Stupid Home Repair Shows

They're having one of these home repair shows on tv. They are telling a homeowner to mount their flat screen tv above a fireplace. Are these guys really that stupid? Obviously the heat from the fireplace will likely damage the tv. Electronics are made with heat sinks to remove the heat, and this moron wants to put it over a fireplace. Not to mention possible warped plastic on the cabinet or even the screen.

Reply to
jw
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And the soot when people don't remember to start the fire correctly, or when animals are in the chimney.

Useful only for people who will never use their fireplace, in which case maybe they should put it in front of the fireplace. They could show a video of a burning fire when desired.

My friend has a first floor, ground-level office and it got hit by a car that pushed the counter several feet into the room and then caught on fire. They had to replace both windows, siding outside and in, and she had a cheap clock radio that she still uses with heat-warped sides. Luckily she wasn't sitting there when this happened, like she does about 5 hours a day, although maybe it would only have bruised her chest

Reply to
mm

Yes, I totally agree about the soot.

Having a fireplace that is not used is nothing but a place to waste heat because it gets sucked up the chimney.

If it's already there, cover it with a well sealed glass front, or just sheetrock the opening and paint a picture of flames. Of course there's another idea. Put in TWO large screen tv's. One IN the fireplace, which is only used to play one of those CD's that show 2 hours of some logs burning (yes they are sold), and then put the regular TV above the fake fireplace.

Some people just have too much money and too few brains !!!!

Reply to
jw

And it's way too high for comfortable viewing. Some people seem to be so intent on wall mounting that they will put up with poor placement.

Reply to
cubby

Also, most fireplaces are built so that there is no way to get power and other cables to the TV without snaking them up the wall and across the mantle --- ugly.

Reply to
EXT

Maybe you could run them through the chimney.

Reply to
mm

They're having one of these home repair shows on tv. They are telling a homeowner to mount their flat screen tv above a fireplace. Are these guys really that stupid? Obviously the heat from the fireplace will likely damage the tv. Electronics are made with heat sinks to remove the heat, and this moron wants to put it over a fireplace. Not to mention possible warped plastic on the cabinet or even the screen.

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This post doesn't count for much but:

Our LCD television is above above an electric fireplace (so it's a pretend fireplace). We normally sit 20 feet back from the tv. It's in a custom made solid wood entertainment centre but yeah, the fireplace is beneath the tv, housed inside wood with a solid wood mantle LOL. Hope it doesn't combust.

The fireplace is only 1000 watts and the fan blows the heat out. Complete with fireplace remote. But the fireplace is for show only and it's flames and embers are 3D optical mirror trickery. We keep the optical flames on for company and show and never use the heat part of it.

The current trend in living room design is to have the television above the fireplace. You are supposed to take the temperature and televisions I think can handle up to 38 C or 100 F. But it's the current trend and very popular. Pick up any magazine that caters to home renos or home style etc and you will see flat screens mounted about fireplaces.

The reason I bring up my electric fireplace is, they are pretty common and simply don't output enuf heat to damage televisions. Also a lot of gas fireplaces have the vents at the bottom of the unit, not the top. My mother-in-law has that type.

Reply to
The Henchman

Maybe you could run them through the chimney.

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My Mother-in-law just had a new living romm done and had a new gas fireplace installed and had a tv mounted on the wall above it. The contractor ran the wires for the teevee and related electronic components so that did not come into contact with the fireplace venting. It meant tearing open the drywall and running new wires, but it was the safest way to do things. He installed access outlets into the wall to snake any further cables and whatnot.

But basically it meant tearing the drywall out and hiding everything.

Reply to
The Henchman

My house has a recedpticle above the fireplace. This house is old enough, that there's almost no chance it was designed for a TV. Probably for a clock (I do have a clock there). I don't want a TV there, it would mean more neck pain.

As to that other thing, some people seem to treat "ugly" as a synonym of useful". They complain about wires, but have no objection to dusty plastic mistletoe (I used to know someone who had that).

BTW, I do have an exopsed cable hanging on that wall, for a working but incomplete security camera installation. I seldom even notice it now.

Reply to
Mark Lloyd

My Daughter and son in law bought a big screen on a whim. The house is small and a couple years ago they got new central heat/AC. The big screen TV puts out so much heat that they have trouble cooling that room when it's turned on. (I forget how many watts) During the winter it's the warmest room in the house!

Reply to
Tony Miklos

How big a TV? A 42" LCD uses maybe 130 watts. A plasma uses more but not many times more. Incand. lights would put out more heat than that.

Reply to
Shaun Eli

most "fireplaces" are not real fireplaces anymore anyway... just decorative gas burners. some jurisdictions won't even let you light a wood fire anymore

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

? "The Henchman" wrote

Good for the local chiropractors when people come in with sore necks from viewing too high a TV. The ideal height is where your eye level is about

1/3 from the top of the screen. We got trough Leisure Suits so maybe this too will pass.
Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

? "The Henchman" wrote

Good for the local chiropractors when people come in with sore necks from viewing too high a TV. The ideal height is where your eye level is about

1/3 from the top of the screen. We got trough Leisure Suits so maybe this too will pass.

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Anyone who has a house older than 15 years has a house that is chock full of "current trends" For example ours had a pink and black kitchen when we bought it...

Reply to
The Henchman

Not as bad as "Pepto-Bismol" pink bathroom tile.

Reply to
Michael B

The heat sinks in electronic devices are meant to conduct heat away from the chipsets, which are very small and where the heat is generated. That is totally different from heat from outside entering the electronic device causing a problem.

Code limits how close a wood fireplace mantel can be to the fireplace opening based on the size of the opening and the projection of the mantel into the room. Assuming that there is a mantel, it does meet Code, and it doesn't catch on fire frequently, if you are that concerned about melting plastic on the TV, above the mantel, I'd be more concerned about getting out of the house because it's on fire. Check it out - throw a thermometer on top of your mantel and fire up the fireplace. Get it good and hot. You'll see that your imagination is running away with you.

Fireplaces throw heat out more than they do straight up, and the people in that room would be sitting in their underwear sweating bullets before the thermometer registered 100 F. In other words, a hot summer day without AC.

I was surprised by the number of posters who commented on the viewing angle being a pain in the neck, and I suppose it would be if the furniture and/or person's typical viewing position is erect. When I'm watching TV I'm usually on my way to horizontal. I have my feet up on the coffee table and my neck is supported by the back of the couch. When I'm sitting like that when I look straight ahead I'm looking dead center of the screen.

A lot of people with the TVs above the fireplace get those double recliner couches, and that's just about the most comfortable way to watch TV there is. You can't watch a low down TV comfortably in one of those recliners, least I can't, as the angle now makes me crane my head forward, and that does bother my neck. And the higher the TV (within reason), the more people can more easily see the TV, which may or may not be an issue for some people.

But don't take my word for it, use one of the online viewing angle calculators, or check out an AV forum, such as:

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As far as the soot that people mentioned, again, if you have a mantel then it's not really a concern. I've never seen soot that curled up and around and back to the wall above a fireplace. If you're having that much soot, or really any appreciable soot at all, then there are issues with the chimney's draw and/or the size of the fire that is being built, and those should be remedied as they are potentially serious problems whereas a TV's location is not.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

You know I worked as a plumber some years back and I went to a home of an old lady who had Pepto colored pink bathroom fixtures from the

50's. Her toilet was cracked and not repairable. I told her it had to be replaced. She said that's ok as long as it's the same color. Well, no one had one to match. They are sold in colors, but not that dark pink, there was only one pink and it was much lighter. She refused that one. I tried to convince her to just get a white one, but she refused. I told her there no way I can match it, and she said "you must". About the time I was looking for someone who made custom fixtures, it was just coincidence that I was driving down a street near my house, and there sat a bunch of pink bathroom fixtures. I asked the people, and they said they were redoing their bathroom and these fixtures were going to the dump. They said take what you want. That toilet was an exact match. I cleaned it all up, replaced all the parts in the tank with new ones and charged her twice the cost of a brand new toilet. She was thrilled......
Reply to
jw

I once had an old apartment with a 50's pink dining room. The worst part was that long long ago it was part of a store so it had a double 8' fluorescent light fixture. Talk about bright pink!!! One night I left it on and the ballast went bad. I decided to remove the fixture, paint the room, and install a suitable dining room light. When I moved out the landlord bitched like all hell and said the room was just painted and he would have fixed the light. I thought I improved the room, as did anyone who visited. Luckily he hadn't taken a security deposit.

Reply to
Tony Miklos

? wrote

My step-father was a builder and did a lot of renovations. If people wanted something done on the job that should not be, he'd charge them double or more and they'd be very happy. The more it costs, the better, right?

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

There's a hardware store around here that has a _huge_ stack of old and vintage toilet tank lids stacked up outside the store. Hundreds of them, if not a thousand. They guy pays something like five or ten bucks to someone who brings in an old lid in good condition, and he sells them on the internet for a lot of money. If the choice is between swapping out a toilet and being forced to get one that doesn't match, and paying a couple or three hundred for the pleasure, most people would be happy to pay 50 or 75 bucks for a lid that matched. Great business idea.

This isn't the place

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and it seems like I was off by almost an order of magnitude in price! Some of those lids are well over $400!

R
Reply to
RicodJour

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