Led Tv Above Fireplace
Should you mount a flatscreen LED television above a wood burning fireplace?
We bought a new house and the guy who owned it before us is a homebuilder. He said do not mount a television over the fireplace because of the heat inside the chimney an also it would be impossible getting the cords through the studs in the wall and brick. We had our hearts set on putting it there and don’t think it would really hurt the tv. Thoughts?
First, will the height cause you to sit looking up all the time when seated where you will be watching? Do you watch TV laying down? High mounts and watching TV laying down usually do not work. And looking up all the time is sure to give you a sore neck after awhile. Examine your viewing positions and see how high the angle is going to be. I know several people who put their flat screen up too high and had to move them. Yeah, they look nice up there but who wants a sore neck all the time.
If the temperature gets above 80 degrees F when the fireplace is in use, don’t do it. Plasma TVs don’t like anything above 84 degrees F and LCD/LED are even pickier. Also, does the fireplace have glass doors over it? The soot, smoke and dust that comes with a fireplace is not good for expensive electronics.
And where you’re going to put your components like cable or satellite box, Blu-ray or DVD player, gaming systems, home theater speaker system all become really problematic with this type on installation. If you have to have a cabinet or stand for those items anyhow, why put the TV up there and have to run a ton of wires?
And should you decide to rearrange the room, your options are really limited. Take into account the number and size of any windows and how you will be covering them because you can get glare even on LCD & LED screens. And usually the higher the unit is mounted, the more glare issues you have.
And your builder has a point; drilling holes through brick is not an easy thing and rarely looks finished and neat. Depending on the size of the unit, you might need more structural support than is in the wall at this time. I don’t think you want to open the wall up and beef up the structure and close it back up. That would be really expensive and messy to say the least.
IE TV over fireplace
We are going to install a 55 inch LCD tv over our fireplace. But we are trying to do some things to avoid problems I’ve read about on the web:
We have the luxury of remodeling our fireplace right now, it needs it. For design reasons, we are eliminating a traditional mantle and instead are going to have a “fireplace canopy” strip installed to reflect heat – these can be 2 or 3 or even 6 inches. Our designer is still coming up with final plan.
Everything I’ve read on the web indicates that a TV can handle up to 100 degrees F. I plan to test with a thermometer after all is installed and if temp is too high, will add a mantle (and maybe another fireplace canopy strip) until thermometer reading is in a good range.
Plus we want to install a gas fireplace insert which will eliminate the soot. It won’t eliminate heat but will allow us to direct it back into the room.
As far as watching TV looking up, this is something I’ve worried about. Lots of opinions about this on the web – without a mantle, and with the fireplace insert at ground level with the hearth not above the floor but level with the floor, we hope to keep the height of the bottom of the screen to 40 inches or less and we will be sitting back from the TV about 7 ft. We know someone else who has their TV at 44 inches sitting back about the same distance and say they have no problem whatsoever.
If we don’t put the tv over the fireplace, we will have to add on another room to our house to function as a media room, something that we really aren’t interested in doing.
Our designer is coming tomorrow night hopefully with final plans showing the size and width of our new fireplace insert and how/where she plans to put the electronics in the room.
I’m pretty optimistic about it working out fairly well.
But if we were simply mounting a TV over a traditional wood burning fireplace and mantle at height of 55 inches or more, don’t think I would go for that.
Also, FYI – you have to be willing to sacrifice the warranty on your TV if it is Samsung. Their warranty is void according to their contract if you place the TV over a heat source (I’m told) – we’re willing to try it anyway. crossing fingers…