2026-04-10 7 min read
If you've ever heard a loud bang from your garage in the middle of the night, and walked out the next morning to find a door that won't budge, there's a very good chance a spring just let go. It's one of the most common garage door failures we see across Dacono and the surrounding Weld County communities — and it almost always happens at the worst possible time.
Springs are under constant stress. Every time you open or close your garage door, those springs do the heavy lifting — literally. Over time, especially with the temperature swings we get here on the Front Range, that stress adds up fast.
Dacono sits in southwestern Weld County along the Front Range Urban Corridor, where winters can push lows down into the teens and single digits while summer afternoons regularly climb well above 90°F. That swing — sometimes 50 or 60 degrees within a single day during a spring cold snap — puts serious thermal stress on metal components. Steel contracts in the cold and expands in the heat, and springs that cycle through those extremes thousands of times have a shortened lifespan compared to what manufacturers rate them for in more temperate zones.
Neighborhoods like Cedar Park, West Meadows, and the newer homes going up in Legacy Addition and Sweetgrass near I-25 and Highway 52 tend to feature attached two- and three-car garages — exactly the setup where a failed spring completely blocks your car in or out. For families commuting toward Longmont or down toward the Denver metro, that's not a minor inconvenience.
There are two main types of garage door springs you'll find on homes here in Dacono:
Torsion springs mount horizontally above the door and use torque to help lift and lower it. Extension springs run along either side of the door and stretch to provide counterbalancing force.
Torsion springs are generally the better option — they last longer, operate more smoothly, and are considered safer when they do fail. Extension springs, while less expensive upfront, can snap with force and fly across the garage, creating a real safety hazard. If your home has an older extension spring system, it's worth asking about converting to torsion springs when the time comes for replacement.
For a deeper look at how your overall system is holding up, check out our post on warning signs your garage door needs attention.
Don't wait for the loud snap. Springs often show warning signs before complete failure:
- The door feels unusually heavy when lifted manually — a properly balanced door should feel like only 10–15 pounds - Visible gaps in the coils of your torsion spring — healthy coils touch each other - The door drifts back down when stopped halfway open - Jerky or uneven movement, especially if the door rises crooked on one side - Your opener strains or stops mid-cycle — when a spring is weak, the motor tries to compensate and can burn out
If you hear the loud bang of a spring snapping, stop using the door immediately. Running your opener with a broken spring can damage the motor and bend the door rail — turning a $200–$400 repair into something far more expensive.
Here's the honest answer: costs vary quite a bit depending on the type of spring, your door's size and weight, and the quality of the spring itself.
For most Dacono homeowners with standard residential doors, torsion spring replacement typically runs $150–$350 per spring, with the total job (parts and labor) commonly landing between $250 and $500. Larger, heavier two-car insulated doors require heavier-duty springs and will run toward the higher end of that range.
One thing to know: if your door has two springs and one breaks, you should replace both at the same time. Both springs were installed together and have gone through the same number of cycles. If one has failed, the other is usually close behind. Replacing just one leads to an imbalanced door — and another service call within months.
Spring quality also matters more than most homeowners realize. Budget springs may last only 5–7 years. Higher-cycle springs, rated for 25,000 cycles or more, cost more upfront but can last 15–20 years — a much better investment for a door you're using multiple times a day. Our team at Garage Door Company Dacono is happy to walk you through the options that make sense for your specific door and usage. Visit our services page to learn more about what's included.
Garage door springs store enormous energy. A standard spring holds enough tension to lift a 200–300 pound door thousands of times. Mishandling that tension during installation can cause severe injury. This is not a project for YouTube tutorials and a trip to the hardware store.
Professional technicians use calibrated winding bars and proper safety equipment, and they inspect the cables, drums, and rollers at the same time — components that often take extra wear when a spring is failing. The small savings from going DIY simply aren't worth the risk.
For context on keeping all your garage door components in good shape long-term, our guide on how to extend your garage door's lifespan covers the maintenance habits that prevent these emergency repairs in the first place.
If your spring has already broken: call before driving your car out. If your door shows any of the warning signs above: don't wait for the complete failure. A spring that's clearly weakening rarely gives you more than a few weeks of warning.
Garage Door Company Dacono offers straightforward spring replacement with upfront pricing — no surprise fees after we arrive. Schedule a service call and we'll get your door back in working order fast.
No — and you shouldn't try. Running your opener with a broken spring forces the motor to work against the full weight of the door, which can burn out the motor and cause additional damage to the cables and tracks. Disconnect the opener and call for service.
For most standard Dacono homes, a professional spring replacement takes 45–90 minutes, including inspection of the cables and rollers, spring installation, balancing the door, and testing the opener.
Standard springs are rated for around 10,000 cycles, which works out to roughly 7–12 years for a door used several times daily. The temperature swings on the Front Range can shorten that lifespan somewhat. High-cycle springs (rated 25,000+ cycles) are worth the extra investment for attached garages in frequent use.