What Happens When Your Garage Door is Unbalanced

If your garage door is unbalanced it may not close completely. Your garage door is a bit of a mystery. It tends to work day in and day out with very few problems. But, if you took a closer look at exactly what your door goes through every time it opens or closes, you’d be surprised that something doesn’t go wrong every time.

Think about it. Your garage door is the largest and heaviest moving object in your home. Yet it is held above your head by tiny rollers that run along a slim aluminum track. The door’s bulk is also made more complex by being distributed across a number of hinged panels, that need to bend and fall perfectly into place every time the door closes. The door is operated by a small motor that turns on and off automatically, lifts and lowers the door, and automatically lights up the garage too.

When you think that you probably have problems with each of the doors inside your home about as often as you do with your garage door, despite the incredible differences in size, weight, and complexity, you can only be left with one question.

How Does Such a Complex System Operate so Efficiently?

Balance. It’s one of the great tools of engineering. Keeping everything well balanced can result in remarkable achievements, like putting up the mammoth stone blocks at Stonehenge – or opening and closing your garage door every day and expecting to do so for decades without any downtime.

Your garage door is balanced in a number of ways to help it work properly.

Balanced for Weight

Without being balanced by a spring, you would probably find it very difficult or impossible to lift the door and close it without having it crash.

Balanced Side to Side

The roller tracks are ‘balanced’ or kept in perfect parallel to each other so that the rollers move freely and don’t come off the track.

Balanced to Close Completely

The rollers on each side of the door run independently of each other. They need to remain aligned for the door to close properly.

Most of the problems with your garage door will either be caused by one or more imbalances, or they will cause an imbalance.

What Makes Your Door Close on One Side and not the Other?

One of the most common problems, when your garage door is unbalanced, is a gap on one side at the bottom of the door after it closes. The door might still open and close, but continuing to operate the door if it doesn’t close evenly can bring on more problems.

The door is balanced to close completely both sides by two side-mounted extension springs. One extension spring is installed above each of the roller tracks on either side of the door. One side of the spring is anchored to the vertical support of the roller track and the other end connected to a pulley system that is, in turn, connected to the side of the door.

As the door lowers into place, the extension springs make sure the door lowers evenly on both sides.

But if one spring is over-stretched or broken, then the side of the door it is connected to will open and close at a different rate than the other side of the door.

So, if your door doesn’t meet the ground evenly across its width when it closes, it’s very likely the result of a damaged or broken spring. Either way, you’ll need to find and install a new spring.

If you’re looking for quality replacement parts for your garage door spring system, or any other part of the door, call or visit us here at Markham Garage Doors, we have lots of great quality parts in stock and ready to go.