Garage door cables are essential to the performance of your garage door. They ensure your door opens and closes smoothly, efficiently, and more importantly, safely. Should your cables fail, you can find yourself in a very dangerous situation. The goal of this page is to explain what the cables actually do and why they are important, and how to determine when they need to be replaced.
What Do Garage Door Cables Actually Do?
Many people have no idea what garage door cables actually do, they just know it’s part of the garage operating system. Garage door cables connect the spring line to the garage door. The cables connect to the door at the bottom brackets which are located on each side of the door.
Their purpose is to bear the weight of the garage and run in tandem across from one another while being fixed onto the shaft at the same point.
Why Are Garage Door Cables Important?
The cables hook up to the drums connected to the torsion shaft above your door. Each is having force exerted by the wound up springs. The spring line components (drums, cables, springs, and torsion shaft ) each work together to do 2 main jobs:
- Counterbalance the weight of the garage door
- Keep the door level during operation
Without the cables and the spring line components working in sync, you will experience counterbalance issues and your door may not actually sit level when closed.
Time For A Cable Replacement?
Determining factors of whether or not it may not be time to replace your cables include visible fraying/damage, one side seems to be exerting more force than the other, the door is visibly imbalanced, or the door will not close all the way. Each of these could be urgent warning signs it’s time to replace your cables, likely with varying urgency.
Out of all the issues you could have with your door, issues with your cables are the most dangerous. If one or both cable systems fail and snap, they tend to explode resulting in tiny pieces of metal flying through the air at high speeds including the cable(s) flying through the air like a metal whip. With that being said, should you notice any of the warning signs, give us a call ASAP to come out for a replacement. We will be able to safely identify and address the issue.
