Is your garage door balanced?

A garage door opener moves a garage door that is balanced. It is not meant to “pull up” the garage door with a lot of force. Therefore, in order to ensure that your garage door opener will safely operate for many years, it is important to keep your garage door balanced. USE THESE INSTRUCTIONS AT YOUR OWN RISK. We do not guarantee and are not liable for you following these instructions.

To check if a garage door is balanced:

1. Unplug the garage door opener from the electric socket.
2. Disconnect the garage door opener from the garage door. WARNING: Never disconnect a garage door opener from the garage door unless the door is in the down position. If door is not balanced properly, it could come crashing down and cause injury.
3. Once door is in down position, pull the emergency release cord on the opener and disconnect it from the motor.
4. Then, lift the garage door halfway up. However, do not release if the door feels heavy and you think it might slam down.
5. The door should sit without moving up or down without you holding it. This means your garage door is balanced, the springs are doing the lifting of the door, and the door is capable of being lifted by a garage door opener safely.

If your garage door does not stay halfway up without being held, it needs to be balanced.

WARNING: Injury can occur from non-professional garage door repair work. Do at your own risk.

1. If your garage door needs balancing, the garage door spring probably needs to be turned (tightened) about a 3/4th of a turn.
2. Use a vise grip to hold the shaft so it does not turn. The handle of the vise grip should be against the wall.
3. Use two ½ inch winding bars.
4. Loosen ½” bolts on spring.
5. Insert ½” winding bar into bottom side on the end of spring and turn up a quarter turn.
6. Insert second winding bar and twist up for another quarter turn.
7. Do again for a total of 3/4th turn.
8. Mark the end of the spring on the shaft (you can use a file).
9. CAUTION: The spring could break or the winding bar could snap up so stand away from trajectory of spring and winding bar.
10. Stretch spring by pulling the inserted winding bar away from the door keeping tension so that the spring does not pull back (stretching the spring).
11. Stretching the spring will prevent the coil from sticking and binding which will prevent the garage door from closing.
12. While keeping the tension, tap the winding bar with the other bar to stretch coil to the mark you made. Stretching too far will cause the cable to snake and it will not lie flat.
13. Reset and tighten the bolts you loosened earlier. Finger tighten and half turn with wrench.
14. Test gently by trying to lift door by pulling on winding bar.
15. Check balance again.