The springs do the lifting.Not the opener.

Because a door cannot be priced down a phone line honestly. Weight, spring cycle rating, hardware age and access all change the figure, and none of them can be assessed from a description. A phone number is a guess, and guesses get revised upward on the driveway.

Torsion springs are rated in cycles, one cycle being a single open and close. A standard 10,000-cycle spring lasts roughly seven years on average household use. They fail from metal fatigue rather than misuse, which is why failure is sudden rather than gradual.

Cold snaps and heavy use both shorten the interval. A garage used as the main entrance to the house can run three or four cycles a day, which halves the expected life against a household that uses it twice.

No. The springs carry the weight of the door, not the opener. With a broken spring the opener is trying to lift 150 to 250 lb on a motor rated for about 30. Running it strips the drive gear and often pulls the door off its track.

If you have already heard the bang, the cheapest thing you can do is stop. A spring job left alone stays a spring job. A spring job that keeps being operated becomes a spring, cable, track and panel job.

Between seven and twelve years for most households. Springs are rated in cycles rather than years, so the honest answer depends on how often you open the door. A 10,000-cycle spring on a door used four times a day is spent in under seven years.

Higher-cycle springs cost a little more and roughly double the interval. On a garage that doubles as the main door to the house, they usually pay for themselves.

Yes, on a two-spring door. Both springs are the same age and have taken the same number of cycles, so when one fails the other is usually weeks or months behind it. Replacing one means paying the service call twice.

We would strongly advise against it. A wound torsion spring stores enough energy to break bones, and winding bars slip. It is one of the few household repairs that regularly sends people to hospital.

If you are determined to try, at minimum use proper winding bars rather than screwdrivers, and never stand directly beneath the bar.

Torsion springs sit on a steel bar above the door opening and twist as the door moves. Extension springs run along the horizontal tracks either side and stretch. Torsion is the modern standard; extension is common on older Riverside homes.

Extension springs must have safety containment cables threaded through them. If yours do not, that is worth fixing whether or not they have failed.

Look at the spring above the door. A broken torsion spring shows a clear gap of an inch or two in the coil. The door will also feel enormously heavy if you try to lift it by hand after pulling the release, and the opener will strain without moving it.

Most people describe it as a gunshot or a loud bang from the garage, often heard from inside the house. It is the sound of the stored energy releasing all at once. If you heard that and the door will not lift, you almost certainly have a broken spring.

The break itself is over in an instant and rarely hurts anyone. The danger comes afterwards, from a heavy door with nothing holding it up. Do not pull the emergency release while the door is open, and keep children and pets out of the garage.