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My neighbor told me to just slap a new garage door opener in without checking the springs. Bad idea.
He's a nice guy, but he said, 'It's just a motor swap, takes an hour.' So I bought a new chain drive unit for about $300 and got to work. The old opener was shot, but the real problem was one of the torsion springs was completely worn out. I didn't know to check it first. When I finally got the new opener installed and hit the button, the door was so heavy it strained the motor and tripped the safety reverse immediately. I had to call a pro from a local shop, and he showed me the spring had lost all its tension. The whole fix, with new springs and his labor, cost me another $450 on top of the opener. I should have listened to the manual that said to check spring balance first. Has anyone else been burned by skipping that basic step?
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