sanus-wall-mount

One of the main reasons why people don’t mount their TVs on the wall is because they think it’s hard to do. I’ll admit it; I was one of those people. I’ve watched my husband mount other TVs on the wall and honestly, it looked like something I couldn’t do on my own.

We started shopping for a 4K TV recently, and I knew we’d also have to pick up a new wall mount because our old TV was going to go on the wall in another room. I didn’t want my brand new 4K TV to sit on our TV stand for a lot of reasons, most importantly the risk of having our kids knock it over as they run through the house. When it’s up on the wall you’re less likely to have it covered with fingerprints too.

sanus-wall-mount-installAlthough I’ve written about TVs for Best Buy, it took me awhile to choose the perfect 4K TV for our living room. I finally made my choice of a 55” LG 4K UHD HDR LED TV, and all we had to do is find a wall mount. Thankfully, the timing of my new purchase couldn’t be better because I was sent the Sanus Advanced Tilt Premium Wall Mount to review, so I had the perfect wall mount already on hand.

The last TV and wall mount we bought was purchased seven years ago, and wall mounts have definitely changed since then. My old mount sat flush with the wall and held the TV tightly against it. That made it difficult to get behind there if I wanted to plug in a new HDMI cable or use the USB ports.

With the Sanus Advanced Tilt wall mount, you can tilt the TV with one tap, and it comes out so far from the wall it’s easy to access everything. Using it has been a true pleasure.

Here’s a quick look at the Sanus Advanced Tilt Wall Mount

sanus-advanced-tilt-wall-mount

Appearance & Features

  • Designed to hold TVs ranging in size from 42” to 90”
  • Holds up to 150 pounds
  • Advanced tilt lets you tilt up, down, and side to side so you can always have the best seat in the house
  • Mounting bracket can be mounted directly over electrical outlet
  • Pulls 5.7” from the wall so you can easily access cables, HDMI cords, and even easily switch TVs if you need to

sanus-advanced-tilt-wall-mount

Installing the Sanus Advanced Tilt Wall Mount

The first thing you need to know about the Sanus Advanced Tilt Wall Mount is that it’s far easier to install than you’d think. Sanus also anticipates that customers could be overwhelmed at the thought of mounting a TV on the wall, so they provide you with three different ways to learn how to install.

You can read through the included and very detailed manual or watch a video that details exactly what you have to do to install the wall mount. You can also call Sanus install experts and ask them any questions you might have.

When you open the manual you’re offered a few options: if you have drywall and plugs, there’s instructions for that. If you’re like me and you have wood walls, you can skip the drywall plugs and drill straight into the wall.

Within the kit is a large bag of screws, bolts, and spacers. The instructions will help you go through the scenarios for install to see which bolts you need, but don’t let the bag overwhelm you. You don’t need all of the bolts and screws in the bag; just the ones that apply to your particular install.

sanus-wall-mount-lg-tvOnce you’ve assessed your wall situation and you’re ready to install the mount, you’ll need to decide whether or not you should use spacers when installing your back brackets. We used spacers on the back of our LG TV because it’s slightly curved.

The back brackets are very easy to install. Just choose your bolts, attach them to the back of the bracket, and attach it to your TV. It took under a minute to do each one with a drill.

Once the back brackets are installed you can move onto installing your wall plate.

I have an existing electrical outlet mounted high on my wall along with an HDMI port that we wired before we put the walls up in here. I wanted the plate to fit over the outlet and it very handily does that. Once it was in position we used a level to ensure it was precisely level before we drilled holes for the bolts.

sanus-wall-plate-installWith the holes drilled we put the bolts in place and tightened them with a ratchet. If you’re unsure of how to place the wall plate there’s an included template right in the box, and you can use the template to ensure you’re drilling in the right spot.

Attaching the TV to the wall plate is as simple as lifting it up and clipping it in. Once it’s attached you can tilt it in any direction you’d like. You can also micro adjust the level of the TV as well as the high by using the adjustment screws at the top of the brackets. Sanus includes an Allen wrench you can use to do perform these micro-adjustments.

That’s all you have to do to install the Sanus Advanced Tilt wall mount. I’d estimate that the entire process took less than a half hour and I had the mount and the TV safely up on the wall.

sanus-wall-mount-with-4k-tvOverall thoughts

A 4K TV is easy on the eyes, and the view is even better when it’s up on the wall. But if you just flat mounted a 4K TV or kept it on its stand, you’d lose the ability to watch it from every angle. The Sanus Advanced Tilt wall mount gives you that option. You can tilt it toward the floor and sit down on a bean bag to watch, or you can tilt it with a finger touch and aim it toward another room and watch from there.

As I mentioned in the video, my favourite feature on this wall mount is how it pulls out from the wall and lets you access the back cables. On my old TV the HDMI ports were broken so I only had one that worked. Because of the mount I couldn’t easily access the port to switch out devices like my set top box or my Apple TV.

I have 4 HDMI ports on this new TV, and I can access them as easily as pulling the TV off the wall. My husband’s arms were right behind the TV and he could maneuver with no problem at all.

It’s a big deal to get a 4K TV. The colour, clarity, and overall features on my LG 4K smart TV are amazing, even to someone who’s seen a lot of TVs. Now that I’ve paired my new TV with the Sanus Advanced Tilt mount, we can really enjoy it from every angle.

Sanus definitely makes 4K worthy TV mounts, so if you’re in the market for a new 4K TV this winter, don’t forget your new mount too. It will really increase the enjoyment you get out of your new TV.

Shelly Wutke
Editor TV & Home Theatre
I'm a Vancouver freelancer and tech enthusiast. When I'm not writing you'll find me on my farm with my alpacas, chickens, and honeybees. Visit my website Survivemag