Complete Guide to Wayne Dalton TorqueMaster Springs
As you’re winding down and closing up for the night, you hit the button on the wall to close the garage door, and it won’t budge. You can hear the automatic opener making a noise, but it won’t push your garage door down. You try a few more times without any success.
The next logical response is to pull the red rope to disconnect the garage door from the opener and close it manually. Nope, the door won’t budge. You start to think, “that’s odd… I know at my other home I could pull the red rope to close my garage door manually”. If this sounds like your situation, you most likely have a Wayne Dalton garage door with a TorqueMaster spring.
In this article, we will cover everything you need to know about the TorqueMaster spring and address the most frequently asked questions. Grab your favorite beverage and enjoy!
What is a Wayne Dalton TorqueMaster Spring?
Wayne Dalton is a manufacturer of garage doors that first came on the scene in our area about ten to fifteen years ago. They made their presence known immediately by offering their products on a national builder program, and home builders could not pass up their pricing. The majority of their garage doors being installed feature a patented spring system from Wayne Dalton called TorqueMaster.
The TorqueMaster spring system is a garage door spring that is housed inside a tube that sits above your garage door. This spring is what lifts the complete weight of your garage door. A single car garage door has one spring, and a double car garage will have two springs inside the tube.
The TorqueMaster spring uses small gauge wire that is wound just like a traditional torsion spring, only much smaller in diameter. Since the spring is mounted inside a tube, there is no way to tell if it’s broken, like with a standard torsion spring.
A TorqueMaster spring has two proprietary end connections. One side of the spring is teardrop shaped, which makes it fixed inside the tube. The other side is the adjustment end that sticks out on the side of the tube, so you can increase or decrease tension.
How to Determine the Size of My TorqueMaster Spring?
The yellow sticker on the TorqueMaster tube above your garage door will tell you everything you need to know about your Wayne Dalton door. This sticker normally includes the size of the door, weight of the door, the spring inside diameter, wire size, and length.
How Do I Know if My TorqueMaster Spring is Broken?
There are two easy ways to determine if your spring is broken. Like we discussed in the previous section, if your garage door is stuck open, you most likely have a broken spring.
The second way to determine if your TorqueMaster spring is broke is to try to lift your garage door manually. A standard 16×7 double car width Wayne Dalton 9100 garage door weighs around 125 LBS. If it feels like you are lifting around 60 LBS to open the garage door, then you most likely have a broken spring.
Some homeowners with powerful automatic openers never know they have a broken spring because their opener was powerful enough to pull the door up with one broken spring. Once the second spring breaks, a strong opener will usually stop pulling due to the force limits activating. If your garage door feels like you’re lifting 125 LBS, you may have two broken springs inside the TorqueMaster tube.
If you do have two broken springs, your automatic opener may have some premature damage due to an unbalanced garage door, which could shorten the life of your opener.
Why is My Wayne Dalton Garage Door Stuck Open?
We get many calls from homeowners who say they went to press the button to close their garage door, and it did not budge. The motor made a sound, but the door did not move. If your Wayne Dalton door is stuck in the open position, you most likely have a broken spring inside the TorqueMaster tube.
The reason the garage door locks itself in the up position is because the TorqueMaster spring system has built-in anti-drop protection. Before this happens, many homeowners will mention they heard a clicking noise as their garage door was opening. The noise they are hearing is the metal lever that has activated and is now clicking on the plastic gear. Once the door is fully open, it locks itself in the up position.
How to Close Your Wayne Dalton Torquemaster Garage Door
If your Wayne Dalton garage door is stuck in the up position, you will need to flip the anti-drop lever to get the garage door closed. Usually, if you only have one broken spring, one side will have the metal lever engaged and the other side will be open. The side that is engaged is the side that has the broken spring on a double car width garage door.
The metal lever will be engaged in the plastic gear up by the drums on your Wayne Dalton TorqueMaster tube, where the cables wind up. The picture above demonstrates how to disengage the anti-drop lock. This task is best performed by two people, so one person can hold the garage door in the up position while the other flips the lever to release.
Once you flip the metal lever to release it from the plastic gear, two people can slowly lower the garage door to get the home secure. We have sent the photo above to hundreds of homeowners to help them close get their garage door closed until we could get by to repair.
Should I Replace the Torquemaster Spring or Have it Converted to a Torsion Spring?
The most common method of repairing a broken TorqueMaster spring system is to convert it to a standard torsion spring set up. Many homeowners have to decide if they want their spring replaced or converted. The local garage door dealer in our area charges more to replace a TorqueMaster spring than most garage door companies charge to convert to a torsion spring. This is why so many conversions are done in our area.
Torquemaster Spring vs. Standard Torsion Spring
As illustrated by the photo above, a standard 2” torsion spring is much larger in diameter than a Wayne Dalton TorqueMaster spring. Wayne Dalton claims their spring is rated at the minimum 10,000 cycles, but I find it hard to believe considering how small the spring is. In the garage door spring world, a larger diameter spring will be rated for more cycles.
What’s Included With a Torquemaster Spring Conversion?
There are many parts involved when converting a TorqueMaster spring to a standard torsion spring. The Wayne Dalton system comes with plastic drums, smaller cables, plastic gears, and a thinner shaft. When you have your system converted, you will get larger metal drums, thicker cables, metal bearing plates, metal spring pad, 2” tempered torsion spring, and a thicker torsion spring.
How Much is TorqueMaster Spring Replacement?
Whether you have your Wayne Dalton TorqueMaster spring replaced or converted, you can expect to pay anywhere from $300-$550 depending on where you live and the size of your garage door.
The parts needed to convert a TorqueMaster spring to a torsion spring setup have doubled recently. Garage door repair pricing across the board has gone up, along with repair pricing in many other trades as well.
Before and After a TorqueMaster Spring Conversion
Both the TorqueMaster spring system and a standard torsion spring will sit above the garage door in the same area. The main difference will be the TorqueMaster springs reside inside the tube or shaft, while a torsion spring is on the outside of the shaft. The torsion spring setup is a more robust option, and it has been the gold standard of garage doors for years.
Before TorqueMaster Spring Conversion
The photo above shows what a Wayne Dalton TorqueMaster tube looks like. The tube sits above the garage door and houses two springs inside the tube on the left and right sides. If you have this system, you will not be able to see a spring.
After TorqueMaster Spring was Converted to Torsion Spring
After converting a TorqueMaster spring to a torsion spring on a standard 16×7 door, you will see a torsion shaft with a single torsion spring mounted above the garage door. The torsion shaft runs in the middle of the torsion spring, and there will be new bearing plates mounted on the tracks on the left and right side.
Wayne Dalton 9100 Builder Garage Door
The model of garage door we most commonly see the TorqueMaster system installed on is the Wayne Dalton 9100. We will go into further detail on how to identify this model of garage door, along with which torsion spring you may need if you choose to convert. Wayne Dalton does offer the standard torsion spring setup with their doors, but the traditional system costs more, and it takes more time to install.
The Wayne Dalton 9100 garage door is a foam-in-place design that uses polyurethane foam to form the structure of the garage door. Every aspect of the 9100 garage door was designed specifically, so installer’s could have the complete garage door installed and operational in less than an hour. They are mainly sold to home builders.
If you can locate a yellow sticker on your Wayne Dalton garage door, it should have the product ID# listed. This will help you determine which model of garage door you have, so you can better determine what you may need when speaking to a garage door repair company on the phone.
The entire Wayne Dalton 9100 garage door including the built-in struts is injected with foam for strength and insulating purposes. A standard garage door would have a 2” strut, usually made of 20 or 22 gauge metal, that is attached to the sections with self-tapping screws. The Wayne Dalton 9100 has built-in struts that are formed into the sections with thin metal and foam.
What Size Torsion Spring Does My Wayne Dalton 9100 Garage Door Need?
The size of torsion spring you are going to need for the Wayne Dalton 9100 garage door if you choose to have it converted will be determined by the size of your door. Below is a list of the most common sizes of garage doors installed, along with the correct size of torsion spring.
8×7 Garage Door: .207 × 26” torsion spring
9×7 Garage Door: .207 × 25” torsion spring (26” will also work)
16×7 Garage Door: .234 × 28” torsion spring
16×8 Garage Door: .243 × 29” torsion spring
18×7 Garage Door: .243 × 29” torsion spring
18×8 Garage Door: .207 × 22” & .225 × 27” torsion springs
All sizes shown are for 2” inside diameter torsion springs.
Can I Have a Pair of Torsion Springs Installed on My 16×7 Wayne Dalton 9100 Door?
Because the Wayne Dalton 9100 garage door does not weigh much, having two torsion springs installed will be tough. First, most garage door companies will not stock the sizes of torsion springs needed to have a pair installed. Second, the size of the torsion springs would be so small they almost wouldn’t be considered a spring. This is why a single torsion spring is always installed on a 16×7 Wayne Dalton 9100 garage door.
Can I Install a Wall Mount Opener on My TorqueMaster Spring System?
Yes, the Genie Company makes a TorqueMaster adapter kit for Genie wall mount openers. Wall mount openers usually require a standard torsion spring shaft to be installed on a garage door. Normally, they are incompatible with a TorqueMaster spring system. Now that Genie makes wall mount openers, they have decided to manufacture this kit for homeowners looking to have a wall mount opener install. We have not personally installed this kit, but it may also work with other brands of wall mount openers as well.
Why Do I Have a Wayne Dalton TorqueMaster Spring?
You might be asking yourself why your builder installed a Wayne Dalton Torquemaster spring on your expensive home. The quick answer is they are cheap to produce due to thin materials, and they install quickly because the springs wind with a drill. Not to mention, the garage door sections come with the hinges pre-installed in a box.
With the housing boom in the United States, competition among home builders is fierce. These builders are constantly looking for ways to save money, so they can either pad their bottom line or have a better chance of competing in a dense market. Unfortunately, many times these cost savings are at the detriment of the homeowner because lesser quality materials and products are used in the home.
The Wayne Dalton brand of garage doors are offered to home builders at national contract pricing. This pricing is so low that many of their garage doors are being installed with labor for what other garage door companies are paying for their doors.
Conclusion
If you have a Wayne Dalton 9100 garage door installed in your home, you most likely have the TorqueMaster spring system. We have seen these doors installed on homes ranging from $100,000 to $2,000,000. Track builders and customer home builders are taking advantage of the national builders program offered by Wayne Dalton.
Having your TorqueMaster spring converted to a torsion spring will extend the life of your garage door spring. The drastic difference in spring diameter and wire size is obvious, and any garage door repair company can show the differences while onsite.
One thing to keep in mind is if you prefer anti-drop protection on your garage door, you will need to have your TorqueMaster spring replaced instead of converted. This technology is only available from Wayne Dalton.
