Can 1/2hp garage door openers open a 2 car garage door without spring?

by OZinOH

Question by xvl260: Can 1/2hp garage door openers open a 2 car garage door without spring?
Can 1/2hp garage door openers open a 2 car garage door without spring? One side of the wire on my garage door broke, right now the door is crooked. If I cut the remain wire, the door will not be sprung, will the garage door opener still have enough power to open it? This is just temp solution until I can get it fixed, but I need to know before I cut. Thanks.
What I had to do last night was, I losened the bolt that was holding the wheel that was winding the wire, it released the spring’s energy, then I just manually opened the door with a buddy. I’m going to hire a professional to fix it and wind it back to the proper tension though.

Best answer:

Answer by FatrCat
NO! Don’t cut the remaining wire!. If you have individual side springs you have a fair chance of raising the door by giving it some manual lift assistance on the broken side. BUT- if your spring is a torsion rod that mounts horizontally on the wall right above the door I would have to advise you to please not attempt any action yourself, but contact an overhead door serviceman. Those torsion bar springs are LOADED with energy waiting to be released from the counter-wound springs and can be extremely dangerous when out of balance or suddenly released. With one half of the spring gone, this places abnormal overload on the remaining half, and without wanting to seem alarmist this does greatly raise the odds any jolting/erratic motion will be just enough to cause the overloaded half to suddenly break. These springs actually are only considered to have a normal life span of around 5-7 years, even though many pass that, but when one side fails it should be held as an indication the other half is also ready to go. If you’ve got the single torsion bar, please, don’t risk it.

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