On Fri, 01 Nov 2013 18:29:42 -0500, Vic Smith wrote:

had a new steel door put up last year. 2 spring.

The main thing I fault the new door installers with (and so
does Richard Kinch) is that they save a few bucks giving you
a 7-year spring, while it only costs you a few bucks to upgrade
that to 28 years if you choose the spring yourself.

when the opener is detached, it seems heavy to lift.
Maybe like lifting 40-50 lbs.

That's way way way too much. It should be almost weightless.
There's no sense in making the GDO do all that work (plus,
they have cheap plastic gears, I'm told).

If the spring is the correct spring and it is wound the correct
number of quarter turns, the door shouldn't weigh more than about
a half a pound or so (i.e., just enough to keep it from springing
up when you detach the GDO and open the door half way and then
let it go).

Mine I could open with my pinky almost. Certainly just a couple
of fingers lifted the door once I adjusted the quarter turns
properly.

Go to the DDM site and read the part about adjusting the doors.
http://ddmgaragedoors.com/diy-instru...leshooting.php

In the past I tightened my springs so the door could be lifted with
one finger. Less work for the motor.
Don't recall you mentioning the "correct" tension.
Any advice on that?

Yup. Last time, I helped a friend with his door which was too heavy
when we tested it after replacing cables. So, we simply added a quarter
turn or two to adjust the door until it was weightless again.

The rule of thumb is to multiply quarter turns by the number of feet
(assuming normal homeowner garage door geometries) and add two.

So, for my 7' tall door, that's (4x7)+2=30 quarter turns.

If 30 quarter turns works out for you when you do the weightless test,
then you're done. If not, you add or subtract quarter turns just like
you did in the past.

In my case this time, I didn't need to. Last time I did. Different
doors though, so, each one will be different in that respect.