Garage doors were designed to move flawlessly when in perfect balance this is the point where they feel neither too heavy nor too light and hang at whatever level you decide to set them.
Balance garage door.
An unbalanced door can pose safety issues and tax a garage door opener.
A door that starts sliding down slams closed on its own or that opens further on its own needs its springs adjusted.
A garage door should stay down when closed open when raised and at the halfway point when raised halfway.
Watch how the garage door moves when you let it hang freely at the halfway open and fully open positions.
How to balance the extension spring on your garage door.
To see if you need to balance your garage door simply lift the garage door a little more than halfway and release it.
Move the garage door up and down until you find a place where the door stays suspended when you let go.
Measure that point and if it is four feet or less from the ground then the door will have to be balanced.
To know how much of the garage door is unbalanced you ll need to test it.
Balance the garage door if it lowers or raises on its own.
Instead it s all about the relationship between the garage door s weight and the springs used to counter that weight.
Doors that are out of balance will cause extra loads for your opener and may even cause it to fail prematurely.
You ll find a helpful explanation on our blog at.
Unfortunately too many perfect garage doors fall into disrepair when owners refuse to do regular maintenance.
Testing it will require moving the door up and then down until you find that sticking point where the door remains suspended when let go.
It should come to rest between three and four feet above the ground.
If it stops lower or higher than this range you need to balance the door.
If that point is more than four feet or less than three feet above the ground you will need to balance the door.