LCD over Fireplace

[skybum02]

As gentlemen who appreciate the finer things in life, I have a question about mounting an LCD over a working wood burning fireplace.

I just bought a house in Enid OK, not my first choice of places to live but it is where Uncle Sam sends me. I'm quite removed from my usual outdoors travel around Northern California where I spent the last 4 years touring Napa, San Fran and Tahoe... I'm now relegated to the indoors more than I'd like, so I bought a sweet AV set up to enjoy Sinatra, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, wine, scotch, the latest Blue Ray DVD, and some good college football with my buddies.

So I bought a nice Samsung 52in LCD. The only logical place to mount it to keep the living room open and free flowing is to mount the LCD over the fireplace.

Does anyone have any experience and recommendations for mounting the LCD over the fireplace? I'd like to still be able to use the fireplace with a real wood fire while drinking a nice scotch or wine.

How far above the opening does it have to be? Will it get a lot of soot on it? I plan on getting a new metal front and a hood. There will be a hearth too below the TV so I can put my center channel speaker there.

Cheers,
Steve

 

[Jim]

Steve,
There are too many variables to really say if its a good idea. I would start a fire and do some poking around. Is it hot where you wish to mount it? Is there soot or fly ash there now? Does the flu warm the wall much after a few hours? I have seen many FP's in this position so it is possible.

Good luck.

 

[skybum02]

I guess I could put a thermometer where I want to mount it and that could tell me how hot it gets.

 

[Spacegeezer]

Use a thermometer. Maximum operating temperature for these is often as low as 50 degrees Celsius.

The other thing you need to do is sit on your couch and stare up over your fireplace for two hours and see if you can still move your neck. In many houses you learn that it'd be much better to put a painting there and find a different place for the TV.

The final thing is that LCD TVs look kind of crappy from angles; side-angle viewing has improved an incredible amount recently, but the vertical angle hasn't improved as much. Make sure your mounting bracket will allow you to angle the TV perpendicular to a line drawn from your eyes to it while you're watching it, in order to get the most out of your TV.

Last thing: once your TV is set up over your fireplace and you've checked that it's fine there, start a nice fire, turn on the TV, and throw in one of those fireplace DVDs. Whoa, trippy.

 

[Giant]

My girlfriend's father has one sitting on a mantle over a gas fireplace, and not enough heat gets through to damage it. With a wood burning fire place however, I would be worried about smoke damage. If even a small amount of smoke gets out, it will accumulate surprisingly quickly.

 

[ouch]

It may work out just fine, but I'll say this. My office must have over $100 million of electronic equipment in it. We recently spent almost two mil on backup air conditioners. This was not done, I can assure you, for my personal comfort. They don't care if I live or die. The stuff that hums likes to live at a certain temperature; anything over 80F and it starts to get wacky.

 

[expatCanuck]

The only logical place to mount it to keep the living room open and free flowing is to mount the LCD over the fireplace.

Solution seems straightforward enough. Put the LCD where viewing is best. if the fireplace is problematic, move it.

That aside, I wouldn't do it as a practical matter -- what if you want to have a fire and watch a show? You'll have competing sources of light.

 

[Suzuki]

I have an LCD hanging over the fire place - there are some general guidelines (I can't remember what they are) in terms of distance from the top of the fireplace.

My TV is on a pivot mount, so actually sits about a foot off of the wall - which reduces the temperature effect.

Also, as stated above, its unusual for people to both have a fire and have the TV on - not a complete solution, as you can fry the electronics when the TV is off.

I've only had the TV for about 7 months and only had one fire, so I can't comment on whether this is good or bad. All I know is that the manual that came with the TV didn't say this couldn't be done and I've seen several ads by TV manufacturers that show their TVs over fireplaces - if this isn't some sort of endorsement of the practice, I don't know what is. I'd love to have them deny my warranty - Exhibit A would be the ad with their TV hanging over the fireplace...

As I said before thre are some guidelines and you should consult with the manufacturer and a good contractor before hanging your TV on the wall.

Another factor is how often you use your fireplace - we use ours maybe a dozen or so times a year, so not really a big concern for me.

This is my $0.02 and I am in no way an electronics or thermodynamics expert, nor do I play one on daytime tv...

 

[mhdagley]

Ours is over our fire place it is about 3 feet from the opening with a mantle and all that jazz. Its been there for like 2 years and is still kicking. It is mounted directly to the wall no pivot.

 

[Dennis]

I strikes me as a bad idea. I just took one of those tack sponges and cleaned the fireplace brick in our livingroom. Very dirty. Not to mention our brick gets toasty warm when we burn the fireplace. I wouldn't want the soot or the heat on something I paid a bunch of money for and expect to last a while. As an aside, we burn our fireplace fairly often in the winter.

 

[perry]

I don't think it'd be a good idea to put it over the fireplace for several reasons that have been mentioned. The heat and soot from the fire won't be good for the longevity of the TV. Will you be mounting to drywall or stone? The stone can get a little tricky, especially when you start worrying about how you will conceal the wires.

You'll want the center speaker close to the TV (you want the sound to sound like it is coming from the TV, instead of 5 feet under the TV), so think up on the mantle instead of down on the hearth.. I doubt the heat will be good for the enclosure.

You can throw money at those problems to solve them, but I just don't think it'd be comfortable to stare at the TV that high on the wall for too long.

 

[DeaconKC]

Will it affect the warranty?

 

[ouch]

Will it affect the warranty?

Only if you tell them.

 

[DeaconKC]

Good point.

 

[perry]

Or if they don't find the soot on the inside.

 

[_JP_]

I'm with building a fire and running temperature checks.

Enid Oklahoma isn't a bad place to be, I've been there many times. And if you aren't finding plenty to do outside around that state, then you aren't trying hard enough! (Unless something else is the reason that you are relegated inside.)

 

[dv8uagain]

My cousin put a Sony XBR2 next to a gas fireplace and the outside case got so brittle after about a year that when we went to move it the outside just shattered and we ended up dropping a 4k dollar tv in the trash. I know that the was not a flat screen and probably 100 pounds heavier but i would still be a little cautious about doing it.

 

[riooso]

Above the fireplace is not a good idea in my book. Any smoke from the fireplace will rise till it cools down. LCD's have the habit of building up static electricity and that will attract a fair about of dirt anyway, let alone smoke which has 100s of nasty chemicals in it.

Later,
Richard