it closed.

Don’t Try to Lift It Manually

Without the spring’s counterbalance, the door’s full weight is unsupported. Lifting it by hand risks it slamming back down. If you absolutely must get a car out, get help and keep hands and fingers clear of the tracks.

Check the Cables

A snapping spring often takes the lift cables with it, or knocks them off their drums. Frayed or dangling cables are a sign the damage has spread and you’ll want garage door cable repair handled at the same time as the spring, so the system is balanced again.

Why Springs Fail When They Do

Springs are rated by cycles — one open and one close is a cycle. A standard spring is good for around 10,000 cycles, which for a busy family often works out to seven or eight years. Cold Toronto winters shorten that: metal gets brittle in the cold, which is why so many springs let go on the first hard freeze of the season. Rust from humidity and simple age do the rest.

Signs a Spring Is About to Go

Doors rarely fail without warning. A door that has started opening unevenly, feels heavier than it used to, or shows a visible gap in the coil of the spring is telling you it’s near the end. Catching it at that stage means a planned repair instead of a stuck car and a bad morning.

Should You Replace the Opener Too?

Not usually — but a spring failure is a good moment to check the opener. If it’s been straining, making grinding noises, or is more than a decade old, running it against a heavy door may have shortened its life. A technician replacing the spring can test the opener’s force settings and let you know whether garage door opener service is worth doing while everything is apart.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I still open my garage door with a broken spring?

You shouldn’t. The door’s full weight is unsupported, so lifting it by hand is dangerous, and using the opener can damage the motor and cables. Wait for a repair.

How long does a garage door spring replacement take?

For a technician with the right tools, a single spring is usually about an hour. Replacing both springs on a torsion system takes a little longer but is still typically same-visit work.

Should I replace one spring or both?

If you have two springs of the same age and one breaks, most technicians recommend replacing both. The second is likely close behind, and doing them together keeps the door balanced.

Why do garage door springs break in winter?

Cold makes the metal more brittle, so a spring already near the end of its cycle life is far more likely to snap during a sharp temperature drop. That’s why failures cluster around the first freeze.