Gen 3

Model/part # 041-0136

2022 and beyond

The third generation of Chamberlain safety sensors, model O41-0136, were just released in 2022.  Unless you have a brand-new opener, you won’t have these. They are compatible with the previous model 041A5034 and can be used as a replacement for them.

Improvements to this version include:

• More compact, especially compared to competing brands like Genie.
• Brighter indicator lights
• The indicator light on the receiving eye now flashes when there is no connection. It used to just go out or sometimes flicker imperceptibly. This made it much more difficult to determine if there was a problem with the alignment, wiring, or the eye itself. 
• Return to the original thru-bolt method of attaching the eye to the bracket.
• Different wing nuts that hopefully won’t come loose as easily (we will have to wait and see if this really is an improvement).

Things that are still really annoying include:

• The same obnoxious clip on bracket design only slightly smaller, which is a topic to which I dedicate an entire post.
• Still “polar”, which makes tying into preinstalled wiring and troubleshooting bad wiring more difficult.
• The compact, square shape of the eyes make it harder to eyeball how well they are aimed at each other. You might say they don’t point well.
• Chamberlain has taken away the flashing error code that used to come from the lamp (the one that lights up your garage when the door moves) on the opener head when there was a safety sensor problem. Only the green indicator light on the receiving sensor now flashes to tell you there’s a problem (unless you have the deluxe wall control with digital display).  This makes it harder to troubleshoot for people who are storing a bunch of stuff around their sensors and can’t see them when standing by the wall control.  

I expect there will be far fewer service calls for problems with Chamberlain safety sensors as the new 041-0136 replace the older 041A5043.  The bright, blinking green light on the receiving side will make it much easier to tell the difference between bad alignment and other problems.  But, the bracket is as difficult to mount as ever, so there will eventually be hundreds of thousands of people out there fighting with sporadic problems getting their doors to shut.  At least with the new model 041-0136 it should be obvious what the problem is.

I really like the quality and functionality of the LiftMaster brand and Chamberlain products in general.  There is no question that they are putting out the best residential garage door openers right now.  They are great at designing garage door opener motors and incorporating modern features.  But the safety sensor brackets, and a few other things, can be an absolute nightmare to deal with in certain situations. I find that a typical LiftMaster installation takes about 15 minutes longer than the other brand I carry, Linear.