How to Safely Replace Garage Door Springs & Save Hundreds

This is a complete walk through of how to identify your broken or underpowered garage door spring (torsion spring), determine which one to replace it with, safely remove the old ones, safely install new ones and maintain them afterward. This is a safety first video that will save you hundreds of dollars! #diy #garage #homeownership

🎬 CHECK OUT THESE RELATED VIDEOS! 🎬

📦 PRODUCTS & LINKS FROM THIS VIDEO 📦
You can use the product button in the video or check out these links below.
Any link here may be an affiliate link, which means you pay the same price as always but we make a small commission, which helps out our channel - so thanks!

👍 WANT TO HELP SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL? 👍

👕 LRN2DIY SHIRTS, HOODIES & MORE 👚

📸 MY FILMING GEAR 📸

🕶 SOCIAL MEDIA 🕶

📲 MORE DIY GOODNESS 📲
Check out our many projects and plans at

📲 WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT 3D PRINTING? 📲
All things 3D Printing at The 3D Printing Zone

📚 TWO FREE AUDIOBOOKS! 📚

[michaelcook-ptbt]

Awesome. I was hesitant to replace a broken garage door cable on a torsion bar door, but your how-to video gave me confidence to do the job....SAFELY! Thank you!

[V-RosaVibes]

My 24 yr old and 15 yr old sons watched your video and replaced my 2 broken garage door springs from watching your video...thank you for teaching them carefully and thoroughly how to do this safely..they are extremely proud of themselves and I am proud of them too..thank you!!

[pbqrevue]

safety glasses/internet, poker face/dry delivery, masterful wit/undercover comic, respect

[brenthood]

Well done, mostly. I have more than 20 years of Garage door installation, removals and repairs. You really should have a taller ladder for a 8 ft tall door. When you wind the springs you may need to brace against the ladder to counter the toque of the spring. I would want a 6 ft ladder. When you are marking the torsion tube at the drum the cable is off the drum. The marking will be slightly off. As a pro I would lock the torsion tube with 2 vice grips with curve jaws in both directions against the wall above the door. I saw that you had 2 pairs of vice grips in the video. I use 2 to secure the torsion tube. Not every one does this. For a 8 ft tall door you will normally put on 8 1/2 to 8 3/4 full turns. The springs will break in and lose some strength during the fir week of use. A 7 ft tall door gets 7 1/2 to 7 3/4 full turns. The door should balance from your knee to your shoulder. The springs will be a little hot at first . That is normal. They will break in soon. Your door will be heavy in a week or two. Then you will need to add tension. Open your door manually after about one week after spring installation to see how much tension may have been lost to break in. If the springs are too light the opener could cause a lose cable to come off the drum. This creates a dangerous problem. If your door has just one spring when it breaks always replace it with 2 smaller springs. They will last twice as long and the door runs better with 2 springs.

[jeffarycollins]

Thanks you. Your video help me help a friend so that I could do it for free so they didn't have to call a repair man and spend money they don't have.

[minarizkallah]

Great job, thanks to you I was able to fix my garage door at no cost, you saved me at least 300$ of labor money and days of waiting for someone to come fix it.❤

[icecat]

You Sir, are like the little pin holding the steel cable at the bottom: In spite of so much weight and tension, you've succeeded in lifting us all up! Super video in content and construction. Thank you for all your careful work. I finally got my heavy off track wood double door working. YAY! And I'm a 5'4", 72 yo gal. We used to have to walk to the library to read manuals to fix stuff. Now the world is in the palm of our hands. Fantastic!

[CurtisBerry]

Thanks! Replaced my garage door springs today using this video as a guide. It was very helpful for every step along the way. I appreciate you uploading it to share your experience.

[spacecoastkid]

When I saw this video was 40+ mins I was almost going to skip it, but after watching it I have to say there is no wasted time. Excellent video! I feel 100% confident I can do this job now.

[curtstjohn]

Great video! I studied this video and found it extremely useful - it made my work replacing my springs easy. One thing that I ran into while doing this job was something that was not mentioned in the video - the cable placement on the cable drums. An issue I ran into was when I first put tension on the new springs, and lifted the door by hand to check it, the cable came off one of the drums. This happened a couple of times before I realized that the cable ends were sticking out from the drum and the wall bracket for the torque shaft was actually sliding the ends out of the slot, causing the door function to fail. Finally, after much work trying to get the door to work correctly, I realized this, and when I finally put the cable back on the drum properly, with the ends tucked under the outside lip, proper function of the door was achieved. Maybe this should be mentioned in the video, to make sure those cable ends don't stick out to catch on the mounting - bearing brackets for the torsion bar. This would help future installation instructions..

[ChadMazilly]

Thank you so much for this video. I was quoted 1500 to do my door which was the same spec as this video. Did it for roughly 90. Two small hiccups, totally my fault. 1) My springs included new metal bearings which I correctly included but forgot to remove the original plastic bushing. Fixed by cutting it out while all still assembled. 2) The bad one. I finished the entire install and when doing the first pull up/down test the cable on the left came off of the drum. So I had to completely untension everything and start over. I believe this was due to the cable not being fully seated inside the slot of the drum. All done now and relieved that it is done. THANKS AGAIN for the great comprehensive instructions.

[jonesgang]

I have had the enjoyment of replacing a lot of those garage door springs and garage door openers. The tension springs are extremely dangerous and you should always use an abundance of caution when working on them. If you heard one snap you would understand, most people think something hit their house when they break under tension. There is a great deal of kinetic energy in those springs. Your tutorial was spot on with the procedure to replace the springs.

As far as staying in the safety zone it is not just you but anyone else in the garage with you. I cringed watching your daughter get in that danger zone with the scales. But it all turned out safely. Just remember that in the future if you have to do this again.

[rlsr]

I got one of the springs broken. Called a company and two "technician" came and after almost destroy the garage to take the springs out, they wanted to charge me $1100 to do the job. At that moment I already was informed about the correct springs measures, the way to replace them and were to buy them with the bars and (a set of cables for free). The technicians were sent back to their home and I ended buying everything for $210. Waiting for the delivery to the door of my home and as I enjoy doing works at home, it will be another experience for me. At this moment I am watching all the videos I can and reading comment looking for as much info, advices and tips as possible. Will keep the safety first. Thank you for this video. A great one.

[playgroundguy]

Just got my springs installed. This video was very helpful. Particularly in identifying what springs to purchase and how to purchase them. I went to the site he mentioned DDM Garage Doors and they sent me a link with all my options immediately. I pick out my springs with confidence and had them installed by the end of the week.

My door runs and sounds great. The total cost for me was around $150. I got the winding rods from Amazon and the springs from DDM.

Please be safe everyone and keep a firm grip on the winding rods.

[peli]

I don't know if you're going to get this comment but man you saved me a bunch of money. Thank you

[MisterApol]

I followed your instructions and repaired my door. I did not have broken springs, but the center bracket actually tore loose from the wall. I had to unwind the springs, remount the bracket, wind the springs, etc. Worked out great. You're a great teacher! Thanks.

[ajdrew]

Thank you sir! You saved me hundreds. Only lost one tooth but dental work is still a little cheaper than hiring someone to do these springs.

[rico]

Thank you for this video, took me over 3 weeks to get my door fixed. All it took was taking my time and watching this whole video. You just saved me over $300 here in my area.

[denrayr]

Following this repair will result in a better repair than you're likely to get by hiring a pro. Helping friends and family lubricate their doors, I've noticed most doors aren't properly balanced. If you count the number of turns, they're tightened properly, but the wrong weight/length spring was installed in most cases. I believe that the garage door guys either replace like for like spring size without verifying they are correct, or they use what they have on the truck that's "close enough".

Certainly only tackle this job if you're the OCD type as safety and attention to detail are paramount, and it's not worth risking your safety.

With all that said, as a DIY guy, replacing my springs and door hardware was one of the most satisfying DIY repairs. The door is perfectly balanced, and it's nice and quiet. It's going to last years with minimum maintenance. I wish this video had existed back when I worked on my door.

[ronyerke]

The last time I had garage door springs to replace, I just took the broken one to a brick and mortar shop, and they fixed me up with the correct set of springs.
That was over 25 years ago.