what type spring is best?

as the title suggest what type spring is considered the best ?I am in the planning/wishlist stage of building a new garage looking at 26x40x10 with two doors at the narrow end and one man door and windows at the left side while facing it from the front . so the question i pose is 1. what spring design is most reliable and cost affective . the torsion spring or the straight pull. i have had straight pull snap a cable and bounce around before so i also want to know if any body has put the springs inside some steel square tube like the lift gat helpers that northern tool used to sell for their trailers .

Torsion springs.

I see you're in Illinois, so there must be a Menards near you somewhere. Go look at their doors. They carry Ideal doors made by Clopay and have a good display. You can see there's a big range in the quality and construction and I'm sure they have something that fits your needs.

They also have sales on them pretty often. I recently bought an Ideal 5 Star that's 12' wide x 10' high and saved about $150 during their sale. Unless it's a standard stock size, they have to order it but they get delivered pretty quickly.

Torsion

Torsion springs break too, and when they do either you have to know what you're doing to replace one or call the guy.....

The other type you can easily DIY.

But I think it would be more imperative for you to know what kind of door arrangement would work best for your shop, then buy the appropriate garage door and opener, and it will come with what it does.

Pretty much everything has gone to torsion springs. And they're not that difficult to replace. Personally, I think they're easier than inline springs.

The torsion spring is contained when it breaks. But the simple solution to the inline style spring is to run a cable through the spring tied to the door track that will keep the parts contained when it breaks.

After having both styles I don't know if there's a particular advantage to either one. Torsion springs seem to be much more common these days, and not having the springs hanging overhead cleans up the look, but they both will do the job. If you do get the inline spring style, make sure they have the safety cables installed - someone posted here recently about how one of theirs broke and did some damage to the walls.

With torsion, the door works as a unit, everything inline and staying together. With extension, each side of the door works independently of the other, causing balancing problems and as pulleys and rollers wear, the door will start to **** from side to side, causing poor operation and undue wear on the door operator, more evident the wider the door. Also, an extension spring door needs to be lifted dead center, but you can easily raise and lower a torsion door anywhere along the door - important if you have ceiling obstacles you have to work around - you can install the operator arm on the end style if you need to.

thank you to every one who replied .i already know what style and size doors i will be installing , but what make and model is confusing .because the pricees are all over the place. menards had like 12 different doors to choose from on the garage builder thing. they all look alike and don't say what type system they use. the electric for the garage will be last and probly a few months after i get it built we have to upgrade the house panel to 200 amp so we can take a leg off for garage at 100 amp cause she wants a 50 amp electric glass kiln in there and sanders and polishers plus what ever i get to put in bonus is i get to upgrade to propane forge cause the propane glory hole she has ordered . will work for my iron working but its all on a tight budget . i have been crusing cl for windows and man doors that match the build plans trying to save where i can .