Why won't my garage door stay open when I lift it by hand?

What a balanced door is supposed to do

A correctly balanced garage door stays wherever you leave it, with no hand on it. That is not a rule of thumb, it is the published pass criterion, and three separate authorities state it the same way.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission writes that "a properly operating garage door will be 'balanced.' This means that the door will stay in place when stopped in any partially-open position." LiftMaster's owner's manual gives the test in two lines: "Lift the door halfway up. Release the door. If balanced, it should stay in place, supported entirely by its springs." DASMA's inspection checklist for residential sectional doors asks it as two yes-or-no questions: "Does the door stay in the fully open position?" and "Does the door stay in the partially open position 3-4 feet above the floor?"

So a few inches of drift is tolerable. Travel is not. DASMA's checklist adds one more line that is the whole standard compressed: the door should "move freely, without difficulty, and not more quickly than force applied." A door that keeps moving after you stop pushing has failed. If yours slides shut when you let go, you have already run the test. You just did not know it had a name.

A door that slides shut is under-sprung

If the door drifts or drops after you release it, the springs are not producing enough force to offset the door's weight. There are only three ways that happens, and they are easy to tell apart.

A spring has broken. This is the abrupt version. The door was fine last week and is now dead weight. On a torsion spring mounted on the shaft above the opening, a break usually shows as a visible gap in the coil. Extension springs alongside the horizontal tracks separate visibly as well.

The springs have weakened. This is the slow version, and it is the one people miss, because nothing happens on any single day. Springs lose force across their cycle life, and DASMA's data sheet on spring life names the exact symptom: "insufficient torque can present problems, as well, resulting in a door drifting down from its open position over time."

The door got heavier. DASMA warns that "actions taken by building occupants, such as applying paint to the door or adding components to the door, may cause the door weight to surpass the manufacturer's specifications." Repainting, an aftermarket insulation kit, or hardware bolted to the face all count.

One pattern is worth flagging separately. If the door racks, tilts, or one side drops faster than the other, stop there. That points at a cable or a single failed spring rather than overall tension, and a door hanging crooked is closer to coming off its track.

A door that climbs on its own is over-sprung

If the door rises after you release it, or feels like it wants to jump out of your hands on the way up, the springs are producing too much force. This is the less common failure and it gets misread as a healthy door, because a door that feels light feels like a door that is working.

It is the same fault in the other direction, and DASMA treats it that way: "excessive torque applied to a torsion spring could not only put excessive force on other counterbalance components, but could also be a safety issue." Excess spring force does not disappear. It goes into the cables, drums, bearings, and end brackets on every cycle.

An over-sprung door also fails DASMA's freely-and-not-more-quickly test, just in the up direction. It accelerates as it opens instead of tracking your hand, and it resists closing, which forces the opener to push down against the springs rather than guide the door. Both directions of imbalance land in the same place in LiftMaster's warnings: "an improperly balanced door may NOT reverse when required."

The opener is not the problem, even though it usually gets blamed

The opener never held the door up, so it cannot be why the door will not stay up. The springs carry essentially the entire weight of the door, and the opener only moves that already-balanced load the last bit.

The clearest proof is that you found this problem with your hands. If the door was disconnected from the opener, or you lifted it manually, the motor was not in the loop at all.

LiftMaster's own troubleshooting section routes a straining opener straight back to the door: "The door may be out of balance or the springs may be broken... A properly balanced door will stay in any point of travel while being supported entirely by its springs. If it does not, disconnect the garage door opener and call a trained door systems technician."

The practical consequence is money. A new opener will not fix an unbalanced door, and installing one on an unbalanced door goes against the manufacturer's own instruction: "Install garage door opener ONLY on properly balanced and lubricated garage door. An improperly balanced door may NOT reverse when required and could result in SEVERE INJURY or DEATH." If a quote comes back as a new opener for a door that will not stay open by hand, ask what the spring measurement was first.

Why a door that will not stay open is a falling hazard

A door that cannot hold its own position can come down without warning, and both the safety regulator and the opener manufacturer say so in those terms. CPSC: "a severely unbalanced garage door could unexpectedly crash to the floor possibly striking someone under the open door." LiftMaster: "weak or broken springs or unbalanced door could result in an open door falling rapidly and/or unexpectedly."

Two habits matter until it is repaired. First, do not stand, work, or park under a partially open door. LiftMaster puts this in capitals: "NO ONE SHOULD GO UNDER A STOPPED, PARTIALLY OPENED DOOR." Leave the door fully closed or fully open, and keep children out of the garage meanwhile.

Second, pull the red release handle only with the door closed. Disengaging the trolley on a door that is already up removes the last thing slowing it down, and DASMA attaches a caution to the same step: whenever an operator is disengaged, the door may unexpectedly begin to move.

An unbalanced door can also defeat the safety reverse, which is the feature that exists because of a body count. CPSC records about 73 children aged 2 to 14 trapped and killed under automatic garage doors since March 1982, roughly three a year, which is why every opener made or imported for U.S. sale after January 1, 1991 must reverse.

What throws a door out of balance in the first place

Balance drifts for a small number of reasons, and DASMA's data sheet on spring cycle life covers most of them. Knowing which one applies tells you whether this is a repair or a recurring problem.

• Cycles. Every open and close consumes spring life. A household using the garage as its main entrance reaches the end of a spring's rating years earlier than one that opens the door twice a day.
• Rust. DASMA is specific about the mechanism: "rust reduces the effective area of spring wire, which in turn reduces its overall strength. Rust can also cause corrosion pits from which fatigue cracks can accelerate and reduce cycle life."
• Weight added after installation. Paint, insulation kits, and hardware hung on the door face all change the number the springs were sized to.
• The wrong spring installed. DASMA notes that a spring that does not meet the door's counterbalance requirement "could also result in a safety issue regarding manual operation of the door." A door that has never held its position since the last spring job was probably never matched correctly.
• The wrong number of turns. Torsion springs are wound to a specified count. Too few and the door drifts down; too many and it climbs. DASMA's rule: "the number of turns should always be in accordance with the garage door manufacturer's installation instructions."
• Skipped maintenance. Regular lubrication of the counterbalance assembly, as called for in the door manufacturer's instructions, helps maximize spring cycle life.

Why spring adjustment is not a DIY job, and what the fix actually involves

Torsion and extension springs store enough energy to injure or kill someone releasing them without the right bars and technique, which is why every source here draws the same line. LiftMaster: "NEVER try to loosen, move or adjust garage door, springs, cables, pulleys, brackets, or their hardware, ALL of which are under EXTREME tension." DASMA: "all repairs and adjustments must be performed by a trained door systems technician using proper tools and instructions."

That is not the end of the answer, though, because you should know what you are buying. A correct balance repair is a measurement, not a guess:

1. The counterbalance is disabled so the door can be handled safely. DASMA describes weighing a door "with a scale after the door counterbalance system has been disabled" when added weight is suspected.
2. The door's actual weight and height are established, along with the drum size on the shaft.
3. The spring is identified by wire size, inside diameter, and length, then checked against what that door and drum require.
4. The spring is rewound to the specified number of turns or replaced with the correct one, and the door is retested by hand at 3 to 4 feet.

If the technician does not put a hand on the door at partial height before leaving, the job is not finished. That check is the same test you ran, and it is the only proof the balance is right.

Running the check yourself, safely

The check takes minutes, and DASMA budgets about 15 minutes for its whole residential door inspection. Start with the door fully closed, everyone clear of the opening, and pull the emergency release with the door down. Finding that release is easy because it is standardized: DASMA notes that UL 325 requires the manual detach handle to be red, easily distinguishable from the rest of the operator, and mounted no more than six feet above the garage floor.

With the door disconnected, raise it by hand to roughly 3 to 4 feet, let go, and step back out of the opening. Stays put: balanced. Slides shut: under-sprung or broken. Climbs: over-sprung. For any of the last three, the useful thing to say on the phone is not "my door will not stay open." It is "the door fails the balance check at waist height, it drifts down, and the opener is disconnected." That sentence gets a spring specialist and the right parts on the truck instead of a diagnostic visit.