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A garage door spring is the hardest-working part of your door and the one almost nobody thinks about until it snaps. It is also the single most common garage door repair we're called out to across Perth — usually with the door stuck shut and a car trapped inside.
This guide covers how springs work, the two types you'll find on Perth homes, how long they realistically last, what replacement costs, and why this is the one repair you genuinely should not attempt yourself.
What garage door springs actually do
A typical sectional garage door weighs between 80 kg and 180 kg. Your motor does not lift that weight — it couldn't. The springs do. They store energy when the door closes and release it when the door opens, counterbalancing the door so it behaves as if it weighs only a few kilograms. The motor's job is just to guide it and hold it in place.
That's why a broken spring feels like a motor problem. The opener strains, grinds, or gives up entirely, because it is suddenly being asked to lift the door's full weight on its own. Replacing the opener at that point fixes nothing — and burns out the new motor too.
Quick test
Pull the manual release cord and lift the door by hand. A correctly balanced door will feel light and stay put roughly halfway up. If it slams down or takes real effort to lift, the springs have lost tension or one has broken.
Torsion vs extension springs
Perth homes use one of two systems, and knowing which you have tells you a lot about what a repair involves.
Torsion springs
Mounted on a steel shaft above the door opening, torsion springs twist to store energy. They're the standard on modern sectional doors, last longer, give smoother and more controlled movement, and fail more predictably. Most doors run one or two; wider or insulated doors may need three or four.
Extension springs
Mounted along the horizontal tracks either side of the door, extension springs stretch rather than twist. They're common on older tilt doors and cheaper installs. They wear faster, and without an intact safety containment cable a failing extension spring can become a projectile.
- Torsion — above the door, longer life, better balance, safer failure mode, standard on sectional doors
- Extension — beside the tracks, shorter life, needs containment cables, common on older tilt doors
- Roller doors — usually a spring assembly inside the barrel, replaced as a unit rather than as loose springs
For a deeper side-by-side, see our breakdown of torsion vs extension springs.
How long garage door springs last
Springs are rated in cycles, not years. One cycle is one full open and close. A standard spring is rated to around 10,000 cycles, and high-cycle springs to 20,000 or more.
What that means in real time depends entirely on how much you use the door:
Expected spring life by usage
- Two cycles a day (typical single-car household): 12–14 years
- Four cycles a day (most families): 7–9 years
- Six or more cycles a day (large families, home businesses): 4–6 years
- Commercial or strata doors: often under 3 years without high-cycle springs
Perth adds one factor worth knowing about: salt air. Doors within a few kilometres of the coast — Scarborough, Fremantle, Hillarys, Mandurah — corrode noticeably faster, and a rusted spring fails well short of its cycle rating. Galvanised or coated springs are worth the small extra cost near the beach.
Springs fail in pairs
If your door has two springs of the same age and one breaks, the second is at the end of its life too. Replacing both at once costs $440–$550 rather than paying two separate call-outs within months, and keeps the door properly balanced.
Warning signs a spring is failing
Springs almost always warn you before they go. Any of these means it's time to get the door looked at:
- A loud bang from the garage, often mistaken for something falling — this is usually the spring letting go
- A visible gap in the coil of the torsion spring above the door
- The door opens a few centimetres then stops, or the motor strains and reverses
- The door feels very heavy to lift by hand, or slams shut when released
- The door sits crooked, or one side lifts before the other
- Cables hanging loose, frayed, or off the drums
- Noticeably jerky movement, or new grinding and squealing
Stop using the door
If you suspect a broken spring, don't keep operating the door — including with the opener. Every attempt puts the door's full weight through the motor, cables, and brackets, and turns a $240 spring replacement into a much larger repair. Park outside and call us.
If the door is already stuck, our garage door spring repair team carries the common spring sizes on the van and can usually fix it the same day. For a door jammed shut out of hours, see emergency garage door repairs.
Are garage door springs dangerous?
Yes — genuinely, and this isn't a sales line. A torsion spring on a double garage door holds several hundred newton-metres of stored energy. Released without control, it can break bones, take fingers, or worse. Garage door springs and cables cause serious injuries in Australia every year, most of them during DIY attempts.
Three specific things make it dangerous work: the tension is invisible, the correct winding bars are not something most households own (a screwdriver is not a substitute), and the door itself can drop while you're underneath it. Replacing a spring also requires setting the exact tension for that door's weight — get it wrong and the door either won't stay up or slams.
The safety requirements for powered garage doors sit under Australian Standard AS/NZS 60335.2.95, published by Standards Australia, and WorkSafe WA treats high-tension spring work as a task for competent, properly equipped operators. If you want the detail on the risk itself, we've written it up in are garage door springs dangerous?
What you can safely do yourself
Look, listen, and test the balance with the door disconnected. Keep the tracks clear. Never loosen a bracket, unwind a spring, adjust a cable drum, or remove a containment cable. Anything that involves releasing tension is a technician's job.
Spring replacement cost in Perth
These are our actual price-list ranges, supplied and fitted, including removing the old spring and re-balancing the door:
- One broken spring — $240–$280. The most common same-day repair.
- A matched pair (×2) — $440–$550. Recommended when both springs are the same age.
- Three springs — $660–$770. Larger or heavier doors.
- Four springs — $880–$1,000. Oversized, insulated, or commercial doors.
- Re-fit or re-tension existing springs — $280–$330. When the springs are sound and only tension has drifted.
- Lift cable replaced or re-seated — $280–$550. Often needed alongside a spring failure.
- After-hours or emergency attendance — add $500.
What moves the price within those ranges is door size and weight, how many springs the door runs, spring gauge, and whether the cables, drums, or brackets were damaged when the spring went. There's no call-out fee to quote, and the price is confirmed before any work starts. Full breakdown on our spring replacement cost page, or get an instant range from the price calculator.
Be careful with cheap quotes
A spring priced well under $200 fitted usually means a light-gauge spring that won't reach its cycle rating, or a re-tension of the spring that just failed. Ask what gauge and cycle rating you're getting, and what the warranty covers.
Repair, re-tension, or replace?
A broken spring cannot be repaired — once the coil has failed, it's replaced. What is worth deciding is scope:
- Re-tension only — the springs are intact and in good condition, but the door has drifted out of balance. $280–$330, and the cheapest correct outcome.
- Replace the broken spring alone — sensible if the springs are different ages, or the other is recent.
- Replace as a matched pair — the default recommendation on a door where both springs are the same age. Better balance, one call-out.
- Upgrade to high-cycle springs — worth it on a busy household or commercial door: roughly double the rated life for a modest increase in price.
If the door is over 20 years old and the springs, cables, rollers and drums are all worn, put the repair cost against a new door before spending. Our garage door repair cost guide covers where that line usually sits.
Making your springs last longer
You can't extend a spring's cycle rating, but you can stop it failing early — and early failure is nearly always caused by something else on the door working against it.
What actually helps
- Keep the door balanced — an unbalanced door loads one spring harder than the other
- Replace worn rollers; stiff rollers make the springs work against friction
- Lubricate the torsion shaft bearings, rollers, and hinges with a garage-door-specific lubricant twice a year (never grease the tracks)
- Fix a noisy or jerky door promptly instead of living with it
- Near the coast, rinse salt off the door and specify galvanised springs at replacement
- Have the door serviced annually — $120 for a safety check-up, or from $140 plus parts for a full service
An annual service is the cheapest insurance available on a garage door: it catches spring fatigue, cable wear, and balance drift before any of them strands you. See how often you should service a garage door and our garage door maintenance service.
Nine out of ten "my motor's dead" call-outs turn out to be a broken spring. The motor was never the problem — it was just the part that gave up last.