Here on the Chuck, a pro radio show, we talk about a lot of things with home improvement, including garage doors. I've got a garage door expert today here on the program, Jeff Gables beg is joining me here from Jolly Goat, garage doors. Hey, Jeff. Hey Joe, how are you doing today? I'm doing fantastic. It's great to see you again. Um So when I have you on the program, I have you specifically to answer questions that need to be answered by a pro such as yourself.
And here is one that's come in and this one actually is a fair question when it comes to the garage door because there's a key component and it's called the garage door spring. Many of them are torsion springs. And the question from a homeowner is, how long will this last? That is a great question and it's a tricky one, you know, uh springs on garage doors are raw metal moving parts. Um Every part including the springs on garage doors are rated and industry rated by what's called a life cycle.
The door traveling up once down once is a, is a life cycle. Uh, most springs out there are waiting for 10,000 or less life cycles. Now, does that mean they're gonna go full 10,000? No, we see doors all the time. A lot of the new, new construction, uh, cookie cutter type homes, uh, the real cheap doors, those springs may only last a year or 23 years. You're doing really good on those.
At the same time, we currently will be replacing springs on a fairly regular basis on doors that might be 20 years old. So, um, it depends on the original grade of door, the quality and the grade of the spring that you got originally, that was installed. Also, if you had springs installed or had springs replaced on a garage door recently in the past few years, and they broke again, that was obviously one of the lower life cycle type springs.
I know that the garage door spring is measured in cycles. Can you explain what a cycle is? Is it when it goes up and down or just up or down? Sure. It's, it's full up once and down once that's a full cycle. Uh, the garage door spring is a counterbalance for the weight of the door. So when the door is fully closed, the spring is what we call fully loaded. It's under high tension.
When the door is fully open, the spring is not under any tension at all because it un unwinds on the way up, then it winds on the way down. So that's what creates a full cycle up. Once down, once full cycle. Yeah, full cycle. So, 10,000 sounds like a lot.
But from my experience that can go pretty quickly if you're using your garage door as your front door and you have the kids, the spouse, the maid, whomever going in and out of that on a regular basis, it could be going up and down 1012 times a day. Absolutely. And the more times it goes up and down, the lower that life cycle gets over the span of time.
So, if it started out as a 10,000 cycle, but it could use four, you know, it gets used 4 to 5 times a day and that might span down to a 6, 5000 cycle over the span of its life. Yeah, I tell my wife all the time, don't open the garage door and close it unless you need to. Like, I'm counting, I'm counting the cycles.
Um, because I know one day it's gonna go pop. And by the way, guys, when you hear a big bang in your garage, unless it's the fourth of July, it's probably your spring and do not try to move that garage door yourself. Call a professional call, jelly goat. Correct. That's correct. That's correct.
And also ask your professional garage door company next time they come out if, uh, you're getting a spring replaced, ask them about a higher life cycle spring, we actually carry high cycle springs on the trucks. Now to offer the homeowner, uh, if they've had replacements done recently and they want to have to do it again. They said, look, we're gonna be living in this house the next 1015, 20 years. I don't want to worry about this again. It's an inconvenience.
My wife couldn't get her car in the garage. The kids were late to school. It was a mess. We don't wanna do it again. Then let's put in a high cycle spring that it comes with a lifetime warranty that you'll never have to worry about breaking on you again. Yeah, that's smart, Jeff. Thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate it, buddy.