MantelMount MM340

I bought the refurbished product, which pretty much looked new except for the pulling handles which was slightly damaged. The quality of build and sturdiness is apparent as soon as you open the box. Very impressed. It's solid, but that also means that it is a bit painful to install (and rightly so). You definitely need 2 people to mount this with the gas piston actuating mechanism attached to the wall bracket. DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER mounting this directly into the drywall with anchors...bad bad idea. The mount itself is crazy heavy, so the anchors will not hold them. As you can see from my pictures, the studs behind my fireplace wall were located such that I had to mount the wall bracket off-center, which is not a problem at all. You can then center the gas piston so that your TV remains centered. As someone else has mentioned: the installation instructions are pretty decent, but they do need some work, as some parts are a bit ambiguous. Improper grammar or emphasis can alter the meaning or the capabilities of this mount. It took me some figuring out to realize that it's perfectly fine to install the wall bracket off-center. Only other item I can think of pointing out for installation are the tools: you will need drill/drill-bits, a ratchet with a socket set is also super useful. I highly recommend having a drill with the right socket when mounting the wall mount onto the studs. That thing is heavy and you want to get the anchor bolt in as fast as possible and given it's length it will take you forever if you are using a ratchet. I used my power drill to get it about 75% in and then went with a ratchet the rest of the way to finish off and to prevent over tightening. You will need an socket extender to adjust the gas piston settings. Including some of the tools like the socket and the drill-bit would be a nice touch, but I am not going to hold it against the manufacturers. I have a small bubble level with a magnet that sticks to the mount during install which was absolutely invaluable when I was installing the wall bracket whilst trying to keep it as level as possible. I definitely recommend that Mantelmount consider including that with the purchase. The primary issue for me (and this is not a con of the product, but more my particular setup) is the forward motion of the mount when moving it down. This is a MANTEL mount....meaning it's travel orbit is designed to avoid hitting the mantel piece present in most fireplaces. My fireplace does NOT have a mantel piece, which makes things less complicated, but the forward motion also creates an issue specific to my living space. My living room isn't the biggest, as a result of which moving the TV down to eye-level also means that it is now closer to our couches/seating arrangements, which can be a problem when you have a large TV (we just got a 65")...this is the ONLY thing about this mount that is bothering me. I am not happy with the fact that the TV is so close to me when it's moved down to a comfortable position. What I really need is a mount that limits the forward motion and keeps the degrees of freedom down to vertical and swivel. I don't think such a product exists, but I wish Mantelmount would provide that option.....that would be a fantastic buy. All in all: I would buy from Mantelmount in a heartbeat....this product exudes quality.

By far the best mount I’ve ever owned. Takes a bit to get installed but fits great and performs amazing.

Nice product. Assembly and instillation make it more complicated than needed. Would like it to be a little more low profile when pulling down. An idea to slide more down than out. Sticks out further from the wall than I would like.

Great product if you're constrained with a higher than desirable bright for your TV. The system provides the ability to lower the TV and create a more comfortable view. Great range of motion, the fit and finish is impeccable, I used it on my 55" TV with no issues. I also added a soundbar bracket below the TV, it fits without problems. I really like the cable management system, the system comes with zip ties and anchor clips. Self levelling: plenty of options for you to correct the level of the TV. Interference with possible outlet: in my case the top of the carrier arm was exactly where a recessed outlet box was -- no issues there there is a half inch gap between the wall and the arm itself. The only downside or important items to consider before purchasing I can see are: * Weight: the system weighs more than the TV (I want to say 35 lbs) * Install takes 3 hours end to end * Make sure to measure twice and drill once, your going to need to have 4 anchor bolts drilled in the studs. Overall super happy with this! Well worth the effort. I put some pictures up for folks to see what it looks like and how low the TV can go, it's quite impressive. Happy building!

I purchased the MM340 mount for my Sony 65", 54.4 lbs X90L to mount over the fireplace. The installation is a bit cumbersome with numerous things to consider and not all Mantel Mounts fault. For one thing one of my 2x4 studs (right of centerline) was not space 16" apart but 16-3/4". A second and third issues- the 2x4 stud is at the CL (centerline) of my fireplace mantel. And the 120VAC receptacle and the TV cable conduit is mounted left and right of this center line 2x4 stud about 17" above the mantel. Therefore the 4" wide lifting arm would have block the AC plug or RG-6-HDMI cables. So the centerline of the TV ended up about 3" left of mantel centerline. I wish the wall plates was longer than 28 inches , 33 inches would have been ideal to screw in the four lag bolts on the two 2x4 studs left and right of the center line 2x4 studs. Also when mounting the brace extender per instruction, I could not get the extender handles to 1" below the TV bottom but it sits at 2" below the TV bottom. So I figure the minimum bottom wall frame should be 4" above the motel. I wanted to TV as low as possible. So I mounted the lifting arm about 3 inches left of centerline to prevent the lifting arm from interfering with the cable conduit and the 120VAC receptacle. The remainder of the install was easy. I triple check the exact 2-1/2" lag screw location (because of the overall weight -probably the most critical part of the install) The tension bolt did not need any adjustment (zero). I went up and down easy and held the TV at any position. I'm very please. I love how it smoothly lower or raise to any position. Good general detail instructions (hard to cover all scenarios). Hardware and material is heavy duty and mostly functional. So overall the MM340 is a Five Star, highly recommended. I did call the help line but the tech rep just repeated the written instructions and didn't concern himself with my specific needs.

Great mount to use over fireplace to bring to eye level. Not too difficult to install but recommend watching YouTube video showing step by step. Be prepared for a heavy mount as well. Make final adjustments for smooth movement.

So far I am very happy and excited about this tv mount. It works really well, feels sturdy, and looks great. Assembly took me around 6-8 hours, not including extra trips to the hardware store. I do not recommend doing this project alone, it helped a lot to have extra hands. The main challenge for me was mounting it to a brick fireplace which had uneven surfaces. After realizing the mount would never lay flat on the bumpy bricks I decided the only thing to do would be to flatten the bricks as much as I could. I ended up using a chisel and hammer to chip away some of the protruding bumps and that helped a lot. The next challenge was drilling into the bricks, and for that I had to go out and buy masonry drill bits. Make sure you buy the 3/8” and not the 7/32” that is used for the assembly to regular walls. Not realizing this, I bought the 7/32” which I did not need, however I used it to pre-drill and it helped the 3/8” bit drill faster. However, in my case it took over an hour to drill all four holes to 3” depth, so don’t expect drilling into brick to be fast. The kit also comes with wall anchors so you don’t need to buy any. I used a little bit of glue before tapping them into the wall, and that’s something you can do if you’re extra paranoid like me. Only time will tell how well this mount will hold up, but so far it is exactly what I hoped for - and I am glad I didn’t give up when it seemed impossible to mount it to the bricks. Good luck!

I'll start by saying that I am in management at a very large manufacturing company so am familiar with R&D, design, QC, etc. I also consider myself highly skilled in the trades and have mounted numerous TV mounts in my time. That being said, let me start with the good. The final function is fantastic. Once installed, if done correctly, the way it operates is just as described and I really like the final product over all. It works well, looks good, and is somewhat easy to operate. My smaller wife does have some issues pulling the TV down, but can get it done. The bad. This thing took WAY too long to install and quite honestly for some of the most ridiculous reasons. The longer it took me the more it was obvious that the entire product, from the novel of a manual, to the way the mount is put together is way, WAY too over-engineered. It seems apparent that there was no way they completed any product testing with actual normal, everyday folks on installing this product. It baffles me that they can put so much effort into final function and what seems like very little effort in ensuring installation was not difficult. I mean, they did not even do something as simple as put detents in to hold the mating pieces in a specific spot while you start a bolt in. This causes certain pieces to slide around and become uneven. I also have an issue that the longer vertical support struts that affixes to the back of the TV twists at the bottom past where you bolt it to the VESA holes which means the pull down tabs are turned outwards when looking from the front. I bent them inwards a little bit, but they are still very skewed. At this price, this is unacceptable. It is important to understand that this mount IS UNSAFE to install by yourself. The majority is fine by yourself, but hanging the heaviest piece with the shock against the wall is virtually impossible to get right safely. My wife helped me with this part and it was still a huge pain. Honestly, I see this as a liability. It is heavy, but it is just unwieldy more than anything, slides around, etc. Finally, the instructions. This is another indication that this is over-engineered and there is a disconnect on what the average consumer wants to deal with. I will say they are VERY thorough. They are only confusing a bit because, well, the way it all goes together is pretty complex. However, the instructions are extremely wordy, lots of text. Sure there are images as well, but the sheer amount of "follow-your-own-adventure" style directions really needs to be made more concise and succinct. All that said, if you want a mount that hands above your mantel that you can pull down, well it seems these folks are the only ones that have a product remotely decent enough to handle this need. The price shows that so I can't imagine they have any real need to change anything. When you are the only name in town, we all just get what we get.