DO THE SPRINGS BREAK FREQUENTLY IN APARTMENT BUILDINGS?
It causes a great deal of inconvenience for an apartment building or
any other high-traffic gate when the spring breaks frequently and
traffic comes to a halt because of it. The gate may even have to
remain open for days while waiting for the technician and the
replacement part. That is why we wrote this article: to help reduce
this inconvenience.
Here are a few tips
on what can be done to avoid or at least reduce this
problem:
1. Keep a spare spring next to the gate.
For parts that are likely to fail, it is worth purchasing an extra
spare immediately and storing it near the gate. If this spare part
is used, it is advisable to order a new replacement right away so
that there is always a backup available. Do not wait until the
spring breaks. It can take several working days for the ordered part
to arrive.
2. Replace the product before it breaks.
If the traffic at an apartment building is so heavy that the spring
lasts only 2 years, then replace it after 1.8 years (after 1 year
and 9 months). It is much easier to handle a planned 1-hour spring
replacement than to leave the gate open or restrict traffic for days
in an apartment building. The cost is not higher simply because you
replace the spring earlier. If the spring breaks, the technician
first has to come out, open the gate, and identify the type of
spring. Then, when the replacement part arrives, they have to come
out again and spend another hour installing it. This means paying
the call-out fee and labor cost twice.
3. Springs with a higher cycle life.
It is not always in the gate manufacturers’ interest to equip a gate
with springs that have a high cycle life. However, with torsion
springs it is possible for us to manufacture a higher-cycle version.
Depending on how much space is available on the gate shaft, we can
increase the cycle life of a residential garage door spring up to as
many as 100,000 cycles. (In certain cases, this can mean up to 4
times longer service life.)
4. Springs with the same cycle life.
Sometimes a gate is fitted with two different sizes of torsion
springs, so the springs have different cycle lives. In apartment
buildings, this is wasteful, since there is no real benefit in one
spring lasting 3,000–7,000 cycles longer than the other. (This only
results in the other spring breaking perhaps months later.) After
all, both springs will be replaced anyway when the spring with the
shorter service life breaks. In most such cases, it is possible to
redesign the springs so they have the same cycle life. This
increases the life of the lower-cycle spring while reducing the life
of the higher-cycle one. As a result, the spring replacement is
needed later. In other words, the gate lasts longer for the same
money. This is not possible in every case, as there is not always
enough space on the shaft, but it is worth asking us for a
calculation.
5. Reduce traffic
Very often, the garage door is used as a pedestrian entrance simply
for convenience. It is also easier to take bicycles and strollers
through the garage door. Even though people could also use the
regular pedestrian entrance. For this reason, it is worth diverting
unnecessary traffic away from the gate.
6. Do not replace an extension spring door with a torsion spring door.
We often hear that people want to replace the gate because they
believe extension springs are worse than torsion springs. This is
not necessarily true. There are brands where the extension spring is
much more durable than the torsion spring. In addition, extension
spring doors are often fitted with more than one spring on each
side. This means that if one spring happens to break, the door may
still continue operating for a short time. With torsion spring
doors, however, if one spring breaks, the door cannot continue to
operate. Ask the dealer exactly how many cycles the extension and
torsion springs are designed for before replacing the gate
unnecessarily. For some door brands, we can also help determine how
long the spring is likely to last.
For prices and orders, write to:
info@garagedoorspring.eu
