So I hired a local garage door installer...

[GLE3]

I'm thinking I might have made a mistake. I have one standard two car garage door. It's made of wood and is very heavy. About 3 years ago I had a local install come in and change out some of the hardware(springs, cables pullies). Well I had a spring break on me the other day and I figure we've only used the door on average 3 times a day. I'm thinking I should have got much more use out of the spring than that? Anyway, on further inspection we have a 7 foot door and they only put in 21 inch springs. Isn't that size spring supposed to be for 6 foot doors? The spring itself is 192 gauge and double looped at the ends. It measures 2 inches in circumfrance from outside edge of coil to outside edge of coil.

Would this have anything to do with my spring prematurely breaking.

[gdoorpro]

Ext springs

Sounds like you have extension springs and not Torsion springs. If you had Torsion springs I could tell you how long they should last based on the measurements you have given me.

Since you have extension springs there really is no life cycle rating to speak of. As a general practice Ext. springs, in our opinion, should never be used on double wide garage doors, and probably not even single doors, however there are situations where they are the only solution.

Torsion springs always run a door more smoothly, and can be upgraded to longer life cycles, from a 10,000 standard cycle spring to a 25,000 or 50,000 cycle spring.

If your local dealer doesn't ask you about upgrading spring life, than ask them, and it should not cost you an arm and a leg. If you are buying a cheap door though, 10000 cycles will probably be as long as the door last anyway.

Ryan