Can You Mount a TV Above a Fireplace?

The heat question

TVs have a stated operating temperature range, and sustained warmth above it shortens the life of the panel and the electronics behind it. The failure is gradual rather than dramatic, which is why people get away with it long enough to recommend it to a friend.

How much heat actually reaches the mounting spot varies enormously. A sealed gas insert with a deep mantel projecting over it may put almost nothing on the wall above. An open wood burning firebox with a flush wall can put a lot.

Test it yourself in one evening

1. Run the fireplace the way you normally would, for as long as you normally would.
2. Put your hand flat on the wall where the middle of the screen would sit.
3. Warm is a warning. Hot is a no.

An inexpensive infrared thermometer gives you a number instead of a feeling. Check your TV's manual for its stated operating range and compare.

The height question, which people underestimate

This is the complaint we hear most. Not "my TV broke", but "I have to look up at it".

A mantel puts the bottom of the screen at chest height or higher. On a 65 inch TV that puts the centre of the picture roughly a foot and a half above where it would be on a normal wall mount, which is well above your eyeline when you are sitting down.

Test it before you decide: sit where you actually watch from, look straight ahead at the wall, and note where your eyeline lands. Now imagine the middle of the screen a long way above that.

Viewing angle and what a tilt mount really fixes

A tilt mount angles the screen down towards you. That helps: it squares the picture to your eyes and reduces the off angle washout you get looking up at some panels.

What it does not do is lower the TV. Your neck is still tilted back. Tilt fixes the picture, not the posture, and it is worth being clear about that difference before buying one and expecting more.

Pull down mounts, the actual fix

A pull down mount holds the TV up above the mantel when you are not using it and brings it down to eye level to watch. It genuinely solves the height problem rather than mitigating it.

The tradeoffs are real: they cost considerably more, they need clearance to swing down over the mantel, and they are heavier so the wall behind has to be solid. Where the alternative is not enjoying the room, they are worth it.

Mantels, studs, brick, and stone

A deep mantel is your friend for heat, because it deflects rising air away from the wall. It is your enemy for a pull down mount, because the screen has to clear it on the way down.

Above a fireplace the wall is often masonry rather than stud framing. Brick takes masonry anchors and is very strong. Stone works but the anchor points have to be chosen around the stone and its joints rather than measured on a grid, which takes longer.

The wires

There is rarely a tidy path down a chimney breast, and cutting into masonry to make one is invasive and permanent. We run white surface raceway down the breast, paintable to match, which on a painted chimney breast disappears surprisingly well. We do not run cable inside walls. How we handle wires.

When it is genuinely a bad idea

Straight answer, because this is the part most pages leave out.

• The wall gets hot when the fireplace runs, and you use the fireplace regularly
• The mantel is high, a pull down mount is out of budget, and this is the main TV you watch for hours
• You cannot live with a visible cable run and there is no route you like
• The fireplace surround is a feature you would not want anchored into

In most of those rooms there is a better wall a few feet away. Losing the "over the fireplace" look is usually a smaller regret than sitting with your head tilted back every evening.