A lever that sags below horizontal, or one you have to lift back into place, is the most common door handle fault there is. It is almost never the handle. It is the return spring inside the housing — a small coil that has fatigued and broken.
Replacement springs cost a few pounds. New handles cost twenty times that, and on a period or discontinued handle, a replacement may not exist at all.
Confirming it is the spring
Take the handle off the door and turn the lever by hand, off the spindle. If it flops with no resistance and does not spring back, the coil has gone. If it returns crisply, look at the latch instead — a tired latch spring or a gummed-up mechanism gives similar symptoms.
Some handles rely on the latch spring alone and have no return spring at all. If there is no spring chamber in the housing, the handle is not the problem.
The two measurements that matter
Door handle springs are specified by turns and wire thickness. Get both right and the handle feels like new; get either wrong and it will feel heavy, weak, or bind.
Turns
Count the complete coils. Common values are 2, 2.25 and 2.5 turns. More turns means a longer spring body and generally a softer, longer action. Count on the old spring if you can — fragments still tell you.
Wire thickness
Measure the wire itself with a vernier, not the coil. We stock 1.8mm, 2mm, 2.5mm and 3mm.
- 1.8mm — light interior levers
- 2mm — the most common size on UK interior and uPVC handles
- 2.5mm — heavier levers and front door furniture
- 3mm — substantial entrance handles and commercial ironmongery
If you are between sizes, go heavier rather than lighter. A slightly stiff handle is annoying; one that droops again in six months means doing the job twice.
The parts that go with it
While the handle is apart, replace the small consumables. They are pennies and they are the reason the job lasts.
- Circlips hold the spindle and spring assembly in the housing. They lose tension and let the whole stack shift. Our repair kits pair six springs with six circlips for this reason.
- Cam washers control the handle return and reduce wear inside the housing. The one-ear type indexes against the housing so it cannot spin.
- Wave washers add spring tension to take up play, curing a handle that feels loose without actually drooping.
- Nylon washers sit between metal faces to stop wear and stop the handle binding as it turns. Type 1 is 19mm, Type 2 is 20.7mm.
Fitting, briefly
- Remove the handle from the door and take the rose or backplate off the lever housing.
- Release the circlip and lift out the spindle hub. Note which way the spring legs face before anything moves — photograph it.
- Remove the broken spring and any debris. Broken coils often leave fragments in the chamber that will jam the new one.
- Fit the new spring with the legs oriented exactly as the old one, seat the hub, and refit the circlip.
- Test the action before you put it back on the door.
Handles are usually handed by spring orientation rather than by the casting. If the lever returns the wrong way, you have the spring in mirror image — take it out and turn it over.
Buy a kit, not a single spring
If one handle in a house has gone, the others are the same age and the same specification. Our repair kits contain six springs and six circlips — enough to do every handle on a typical house in one go, at less than the cost of two singles.
Where to start
See Springs & Circlips for coils, kits, circlips and washers. If the handle turns freely without moving the latch, that is a different fault — read our spindles and screws guide instead.