TV Lifts - Pop Up and Drop Down Mechanisms

All our motorized TV Lifts function in the same way, the only thing that varies is the sizes of the TV lifts. Depending on your setup, the Lift either raises your TV into view usually from a cabinet, but this is entirely up to you. Or it lowers it down into view from the ceiling. Operating your lift system is commonly done wirelessly with the use of a remote, but setting it up to be wired is also more than possible. Before choosing which TV Lift Kit you will use, make sure to check the weight capacity your Lift supports, and also the maximum height and width the TV can be.

This video shows you how the House Crashers TV Show made an electric TV Lift Cabinet. They use a FIRGELLI TV lift and an Electric linear actuator to create a custom hidden pop-up TV and bar in the episode called "Secret Agent Lounge." They show you how to make a TV Cabinet in great detail.

The easiest way to make a motorized TV Lift cabinet is the same way A Cabinet maker would do it. You start by making a simple rectangular framed cabinet using 2x4's and then using wood paneling or even hardwood flooring for wrapping the outside of the frame to create a great-looking TV Cabinet. The great thing about using hardwood flooring for the cabinet is that the selection of colors and materials is endless and cutting these planks of wood into the correct shapes is very easy, and hardwood flooring is very cheap. It should only cost about $300 max to make a cabinet.

Firgelli Automations has two different types of TV lifts available. There are rear-mounted TV lifts and floor-mounted TV lifts. The video below shows the rear-mounted TV lifts but the installation and operation are exactly the same for the floor-mounted lift. There are two ways to have the lid raise up and down with TV lifts.

The first method is to directly attach the lid of the cabinet to the top of the lift mechanism. We DO NOT recommend this method although we have seen this widely adopted. The danger is that if a child leaves their fingers or if an object falls between the opening as the lift is lowering down then it acts like a scissor and can cause some damage. Even with the built-in electronic overload protection our systems have, it can take a second before this method kicks in and causes damage. The benefit to having a fixed lid is that if you have objects that sit on top of the lid such as a vase or ornament, this will simply lift with the lift and will not fall over as it would if it was sat on top of the flip-back lid type.

The second method is to have a roller fixture attached, as the pop-up lift raises out of the cabinet the roller fixture on the top of the lid flips back a cabinet lid that you would have installed in your cabinet and is hinged at the back of the cabinet. This is the most common method and is demonstrated in the video above. The benefit of this method is that if a child leaves their fingers at the top of the cabinet as the TV lift is lowering, then only the weight of the lid is felt by the child which acts as a good safety mechanism. The downside of this style of the lid is that if a cup of coffee has been left on the lid and the button is pressed to raise the TV into sight, then the cup will get thrown backward and cause a mess.

When you’ve got space above the living area such as the fireplace or bed, it opens up the option of having a drop-down TV that lowers your television from the ceiling. There are 2 ways to have a drop-down lift mechanism in this situation. One is to have the TV drop vertically down and the other is to flip or rotate the TV down into viewing area. Dropdown Lifts require a lot of space in the attic or room above to do this. Typically to drop a TV down you need whatever the height of the TV is plus some space for a mechanism. Compare this to flip-down TV lifts where the mechanism is only 4" thick plus allow 1" for the thickness of your TV, now this is very doable.

You can make your own Flip Down TV Lift setup with our Flip down TV lift mechanism. We’ve talked with a good deal of homeowners who don’t have attics but still want to install a drop-down lift.

With Firgelli flip-down TV lifts you have two options for installation. Firstly, you can simply mount the lift mechanism to the ceiling so it's hanging down. This may not be the best look but it's the easiest and not everyone has space above.

If you are lucky enough to have attic space then you can simply build the box into the ceiling and install the Flip-down mechanism into the box and ensure the ceiling opening is the same size as your TV. When installed in this way your TV will simply be sat flush with the ceiling as shown below.

Here is the video on how to install the Flip-down mechanism.