When I got home very early this morning, I learned some highly unpleasant things about a typical door on a typical two-car garage:
- There is a very large spring that keeps it balanced such that a relatively low horsepower electric motor can raise and lower it
- When that spring breaks, the door weighs eight hundred million pounds.
- A 1/3 horsepower electric motor cannot raise, unassisted, an eight hundred million pound door.
- A typical male of average strength can only just barely raise, unassisted, an un-sprung two-car garage door to free his wife’s car–without passing out.
- I think I seriously injured myself getting the garage door open.
I’m actually glad I discovered this at 2:00am and not Butterfly at 700 am, as she would be late taking T-Rex to school and getting to work.
I’m going to go medicate myself and lie down now.
October 20th, 2009 at 8:31 am
Annnd, a typical male of average strength cannot fix said spring. They are, literally, lethal, unless you really know what you’re about. Be glad you weren’t around when it broke.
Also, how come I have to keep using Captcha time after time, when I’m still logged in?
October 20th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
The folks who originally installed the door are going to charge us $215 to replace -both- springs. Money well spent, I say. I researched what it would take to replace the springs. It’s -not- for the faint-of-heart.
Interesting about the CAPTCHA. I don’t. I’ll look into it.
October 20th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
The spring repair hasn’t gone up much in the last five or seven years, evidently. Last time I had one spring go, it cost me $95 to fix. Worth every dime of it, too. Definitely a job for the pros.
October 20th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Ha! This time I didn’t have to Captcha. Perhaps it’s a function of how often I post a comment.