Garage Door Spring Adjustment???

[EastCoast]

Merry Christmas everyone!!

I have a problem that I believe is not typical and therefore not something I can find in FAQ and troubleshooting info. Here's my story & problem...

I bought a 10x10 rollup door. I asked for the door to roll up as close to the 12' ceiling as possible. So I got my door with a 'high lift' extension and all seemed good. As we went to install it, we realized that the high lift was way too high. It turned out to be a 4' lift. So the supplier said that they didn't make a lift lift for the 2' of head room and I should use a standard set of tracks. No Problem!!

The supplier replaced the horizontal tracks, pulleys and cables and said everything else would work with my now standard installation, including the dual torsion springs.

PROBLEM: The springs indicate that they should each be wound 10.5 turns. We wound each side 8 turns as a starting point and the door wants to fly up off the floor!!! We backed it down a couple turns and the door goes up OK for 4-5' but then gets heavy. It seems impossible to add more turns and the door not fly up. Is it possible that the springs are way wrong for my door (since we are not using a high lift?? Or is it just an adjustment issue?

Thanks for any insight that anyone can provide.
Robb

 

[Kevin54]

It sounds to me like you have springs for a standard height door. If your springs were correct for your door height, it should be balanced at any position.

I'm thinking that they added the height extensions but are using the standard springs that came with the door. If you add an opener to something like that, it may work for a little while but will prematurely wear out your opener, so don't let the installer talk you into doing that.

One other thing to double check is make sure you aren't having an interference issue when the door gets to a certain point binding the rollers. Has the door been all the way up yet or only partial?

 

[samert111]

Try adding 1/2 turns at a time then fine tune it with 1/4 turns. This is how I adjust mine but it's 12 years old and I think the spring winding systems are much different now.

 

[pattenp]

Springs are sized for the weight of the door not the height. The cable drums are sized and designed differently depending on lift height.

 

[EastCoast]

Kevin54 - I think you have my situation backwords? I have springs that came with my high lift door. We are now not using the high lift peices.

PattenP - That's interesting. When we switched to a standard lift, new drums were provided (smaller diameter) but the rep said everything else would work.

I noticed today that the tag that came on the shaft/springs says 'High Lift'... so I really suspect there is a difference... Just for fun, I completely unwound one spring and left it loose on the shaft. The wound the other spring the full 10.5 turns to see if it was even close to working as a single spring setup. It doesn't... but as soon as a add a few turns to the other spring, the door will not stay down. I dunno... guess I'll just go down some Christmas cheer and worry about it in a couple days

Robb

 

[calven]

You may have received the wrong springs to begin with or have the incorrect amount of turns. Service Spring Corp has an "app" through the iphone that can calculate the correct springs needed.

Search for service spring corp in the app store - it runs about $15 but will save you a lot of trouble. If that doesn't work I would call the manufacturer and ask them to run a spring engineering report.

If you take the highlift off the door and the springs were engineered with highlift originally the springs will definitely NOT work. The springs need extra power to lift the door with highlift. Not using the highlift adder will definitely result in new springs being needed. (they will be too strong at any amount of winds)

If you PM me the specifications of your door I can give you the correct springs needed. I will need:

door height
door width
door weight (weigh with bathroom scale)
the type of drums (omi 12 atl 12 raynor etc)

 

[upndown]

I agree calven,either wrong wire size or springs are too short! hot off the floor & dead in the head. should be a standard spring for a 10x10.. supplier should be able to calculate that !

 

[Brentocool]

You have the wrong springs trust me! The springs need to be wound 1 turn for every foot the door opens or the cables will fly off the drums when opened all the way.

 

[EastCoast]

Thanks everyone for the responses. We have had some success and it was definately due to an incorrect combination of parts.

When we went to a standard lift, the supplier provided smaller pulleys, sharter cables and the horizontal tracks. The springs simply had too much power and even when the door would not sit down on the floor, they did not provide enough travel/rotations as the door went up.

We decided to replace the pulleys with the larger ones that originally came with the springs. This worked perfectly!! It reduces the power/leverage when the door is near the bottom of it's travel and also provides more travel per revolution. I will talk to the supplier/manufacturer to make sure I will not have issues over time, etc. but I believe we are in good shape! Now the the door opens, we will be moving the hoist in today

Thanks again everyone!

Robb

 

[pattenp]

Springs are sized for the weight of the door not the height. The cable drums are sized and designed differently depending on lift height.

I miss spoke on this. I should have said the springs are sized for door weight and height but not high lift, the cables and drums are sized for high lift.