Openings
Garage door spring replacement cost
About $320 fitted for a pair on a planned job, or $432 if the door is shut with a car behind it and somebody is driving over on a Saturday. But the number that should decide it is not the price — it is the cycle rating, and nobody converts it into years. A standard 10,000 cycle spring is 6.8 years in an ordinary household and 2.3 where the garage is the front door. Fifty dollars more doubles it, and almost nobody is offered that.
Written and edited by Pablo Ruiz Quintero
Last reviewed 2026-09-18 · Nothing you type leaves your browser
The door
A spring is not chosen, it is calculated. The door’s weight and height decide the torque and the turns, and those decide the wire, the diameter and the length. Tell us the door and you get a part number rather than a price range.
Pick the nearest, or type your own below.
Leave blank to use the preset.
Height sets the turns, not the torque.
Foam board sandwiched between the skin and a back sheet. The common mid-range door, and the point at which the thing stops sounding hollow.
Each adds about 5 lb, which the spring has to carry.
Two is standard on a double door. With a pair, each carries half and both last longer.
What comes on a new door and what a cheap quote fits. It is the industry default because it is the cheapest thing to hang on a door somebody else will own.
One car in and out twice. The usual household. A cycle is one open and one close — a trip out and back is two.
Read the warning below before choosing yourself. This is the one job on this site we will argue with you about.
An emergency call-out is dearer, and it is how almost everybody buys a spring.
Used only to pick a regional labour rate. It stays in your browser.
Your spring
0.2188″
1.75″ inside diameter · 26.3″ long · 25.5 in-lb per turn
$432 fitted, lasting about 6.8 years
202 lb of door, 371 lb-in of torque returned over 7.27 turns of the shaft. That is $63 a year.
How the spring falls out of the door
Four lines, and none of them is a judgement call.
- Door weight202 lb
- × drum radius 1.84″ = torque371 lb-in
- Height ÷ drum circumference = turns7.27
- ÷ turns ÷ 2 springs = each must give25.5 in-lb/turn
Then the wire and the length come from the spring rate formula — E·d⁵ ÷ (10.8 · D · L) — solved for the length. There is exactly one right answer and a supplier can match it from the three numbers above the fold.
The upgrade almost nobody is offered
+$67
for 13.7 years instead of 6.8 — $36 a year against $63. The standard spring is the default because it is the cheapest thing to hang on a door somebody else will own, not because it is the sensible thing to have. Ask for high-cycle by name; most installers carry it and almost none mention it.
Cycles are not years until you divide
The same spring, four households.
Shopping list
- Torsion springs, 10,000 cycle
0.2188 in wire · 1.75 in inside diameter · 26.3 in long · 25.5 in-lb per turn each2
What it costs
National average. A pair of springs, fitted, with the door balanced and the opener force reset, at emergency call-out rates. Cables, drums, bearings and rollers are separate — but a spring that broke after twenty years rarely broke alone, and it is worth asking.
$63 a year of service. If the door itself is also near the end, the spring is the smaller half of that decision — see insulation for the garage envelope, and the floor under it.
Worth knowing
- This door weighs about 202 lb, so the counterbalance has to return 371 lb-in of torque over 7.27 turns of the shaft. Split across 2 springs, that is 25.5 inch-pounds per turn each — and from there the spring is arithmetic, not a guess.
- Which comes out at 0.2188 in wire, 1.75 in inside diameter, 26.3 in long. Take that to a supplier and you are ordering a part rather than describing a problem — and you can check what a quote is actually fitting you.
- 10,000 cycles at 4 openings a day is 1,460 a year, so about 6.8 years. A cycle is one open and one close — not one trip out and back, which is two. Nobody in this trade converts cycles into years for you, and it is the only form in which the number means anything.
- The standard spring is the industry default because it is the cheapest thing to hang on a door somebody else will own. Stepping up to 20,000 cycles costs $67 more here and takes you from 6.8 years to 13.7 — $36 a year against $63. It is the clearest saving on this page and almost nobody is offered it.
- An emergency call-out adds about 35 per cent, and that is the honest market rate rather than a rip-off: somebody is driving to you on a Saturday. Almost nobody buys a spring on a planned Tuesday. The door fails shut with a car inside it, and that is when the price is agreed — which is exactly why knowing the arithmetic beforehand is worth something.
- When one spring goes, replace both. They were wound the same day and have done the same 10,000 cycles, so the second is not a spare — it is the next failure, and paying the call-out twice costs more than the spring.
On this page — 5 sections
What a spring costs, and what it buys
The short version
- About $320 fitted for a pair on a planned job, $432 at emergency rates, $110 in parts alone.
- Cycles are not years until you divide. 10,000 cycles is 6.8 years at 4 openings a day and 2.3 at 12.
- $50 doubles the life. High-cycle springs are stock items and almost nobody is offered them.
- The spring is calculated, not chosen. Weight × drum radius ÷ turns gives one right answer, and you can check any quote against it.
$320
A pair, fitted, planned
Springs and labour, no urgency
$432
The same job, broken now
The extra 35% is the Saturday
$47
Per year, standard spring
6.8 years of service
$27
Per year, high cycle
13.7 years, for $50 more
Nobody buys a spring on a planned Tuesday. The door fails shut with a car behind it, and the price is agreed standing in the driveway with somebody who drove over on a weekend. That is not a rip-off — it is what an emergency call-out costs — but it is exactly why knowing the arithmetic beforehand is worth something.
MaterialsEstimator, Garage door, spring and opener price survey · checked 2026-09-18
The spring is not chosen. It is calculated.
I nearly did not build this page. When I mapped this market I wrote that garage doors had “nothing to calculate — only a price range somebody else already publishes”, and moved on. That was wrong, and the way it was wrong is worth saying: I did not look, I deduced.
Here is what there is to calculate.
IPPT per spring = (door weight × drum radius) ÷ turns ÷ springs
- door weight
- area × pounds per square foot for the construction, plus about 5 lb a window
- drum radius
- 1.84 in on a standard residential drum — it converts torque into cable pull
- turns
- door height ÷ drum circumference, about 7.3 on a 7 ft door
Worked through — A 16 × 7 ft two-layer steel door is 112 ft² at 1.8 lb/ft², so 202 lb. Times 1.84 in is 371 lb-in of torque, over 7.27 turns, split between two springs: 25.5 inch-pounds per turn each.
And then the spring itself, from the standard torsion spring rate — the same formula that sizes every helical torsion spring in engineering:
IPPT = E × d⁵ ÷ (10.8 × D × L)
- E
- the modulus of the steel — 28,500,000 psi for oil-tempered spring wire
- d
- wire diameter in inches. It appears to the fifth power, which is why a step you can barely see changes everything
- D
- mean coil diameter — the inside diameter plus one wire
- L
- overall length of the coils. The constant 10.8 converts the result to inch-pounds per turn
Worked through — Solve that for L and you have the spring: for 25.5 in-lb per turn at 0.2188 in wire on a 1¾ in bore, 26.3 inches long. Three numbers, and a supplier can pull the part.
Machinery's Handbook, Helical torsion spring design (31st edition) · checked 2026-09-18
Cycles are not years until somebody divides
Every spring is sold with a cycle rating and almost nobody is told what it means in the only unit that matters.
A cycle is one opening and one closing. Going out in the morning and back in the evening is two. That single misunderstanding makes people think their springs failed early when they simply reached the number printed on them.
| Rating | 2 a day | 4 a day | 7 a day | 12 a day | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | 13.7 yr | 6.8 yr | 3.9 yr | 2.3 yr | What comes on a new door and what a cheap quote fits. It is the industry default because it is the cheapest thing to hang on a door somebody else will own. |
| 20,000 | 27.4 yr | 13.7 yr | 7.8 yr | 4.6 yr | Longer and thicker wire at the same torque, so each coil works less. Roughly forty per cent more for double the life — the best value on this page for almost everybody. |
| 30,000 | 41.1 yr | 20.5 yr | 11.7 yr | 6.8 yr | Worth it on a door that is also the front door, which is most attached garages with a keypad outside. |
| 50,000 | 68.5 yr | 34.2 yr | 19.6 yr | 11.4 yr | Commercial territory. On a house it only pays back where the door cycles eight or ten times a day for twenty years. |
Door & Access Systems Manufacturers Association, DASMA technical data sheets, sectional doors and counterbalance · checked 2026-09-18
The one job on this site we will argue with you about
This site exists to tell people they can work things out themselves, and it is going to break that habit here, briefly and with a reason.
A wound torsion spring on a double door holds several hundred foot-pounds. It is released through two bars inserted into the winding cone, and the entire operation depends on those bars being the correct diameter for the holes. A bar that is too thin can slip out under load with the spring half wound.
The injuries from this are to hands and faces, and they come overwhelmingly from one substitution: using screwdrivers as winding bars. They fit, they turn, and they flex.
If you are doing it anyway
- Buy proper winding bars sized to your cones. They are about $25 and they are the whole difference.
- Both hands on the bars at all times. Never let go of a loaded bar to reach for something.
- Never put your head over the shaft. Stand to the side of the spring, not under it.
- Clamp the shaft with vice grips against the header before you unwind anything.
- Unwind the old spring completely before touching the set screws. A spring with any tension in it is still dangerous.
- Replace both springs. The survivor has done the same cycles and is the next failure.
- Wind to the calculated turns, not to 'feels about right' — over-winding kills a spring fast and makes the door dangerous.
- Test the balance: halfway up, hands off, and it should stay. Then reset the opener force.
| Doing it yourself | A contractor | |
|---|---|---|
| Parts | About $110 a pair | Included |
| Winding bars | $25, once | Theirs |
| Total on this door | About $110 | About $320 planned, $432 urgent |
| Time | Two hours the first time | Under an hour |
| Balance and opener force reset | Yours to get right | Part of the job |
| If it goes wrong | Hands and face | Their insurance |
| Worth it? | If you buy the bars and read twice | For most people, yes |
What goes wrong
01Replacing only the broken spring
The pair were wound the same day and have done the same cycles. The survivor is not a spare, it is the next failure — usually within a year, and usually at another call-out charge.
Instead — Replace both. The second spring costs a fraction of a second visit, and a matched pair keeps the door balanced.
02Accepting whatever spring the fitter has on the van
The standard 10,000 cycle spring is the default because it is the cheapest thing to hang on a door somebody else will own, not because it is the right life for your household.
Instead — Ask for high cycle by name and check the arithmetic: 20,000 cycles is about $50 more here and roughly doubles the years.
03Counting a round trip as one cycle
Out and back is two. It sounds trivial and it halves every estimate of how long a spring will last, which is why people believe theirs failed early.
Instead — Count openings, not journeys. Four openings a day is the ordinary household, and it is 1,460 cycles a year.
04Using screwdrivers as winding bars
They fit the cone holes, they turn, and they flex. This single substitution accounts for most of the serious injuries in this job.
Instead — Buy the bars. Twenty-five dollars, sized to your cones, and keep both hands on them.
05Letting the opener lift an unbalanced door
The opener is only meant to overcome friction. Once the spring is tired the motor carries the door's weight, and an opener that has been doing that for a year is the next thing to fail.
Instead — Test the balance twice a year: release the opener, lift halfway, let go. It should stay put. If it does not, fix the counterbalance before the motor pays for it.
06Buying a high-cycle spring that will not fit
More cycles means thicker wire and more length at the same torque, so the spring is physically longer. On a narrow door there is not enough shaft between the drums and the centre bracket.
Instead — Check the length against the space before ordering. The calculator above flags it, and on a single door the answer is often the middle grade rather than the top one.
07Over-winding to make the door feel light
It feels like tuning and it is damage. The spring is being taken past its design deflection every cycle, so it fails early, and the door becomes hard to keep down.
Instead — Wind to the calculated turns — height divided by drum circumference — and adjust by a quarter turn at most.
08Ignoring the cables and the centre bearing
A spring that ran twenty years did not run alone. Frayed cables and a dry centre bearing are cheap while the system is apart and another call-out once it is back together.
Instead — Have them checked at the same visit, and ask for the price up front rather than mid-job.
- 01Measure the door and identify what it is made ofWidth, height and construction. Weight is area times pounds per square foot, plus about 5 lb a window pane.
- 02Work out the torqueDoor weight times the drum radius, which on a residential door is about 1.84 in. That is what the spring has to give back.
- 03Work out the turnsDoor height divided by the drum circumference — around 7.3 turns on a 7 ft door. Torque divided by turns divided by the number of springs is the IPPT each one needs.
- 04Measure the old spring before you throw it awayWire size from 20 coils divided by 20, inside diameter from the cone, and overall length of the coils. It is the fastest check on the arithmetic.
- 05Choose the cycle rating on how often the door opensNot on price. Divide the rating by openings a day times 365, and you have years.
- 06Check the spring will physically fitA higher cycle spring is longer. Half the door width minus the drums and the centre bracket is what you have.
- 07Replace both, even if one brokeThey are the same age and have done the same cycles. The second is not a spare; it is the next call-out.
- 08Set the wind, then test the balanceHalfway up, hands off. A balanced door stays put — and until it does, the opener is carrying weight it was not built for.
Replacing springs means clearing the garage anyway, and the floor is the one job that needs the space more than this one did.
While the garage is empty- Torsion spring
- The spring on the shaft above the door. It stores energy as the door comes down and gives it back on the way up, which is why a 200 lb door feels like it weighs nothing.
- Cycle
- One opening and one closing. A trip out and back is two cycles, and misreading that is why people's estimates of spring life come out double what they should.
- IPPT
- Inch-pounds per turn — how much torque a spring gives for each turn it is wound. It is the number that has to match the door, and everything else about the spring follows from it.
- Wire size
- The diameter of the steel. It appears in the spring rate to the fifth power, so a step from 0.2188 to 0.2253 in — barely visible — changes the spring substantially.
- Inside diameter
- The bore of the spring, usually 1¾ or 2 in on a house. It has to match the cones and the shaft, and it is the second of the three numbers a supplier needs.
- Drum
- The grooved wheel the lift cable winds onto. Its radius converts the spring's torque into the pull on the cable, which is why door weight times drum radius is the torque the spring has to return.
- Winding bars
- Two steel rods sized to the holes in the winding cone. They are the only correct tool for tensioning a spring, and substituting screwdrivers is the specific mistake that causes the injuries.
- High cycle spring
- Thicker wire and more length delivering the same torque, so each coil works less and lasts longer. 20,000 and 30,000 cycle versions of a 10,000 cycle spring are stock items almost everywhere.
- Extension spring
- The older type, stretched along the tracks either side rather than wound on a shaft. Cheaper, and it needs a containment cable through it so the pieces cannot fly if it snaps.
- Counterbalance
- The whole system that makes the door weightless — springs, cables, drums and shaft. The opener only overcomes friction; if it is lifting the door, the counterbalance is wrong.
- Balance test
- Pull the release, lift the door halfway by hand and let go. A balanced door stays put. If it falls or rises, the spring is wrong or tired, and the opener is doing work it was never meant to.
- Wind-up turns
- How many turns the spring gets when it is set — door height divided by the drum circumference, usually seven to eight on a 7 ft door. More turns than that is how a spring gets over-wound and dies early.
Common questions
- How much does it cost to replace a garage door spring?
- About $320 fitted for a pair on a standard double door if you are planning it — roughly $110 of spring and $210 of labour. Broken on a Saturday with a car behind it, which is how almost everybody buys them, it is nearer $432. Doing it yourself is about $110 in parts, and it is the one job on this site where we would argue with that choice.
- Why do garage door springs break?
- Metal fatigue, and it is entirely predictable. A spring is rated in cycles — 10,000 for the standard one — and every opening uses one up. At 4 openings a day that is 1,460 a year, so about 6.8 years. It did not fail early; it reached the number it was sold with.
- How long do garage door springs last?
- Divide the cycle rating by how often you open the door. A 10,000 cycle spring is 6.8 years at 4 openings a day and 2.3 years at 12 — the same spring, a third of the life. Nobody selling springs does this division for you, and it is the only form in which the rating means anything.
- What is a cycle on a garage door spring?
- One opening and one closing. Going out in the morning and coming back in the evening is two cycles, not one — and getting that wrong is the commonest reason people think their springs failed early when they simply reached their rating.
- Are high-cycle springs worth it?
- On this door, stepping from 10,000 to 20,000 cycles costs about $50 more and takes the life from 6.8 years to 13.7 — $27 a year against $47. Almost nobody is offered them, because the standard spring is the cheapest thing to hang on a door somebody else will own. Ask for high-cycle by name.
- What size spring do I need for my garage door?
- It is calculated, not looked up. Door weight times drum radius gives the torque; door height divided by the drum circumference gives the turns; torque divided by turns divided by the number of springs gives the inch-pounds per turn each one must deliver. From there the wire diameter and length come out of the spring rate formula. The calculator above does all four lines and hands you the three numbers a supplier needs.
- How much does a garage door weigh?
- A 16 × 7 ft door runs from about 140 lb in single-skin steel to 358 lb in wood, with the common two-layer insulated door around 202 lb. Every window pane adds about 5 lb. It matters because the weight is where the whole spring calculation starts.
- Should I replace both springs if only one broke?
- Yes, and it is not an upsell. The two were wound on the same day and have done the same number of cycles, so the survivor is not a spare — it is the next failure, probably within a year. Paying a second call-out costs far more than the second spring.
- Can I replace a garage door spring myself?
- Physically yes, and we are not going to pretend the parts are hard to buy. But a wound spring on a double door stores several hundred foot-pounds, released through two bars that must be the right diameter for the cones. The standard injuries are to hands and face, and they come from using screwdrivers instead of winding bars. If you do it, buy the bars, keep both hands on them, and never put your face over the shaft.
- One spring or two?
- Two, on anything heavy. Each carries half the load, so both last longer, and when one breaks the other holds the door instead of letting it drop. A single spring on a 200 lb door is legal and common and still the worse arrangement.
- Why does my new spring not fit?
- Because a higher cycle rating means a physically bigger spring. Same torque, thicker wire, more coils — so it is longer. On a narrow door there is only so much shaft between the drums and the centre bracket, and that is the real ceiling on how many cycles you can buy. The calculator flags it when the spring you have chosen will not go on.
- My door is hard to lift by hand. Is that the spring?
- Almost certainly. Pull the opener release, lift the door halfway and let go: a correctly balanced door stays where you put it. If it drops, the spring has lost tension or is undersized; if it flies up, it is over-wound. Either way the opener has been doing work it was not designed for, and it will fail next.
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About the author
Pablo Ruiz Quintero — Editor
Editor of MaterialsEstimator. Decides which documents count as a source, what every default value is, and where the line sits between what the reader parses and what the engines compute.
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