[Skytrooper]

The door springs are supposed to balance the weight of the door. When properly adjusted the door should not drift up or down when each section is in the radius of the track.

The opener requires the door to balance reasonably well to prevent undue wear and fatigue of opener components.

Yes, the springs need to remain in place and wound to achieve balance.

The draw bar type openers (normal) versus Side Mount openers is a matter of preference. The thing to remember is if you need parts for a side mount opener, most stores do not stock any. You would need to order them and wait for delivery. Virtually every garage door company has parts in stock for draw bar openers. Even the big chains carry some basic parts.

I am not fond of the side mount openers for one reason. That reason is; The side mount opener does not push or pull the door, it turns the spring shaft. This is fine UNLESS your door sticks or does not want to roll out of the horizontal track on the down cycle. If that happens the opener will continue to turn the shaft and the cables will slack and come off the drums. Then you have a problem.

I am no rookie at this. I worked as a garage door installer/repairman for 10+ years doing both commercial and residential work.