Home audio & video forum: Is it safe to mount a flat screen over my fireplace?

Why is it that everyone that has their tv mounted above the fireplace loves it(even after years). Yet people, that have not mounted a tv above the fireplace, find so many reasons why THEY THINK it won't work? Don't they even hear, the ones who have done it?
Who should I belive and trust? The dreamers or the doers?

Everybody had great input. Check the temperture, double check the mounting studs,(the outlet hole works good), consider the viewing angle and think about you're cable routing. Every install we do is evaluated on a case by case basis. I have installed well over 500 TV's over fire places and had no problems, but I am also a pro.

On the viewing angle consider this: does your couch or chair recline? Talk about a pain in the neck, try watching a TV at slightly above floor level when reclined and you may be nursing a bottel of Excedrin. Most of the above fireplace mounts we have done allow for comfortable viewing. Check this out before you mount. Different fireplaces have different heights.

Cables can also be covered with plastic track molding you can pick up @ Lowes or Home Depot and most can be painted. If your A/V receiver switches video you may need to only run 1 video cable. If you want them behind the wall consider a pro installer. If you think heat is an issue in front to the TV, think of what a cable laying against the vent behind the wall could be subject to. Longer power cords should also be considered as opposed to extention cords. These are avalible from 8' to 15' lengths and will fit right where the factory plugs in. And PLEASE people, invest in a good surge protector for that TV you are about to start enjoying. $50 to $100 surge protectors versus $700 to ???? TV's. It should be a no brainer.

Older wood burning fireplaces need real attention to the heat issue. we have used fans to divert the heat in these cases. Also the condition of the brick and morter need to be checked. I know of a few that almost fell(and a couple that did) due to old weak brick and morter.

The REAL issue here is warranty. Mainly if your warranty provides for in home service. I have been witness to this several times. Several TV makers and warranty companies will void the warranty the second they see a fireplace mount.Even when the fireplace is never used. It's kind of like that white dot inside your cell phone that will turn red just from the humidity. They claim you dropped it overboard to get out of fixing it when you know that is not the case.(I remove mine and store it in a cool dry place till the time when and if I need to make a warranty claim) We suggest that customers keep the table top stand and screws if in home service is provided and remove the TV from the wall, reinstall the stand and hook it up in another room before the repair guy shows up.

In your owners manual there should be a place where it will tell you the TV's operating temp. If over your firplace does not exced this temp. them it is ok.

I have a 52 inch over my gas log fireplace with no problems. I had a smaller one located there before this one with no problems. This has been over a period of about five years. Both were plasmas. Both were mounted on brackets. I worried about it too but just went ahead and did it with no problems.

Bill

I have mounted a 50" plasma over my fireplace and the only thing that you need to do is make sure that there is not too much heat. 2 ways to ensure that; 1. mount it over a mantle or; 2. recess the TV. As long as the heat passes the TV there is no problem, what you don't want is direct heat so some kind of deflector will do the trick.

To all those who think the TV will be mounted too high, just how high is your fireplace? The top of my fireplace is about three feet from the floor. Mine is not particularly small. Now, I wouldn't place my TV right up against the opening, but even so, there would be plenty of room to position the set for comfortable viewing, especially in a big room.

Personally, I wouldn't put a TV over my fireplace, but I have been known to put one IN my fireplace. When they used to show the yule log on TV, I would put the TV in the fireplace every year over the holidays. My friends thought I was quite certifiable when they would visit. Of course, as luck would have it, whenever someone was over, the TV was displaying, oh, reruns of I Love Lucy, or something. My explanations were usually met with a quiet "uh-huh".

Hi Barbara,

I left you a post #156 and have since been reading through the pro and con posts. It is curious to note that the Nay-sayers have never had a TV mounted over the fireplace. The answers are based on supposition. It would be curious to know how many of these have their electronics stored in an enclosed cabinet without ventilation or near a heat register or other heat source. On the other hand, those that have taken the leap and properly installed a TV above the fireplace are more than satisfied with the results.


Myth #1: The heat and smoke rising out of the fireplace will damage the electronics in the TV. It would be an argument under warranty, but there would be no way to pinpoint this unless it was an ongoing chronic problem. Yes, heat rises, but it also radiates out into the room. Just open the doors and stand back ten feet. But the majority of fireplaces have glass doors and blowers to circulate air into the room, the point of having a fireplace. With a mantle, rising heat is deflected and dissipates into the room.


As for the smoke, a television's life is approximately ten years. If you are inhaling enough smoke to ruin a TV in that time period, think about your lungs.


Myth #2: Your neck will be aching from looking up at the TV. Question, how many people complain of neck pain when walking out of a movie theater? That screen is elevated far above what a TV screen above a fireplace would be. Personally, I find it more comfortable when leaning back, reclining or even upright. As a matter of fact, we have an entertainment center in another area with the screen very high. No complaints from us or the company.


Myth #3: It looks tacky. We have had nothing but compliments from virtually everyone that has seen our fireplace/TV combination. Now, think about it. Professional home decorators advise you to place your furniture around the focal point of the room. Would that be the TV, the fireplace, or both. It's logical that both are focal points, separation detracts from the other and confuses the issue of focal point. Would you turn the couch around 90 or 180 degrees to watch TV, then turn it again to enjoy the fireplace?


Myth #4: The fire distracts from the TV. One of the most frequent visitor's comments is that they can have the best of both worlds.


There was a lot of research done, including talking with professionals, before we made the decision to do it, much as you are doing right now. And we still had some reservations before seeing the package come together and work flawlessly. If a fireplace and the TV are going to reside in the same room, they should be together.

In every design or home magazine you'll see it: a big expensive flat panel television mounted directly above a fireplace. It seems like a very popular idea, but is it a good one?

First of all, no fireplace manufacturer supports placing their fireplaces near a television. Every television is made differently, so it would be impossible for a fireplace manufacturer to confidently guarantee that the television would be constructed in a way that it would withstand the heat from the fireplace. Secondly, because there is such variation between fireplace models and how much heat each is capable of producing, no television manufacturer can state with certainty that their product would withstand being placed near the myriad of potential fireplaces. What that means to the consumer is that if you do decide to place a television above a fireplace and it is damaged from excessive heat, the manufacturers are not responsible - you are on the hook for it. With that caveat in mind, there are several things that are recommended in order to reduce the amount of heat reaching the television in the event that you insist on mounting it above the fireplace.

When planning for your fireplace, consider including a solid non-combustible mantle in your design. A well-placed mantle shelf can absorb and deflect the rising heat before it reaches your television; just make sure that it extends far enough from the front of the fireplace to do so. Granite, natural stone or concrete make ideal mantle shelves. You are not limited to these suggestions though - the only prerequisite is whatever material you use needs to be non-combustible. Recessing the television into the wall is also another effective way of lessening the impact of the rising heat.

How your fireplace is vented can also affect what the television is subjected to. You want to have your fireplace rear vented if you can. In a rear vent installation the chimney vent attaches to the rear of the fireplace, rather then to the top of the unit. Fireplace venting can get extremely hot when the fireplace is in operation, so by installing a fireplace with the venting not directly behind the television (as in the case of a top vent install) you can keep that extra heat away from the television. Keep that in mind when picking your fireplace, because not all fireplaces can be vented from the rear.

The last point is a matter of personal opinion, but an important consideration none the less. When a fireplace is installed into a room, it instantly becomes a focal point with its captivating dancing flame. Having a fireplace above it does not change this. Installing a television above a fireplace will result in having two visually imposing appliances that compete for your attention. You'll have to decide if that is something that you can live with.

As a matter of company policy Home Fyres does not recommend the installation of a television above a fireplace for the reasons given above. This article is by no means an endorsement of the installation and Home Fyres or this articles' author shall not be held responsible in the event of damage. Jesse Collin is a project manager for Home Fyres, Calgary's only outdoor kitchen and hearth specialist.

Home Fyres is your one stop location for everything necessary to visualize, design, and create a custom outdoor kitchen or that perfect fireplace, indoors or out.

Home Fyres is located
763 Northmount Drive N.W.
Calgary, AB T2L 0A1

B. (403) 457-4833

F. (403) 457-4834

http://www.homefyrescalgary.com

It's perfectly fine. I have a wood burning fireplace insert, but there is very little heat hitting the TV because of the mantle... I mean, c'mon... Thousands of people have candles on their mantle, if it got that hot the candles would probably melt!

A bigger problem for me was routing the cables through the wall, since I didn't want any visible wires... I ended up going with two inch electrical conduit, which I wrapped with asbestos to help insulate it. It does not get closer to the flue than about 12~18 inches... (Two inch flexible metal conduit is not all that flexible, and it hugs the perimeter pretty well. It goes around the flue and comes out at the back of a shelf at the top of the covey next to the fireplace, and that is where I have all the DVD players, Cable box, Tivo and surge suppressor installed... Very clean and tidy. The only problem is I needed to get cables for every possibility, because running a new cable isn't really convenient. The cables needed to be a minimum of 8 feet long, so that was fairly pricey, but very handy in the end... My Plasma had two HDMI cables, and I didn't have anything HDMI at the time... But I now have an HDMI cable box and an HDMI Blu-ray player... Installation of these took a couple of minutes.

These people that think the TV is too high crack me up... Are you sitting three feet from your big screen TV? It's not like I mounted the thing flat on the ceiling... It's actually perfect, like when we have a Super Bowl party... The people sitting on the couches and chairs in the family room have great seats, and the people in the Kitchen and dining nook can still see perfectly well... When you sit on the main couch or the side chair, the TV is angled straight at you... Last year we went to a friends house for a playoff game, and he has a 61 inch DLP on a very short stand... With a big crowd, that turned out to not be so great, because the people at the back of the room couldn't see the bottom half of the TV; the people on the couch in front of it were blocking our view. So all but one of the people that ended up behind the couches didn't sit down... They had to stand to see the game...

Maybe these people should just get the High-Def goggles that you can wear, so that the picture is right in front of you even if your head is hanging down...

If you had a picture above the fireplace, would people have to crane their necks to see it? Nope, people's eyes can move...

Have you ever seen a sports bar with the big screen TV down at ground level? I don't think so...

Keldawwg

Actually, when I bought my Plasma, I was looking at both LCD and Plasma, at that time the Plasma won because of the off axis viewing issue. My second couch in the family room is off to the side, and if you were sitting on the end of the couch closest to the wall the TV is mounted at, the LCD TV's didn't look all that great.

The Off-Axis performance of the LCD TV's has improved pretty tremendously in the last couple of years... The latest generation of TV's by Samsung (Who I work for...) are pretty great...

One other thing that comes up about Plasma TV's is the power consumption. The TV's are actually a pretty decent space heater... I have a friend who had to close the dampers in his office since his Plasma TV keeps that small room very toasty without any help from the heater... He is looking to replace it with an LCD primarily for that reason...

Does anyone know of any vendors who might sell a projection screen which unfurls from the floor upward? There has to be something I can bolt into the stone/concrete hearth of my seldom used fireplace (Tampa, FL) which would work well as I have an ideal spot 14' back for a projector.

The idea of all those cables showing on the wall above my stone fireplace is a non-starter, but my fireplace is a room wall centerpiece which would also work as the best spot for viewing TV. Newer projectors are as good as LCDs aren't they?

It is safe if mounted correctly lag bolted into the wall studs but it usually makes for a uncomfortable viewing angle. Also finding a convenient place for the cable box, DVD player or other game systems will be difficult. The TV may need to be taken down every time a change is made which is a 2 man job. If your TV ever needs service most repair men will not take the responsibility of taking it off the wall.
I don't recommend it. You are much better off having it on a stand or table that has wheels on it so you can easily get behind it for access to the input jacks.