Sinking 436XDE flush into false wall, feasible?

Dave Williamson

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Hi

I would like to wall mount a 436XDE (SWMBO is not keen as she thinks they stick out too far from the wall.. huh!) anyway... our cunning plan is to build a false wall, just to the correct depth that would mean that the wall would line up flush with the front of the screen.. this should achieve a couple of things... 1. It should look as sexy as a sexy thing 2. It will allow me to easily run cables to plasma, speakers, dialogue speaker etc...

My concerns with this plan are.... could the plasma overheat as there would be a buildup of trapped warm air within the false wall (I don't really think that it would rise drammatically but I'd like to get some feedback from the experts) which may mean that the plasma fan(s) are only circulating warm air back into the plasma innards.. Also dust, I imagine that over a period of time there would be a dust buildup inside that I wouldn't be able to get to and clean regularly... again am I worrying too much?

I've seen some pictures on these forums where members have actually fitted their plasmas above radiators and fires and so I may be just worrying too much. I expect that I may reduce the overall life expectancy of the plasma with my idea of sinking it but as long as its not reduced by a massive amount then I would be willing to take a slight hit in the life span of said plasma... after all I'll be after bigger and better not *too* many years after that won't I? ;)

Thanks in advance for any input/sugggestions that you may have.

Regards
Dave.
 
I would think you would be fine, you would probably get less dust in between the walls than in the room.
As long as you made at lease a couple of holes to let air out at the top and in at the bottom it should stay cool enough. Make sure you don't actually block any vents on the screen though, the screen is quite shallow, so be careful of this and really plan ahead.
 
I've been looking at a similar thing myself. There's a company near me who make a custom false-chimney breast to suit a plasma (picture below). However, they make the recess slightly bigger than the plasma for two reasons: for ventilation, but also to make it easier to mount. They explained that you need space to be able to hold the edges of the plasma to be able to lift it onto the mounting. How do you envisage mounting your unit? I did consider a hinged bracket so it would be easy to access the connections at the back.

It did occur to me that the gap could be a feature with some backlighting.

As for overheating, it may help fit a PC-style case fan (a quiet one!) to the inside of the enclosure side (or perhaps both sides) with a flushed metal vent cover. You can get mains power adaptors for fans.
 

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I must say that I have seen a couple of installs with flush mounted screens and they didn't look that nice at all.
Also one of the guys said that he had a problem with his first screen and he changed it and had to have the whole thing redone as the new screen was just a touch too big.
 
We've done this quite a few times in several ways. Email me for some photos if you like. The gap thing is curable for certain, we used a Unicol swing arm mount to do this once, which made running more cables or any maintenance a doddle, you just pull it out. The other good way is with clip on panels making a false wall. You can use all sorts of finishes then, how about a mirror gloss black wall around an XDE then! That was SEXY, (shame about the plasma!) I've also done a clip on where we sprayed the plasma bezel to match. I suggested Barbie pink, but it didn't go down too well....
 
just an idea, if your gonna put up a false wall, make a box that will fit in the wall and around the plasma with anough room for ventilation and a hole for cables to go thru, to stop dust getting in maybe make the box so it covers the areas above the air holes but obviously still letting air in
 

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