DO NOT Buy a Monitor Arm Until You Watch This

i've been using monitor arms for the past 15 years and can truly appreciate the benefits they provide for your setup but before you decide to purchase a new monitor arm consider if things like vasa mounting requirements and limited weight capacities are a deal breaker for you let's take a closer look at the 10 most common problems with monitor arms that i've experienced one of the most frequently complained about problems with monitor arms is the additional space that's required behind your desk now if you have a single monitor on a post mount system this likely won't be an issue as the monitor will attach to a mount on a post and most of the arm will be at the same depth as the back of your desk when you use multiple monitors though getting your monitor set to the right depth on your desk can require the arm to hang off the back of your desk this additional depth will require you to move your desk out and away from the wall if space is at a premium for your office this can be a major issue there is an industry standard for mounting monitors to an arm system which is called vasa for computer monitors the square hole pattern on the back of monitors is either a 75 by 75 or 100 by 100 millimeter pattern sometimes this can be hidden under a bracket or a cover on the back of the monitor the problem is that not all monitors include this mounting system and honestly there doesn't really appear to be a rhyme or reason to why one would have this or would not have it if your current monitors don't have a vase amount you'll either need to buy new monitors or retrofit your existing monitors the two ways this is typically done is with a large clamp or bracket system that holds onto the corners of your monitor and these tend to be bulky and really are just ugly in my opinion otherwise we've seen people go to extremes by using adhesives or super glue to connect the bracket to the back of their monitor now this is a very permanent solution that i wouldn't recommend and to be quite honest i don't believe both options are that great but will work there are two common mount systems used to connect a monitor arm to a desk a c-clamp and a grommet mount both will provide similar security for mounting the arm to the desk if you like the flexibility of being able to move your monitor around a c-clamp system is probably the best option here this type of mount can have fit issues if the desk has a decorative edge or is possibly too thin or too thick and both can require some modifications to allow the clamp system to fit correctly similar issues can exist for a grommet mount as well the biggest issue with grab amounts though is how permanent the solution is if you don't order a desk with a grommet hole from the factory you'll also need to drill a hole yourself while the grommet mount is the more permanent solution here i do find that this is the most finished look cable management can be a major problem for a lot of monitor arms while most arms will have some form of cable management it can sometimes be hard to access once you've removed the screws there might not even be enough room to fit all the wires required to run your monitors thicker power cables and vga cables might not all fit in the cable management systems either even after you've routed all of your cables through the arm hiding them behind a thin post system might still look incomplete in some cases grommet mounts might even require you to run the cables at the front of the arm creating not so great of an aesthetic look for your desk for most of us monitor arm weight capacities likely won't be an issue if you're using 22-inch or 24-inch led or lcd widescreen monitors most will fall well within the capacity of a standard arm for those that are using 32 inch and larger screens this is where some of the issues may begin and if it's an ultra wide screen there's an even greater risk of the arm failing typically we find these large monitors tilt or pivot to one side or even forward because the ball joint can't support the weight or the force that's being created by the wideness of the screen in some cases the arm itself might drop if the weight is just too much stability issues are likely to be one of the most annoying problems with monitor arms we find that most of these issues are from bounce that's transferred from a hard typer or when a user leans into a standing desk while cheaper arms might be the most likely to exhibit these bounce problems even expensive arms can have issues as well we've found that the closer the arm is to the mount system itself the better the stability will be the further you extend the monitor from the mount the more bounce you'll experience if your desk is unstable no matter where you put your monitor stability will be a problem depending how you've configured your monitors the width of those monitors can pose a problem for multiple arm systems some single extension arms won't be wide enough to support 22 or 24-inch widescreen monitors in a landscape mode in these situations you'll find that monitors will overlap one another this will essentially make them unusable the more flexibility for wider monitors will create a bigger need for additional depth behind your desk because of how the extension arms hinge to make the width adjustments consider this if depth behind your desk is already a problem if you're someone who likes to make constant adjustments to your monitors some monitor arms will make it more difficult than others to adjust the height and depth this is especially true if you're using the more basic post systems with no gas or spring arm attachment many times you'll need to loosen a set screw or a clamp on the arm to make a height adjustment a gas or spring arm makes these adjustments quite a bit easier if you have dual monitors even using a gas or spring arm can still be annoying because the arms are individual to each monitor realigning your monitors can be the real nuisance here monitor arm systems do exist that connect multiple monitors to a single bar system that will easily allow you to move both monitors at the same time if you decide to use the cable management system included with your new monitor arm there is a good chance the wires you're currently using won't be long enough to reach the pc this is especially true if you're mounting your pc under your desk or letting it rest on the floor even if you're letting the pc rest on your desk's surface some wires like those found on cameras won't be long enough to reach the usb plug on the back of your pc one of the issues we see with monitor arms that's not really talked about is how some arms can damage your desk's surface an example is our rubber wood surface that we bought from home depot used on the setup in our studio the 49 inch wide screen paired with the heavy duty arm from human scale created a lot of leverage on the mount creating ugly indentations on our surface and while this might not be a problem if you keep your monitor arm in the same place on your desk should you decide to move it at some point this will be a glaring problem this would be a concern for any of us using softer surface materials like a natural wood or bamboo hopefully this video helped you decide if a monitor arm is going to be a good or a bad addition to your current desk setup don't forget to check out the next video to learn more about monitor arms thanks for watching

Channel: BTODtv

Views: 487,812

Keywords: monitor arm, monitor arm problems, lcd monitor arm, what is vesa mount, monitor arm vesa mount, monitor mount problems, monitor arm stability, monitor arm weight capacity, monitor arm adjustments, monitor arm wire management, Don't buy a monitor arm until you watch this, monitor mounts, best monitor arm, multiple monitor arm, monitor, monitor grommet hole, monitor arm clamp, monitor vesa mount, vesa mount, vesa mount adapter

Id: QK0bvcGBmGU

Length: 6min 58sec (418 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 11 2022