Trapped, in our own garage
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Picture the scene: Fran's about to take the Tesla out for the morning, and the garage door has decided this is the day it gives up.
It would whirr to life, lift just enough to taunt us, then refuse to budge any further. Nowhere near enough to drive a Tesla through. The door had been a fraction slower to open over the previous few days, but I'd put that down to the cold autumn mornings. Apparently it had been building to retirement.
I had absolutely no idea what was actually wrong, so I did the modern equivalent of waving frantically at a passing tradie — I messaged Jesse at JB Garage Doors & Gates at 9.07 am with a couple of bewildered photos of the door's innards. Six minutes later he replied: a torsion spring. Sure enough, scrolling back through my own photos, there it was — that long black thing across the top, snapped clean in two with the original installer's orange "CAUTION — SPRING IS LOCKED" tag still cheerfully dangling off it. $550 to swap the pair, 3–5 pm slot the same day. Glorious.
In the meantime, I helped the motor lift the door enough to spring the Tesla from captivity. Closing it again via the remote, the door went visibly skewed — one side travelling further than the other, with only one good spring left to share the load. Stylish.
Jesse turned up just after 3 pm and swapped both springs as a matched pair. Done by 3.45 pm. Invoice in, paid by 6.30 pm. Trapped at breakfast, free by dinner.
Ever been locked out of your own garage?
In a grid outage, we have house battery, so we don't actually get a blackout. But that's a side point.
Note that this is actually a pretty easy DIY fix.
Did mine the other day.
They fail every 5 years at our place with 6-10cycles a day.
VEVOR Garage Door Torsion Springs, Pair of 5.54 x 50.8 x 610 mm, 16000 Cycles, Garage Door Springs with Non-Slip Winding Bars, Gloves and Mounting Wrench, Electrophoresis Coated for Replacement | VEVOR AU https://share.google/hxKC9KOVZY6vDWCve
Pair of 850mm springs for my 2.5 wide panel lift door $100.
Took me 2 hrs and I've never done it before and a tradie is $300 the first hour so you did OK