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(More customer reviews)SUMMARY:
I got this mount for a Samsung PN50C7000 TV. I was researching mounts on monoprice.com, but this came out to about the same price delivered on sale as comparable mounts there and I had the flexibility of being able to take it back to Costco locally if I didn't like it. It easily holds up the 54lbs, 50" TV without any major, noticeable sag. Overall, I would give it 3.5 stars out of 5, taking off ½ a star off for the arms not being easy to move in and out and 1 star off for the terrible tilting function.
ABOUT MOUNT:
Out of the box, the front plate was very off center. It worried me for a second until I realized you can easily adjust that. It was actually very simple to adjust after getting the mount up on the wall and before putting the TV on it. Just loosen the 4 bolts that attach the front plate, level, and tighten back up. It is designed that way, but I would still think that out of the box, it should have been leveled already. No big deal though.
The bolts that attach to the arms also didn't seem evenly tightened out of the box. One side slides out easier than the other. Even though I adjusted them a bit, I didn't want to overdo it because I was afraid it may cause the TV to sag once mounted. Overall both sides are still stiff and require pulling or pushing the TV from both sides to slide in or out. So with a bigger TV it would require two people on both sides of the TV to move in/out if one person cannot reach both sides easily from the front. I plan to try and use some wd40 to see if that will help make the motion a bit smoother.
Lastly, the tilting function is terrible. You have to take the TV off the mount to adjust the tilt. First time I put it up, I had it tilting up way too far. I took it off to try to even it, but it ended up facing down a bit the second time. I decided to live with it down a bit even though I'd prefer it to be even since I didn't want to keep taking the TV on and off. I may try to fix that in the future if it bothers me enough.
INSTALLATION:
This was my first time trying to mount a TV on the wall, so I researched a bit to make sure I didn't majorly screw up the process. It is actually very simple over all and should take only 30 min or so (not accounting time to move everything out of the way and measure, double measure and then triple measure everything :) But I guess that's the case with a lot of projects, prep time is longer than actual execution.
I used the trick of locating a stud by taking off a power outlet and looking to the left/right of it to see where it was. From there other studs were 16" apart. This is a good way to visually verify the location of the studs instead of just relying on a stud finder. The directions require you to then predrill with a 3/16" bit, a length of 3 1/8" into the stud. This is pretty tough because most normal 3/16" bits are not that long. You have to keep the bit on the very edge in your drill which is scary because you may just break off the drill inside the stud near the end. I used the bolt placed against the bit to figure out the length of the hole I would need and then very slowly drilled the hole with the bit at the very tip of the drill. It was actually almost 3.5" deep. I also heard issues about bolts breaking off into wall studs so I used some WD40 on the bolt before screwing it into the stud. Worked great and was able to easily get the lag bolts into the stud (just make sure u don't get the wd40 on your hands or the ratchet will start slipping while you try to torque :)
The spot where I needed the TV just happened to be spaced with a stud in about the center with adjacent studs 16" to left and right of it. So I mounted the wall plate on the two studs to the right, but spaced it as far left as possible. Then when I hung up the TV I was able to get it a bit more to the left by sliding it off center towards the left on the front mounting plate until it was in the desired location. My TV is exactly 48" wide, so that means I was able to mount the TV about 12" or so off center without any sagging. It doesn't sag left or right while it's retracted against the wall, or extended fully 20" away from it. The TV is only 54lbs, so maybe that's why I can get away with it, but I plan to upgrade in the future and wouldn't hesitate to mount a heavier TV the same way on this mount.
The mount is pretty heavy and I thought it would be easier to remove the extension arms with the front plate off the wall plate while bolting that to the wall. Although this made putting up the wall plate a bit easier, it was a huge pain to get arms mounted back on with the wall plate attached to the wall. In retrospect, it would have probably been a better idea to just deal with the extra weight for a few minutes.
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Kanto KMFMX2 Full Motion Articulating Mount 37"-65"
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