The paint daub on a garage door spring is not a brand logo. It is a spec tag stamped in colour because metal tags fall off and stickers melt. That mark tells you the wire diameter and the coiled length — the two numbers that determine how much weight the spring can lift. It does not tell you the door weight directly, and treating it like a simple colour-to-pound chart is how you end up with a door that will not stay up or slams down hard enough to crack concrete.
Torsion springs use a two-colour system
Every torsion spring carries two paint marks near the winding cone. The first colour is the wire size. The second is the spring length when it is relaxed and sitting on a bench.
Wire size colours repeat across manufacturers. Red is .207 in., tan is .218 in., white is .225 in., green is .234 in., yellow is .243 in., blue is .250 in., and so on through the standard DASMA palette. The length colour is a separate code: a second daub of black, brown, orange, purple, or another hue that corresponds to a specific coiled length in inches.
You need both colours to order the right spring. A red-and-black spring is not the same as a red-and-brown spring. The wire is identical; the length differs, which changes the torque curve and the number of turns required.
Extension springs follow a single-colour code
Extension springs run along the horizontal tracks on lighter residential doors. Each spring gets one paint mark on the end coil. That colour maps to the lift capacity in pounds — but only for a standard 7-ft door on standard-radius track.
White is 10 lb, green is 20 lb, yellow is 30 lb, blue is 40 lb, red is 50 lb, brown is 60 lb, orange is 70 lb, gold is 80 lb, light blue is 90 lb, tan is 100 lb. The sequence repeats with a second stripe for heavier doors: white/white, green/green, and so on.
If your door is 8 ft tall, or uses high-lift track, or carries insulation you added last winter, the colour on the spring no longer matches the door weight. The spring was chosen for the original spec. The colour is now a historical artifact.
Why the colour is not enough
A 16 x 7 insulated steel door weighs roughly 185 lb. A non-insulated version of the same size weighs 130 lb. Both could have left the factory with yellow torsion springs if the wire size and length were tuned differently. The paint does not capture that difference.
Cycle rating is invisible. A 10,000-cycle spring and a 25,000-cycle spring in the same wire size and length carry identical paint marks. The only way to know is the invoice or the manufacturer’s label — if it survived.
Wire stretches. After 8,000 cycles a .225 in. wire measures .227 in. The spring still lifts the door, but the torque curve has shifted. The paint mark still says white. The spring is no longer the spring the colour describes.
How to measure when the paint is gone
Sun, salt, and pressure-washer blasts strip the daub in three winters. Do not guess. Measure.
Wire size: use a micrometer or a wire gauge card on the active coils — not the dead coils at the ends. Measure ten coils, divide by ten. That average is your wire diameter to three decimals.
Inside diameter: 1-3/4 in. is standard residential. 2 in. shows up on some heavier doors. Measure across the centre of the spring body.
Length: count the active coils on a relaxed spring. Multiply by the wire diameter. That gives you the coiled length within half an inch.
Hand: stand inside the garage facing the door. If the spring is on the left, it is right-hand wound. On the right, left-hand wound. The paint does not tell you this. Installing a right-hand spring on the left side loads the cone backwards and shears the set screws in the first week.
Common mismatches we see on service calls
A homeowner replaces one broken spring with a “matching” colour from a big-box shelf. The other spring is original, six years older, and has lost 8% of its torque to relaxation. The door now lifts unevenly. The opener strains. The cables slack on one side and jump the drums.
Or the door was converted from extension to torsion but the old extension springs were left hanging as “backups.” They are painted for 100 lb each. The new torsion spring is calibrated for 185 lb. Someone leans on the door, an extension spring snaps, and the stored energy whips the cable through the drywall.
Colour codes are a starting point. They are not a specification sheet. If you are ordering springs, verify wire size, inside diameter, coiled length, wind direction, and cycle rating. If you are not comfortable taking those measurements, call a tech who does this every day. The spring stores enough energy to put a winding bar through a stud wall. The paint mark is the cheapest part of the job — do not let it be the only part you trust.
Call 778-873-7282 — Metro Vancouver.