VESA Mount Adapter Kit for iMac and LED Cinema or Apple Thunderbolt Display

Reviews for VESA Mount Adapter Kit for iMac and LED Cinema or Apple Thunderbolt Display

Customer Reviews and Ratings

3.5 out of 5 stars

Based on 22 reviews

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  • 2.0 out of 5 stars

    Over-engineered & poor QC

    • Written by from Lewes

    I must have gotten a dud. You have to put a lot of force on the center set bolt, so much so that the torx points started to strip so I gave up. Only one side bolt would align correctly, and with it in place, I could easily see that there was no way the other side bolt was going it due to the NASA-like tolerances milled in this thing. Come on Apple, we're not putting wings on the space shuttle!

    …hoping the replacement works

    11 of 18 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    Great product

    • Written by from Brno

    Got this installed today, very easy and fast. Only concerns is the quality of screws and tools which come with the adapter. Overall a good product.

    3 of 16 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    Very well engineered

    • Written by from New Braunfels

    I have to agree with the reviewer that said something about the single Torx fastener that lines everything up. It comes with a Torx wrench and it will do the job, but barely. You have to put a lot of pressure on the metal tool and it nearly starts to round out as you go through the tightening process. But, it did do the job and my monitor is sitting atop an awesome extension arm. Highly recommended, just be careful with the tightening process.

    2 of 3 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    Pretty straightforward

    • Written by from Greensboro

    I bought one of these for a 24" LED and two of the ones for 23" Cinema Displays. After reading the reviews here I was really worried these were going to take some effort to get in place.

    These are only slightly more complicated than the Cinema Display counts due to the release mechanism holding the stand in place. Still was pretty easy to do. Simply follow the directions provided with the adapter and do not over-tighten any of the screws.

    Only two reasons I am giving this a four instead of a five:
    1) Lack of screws provided with each adapter. $1.60 and I got four from Lowes (4M 10mm).
    2) The fact that I had to drop $100 to mount my three displays to a stand.

    0 of 3 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    instructions

    • Written by from Arcadia

    I had 13 of them to install, so I decided to read his thread.
    Here's what I did after removing the stand.
    1 put on flange and tighten all bolts.
    2 place the mount on the flange and tighten the center bolt firmly, not too tight.
    3 pull the top edge of the mount and slide in a folded cardboard. The cardboard in the iMac box (folded in half already) is perfect. make it narrow so it doesn't get clamped by the mount. Wedge it between the flange and the body of the iMac.
    4 align the holes to the flange. insert the bolt on both sides and make a turn or two, realign, and them tighten equally on both sides.
    5 the center bolt will now raise about 3/8". Tighten it one last time.
    None of this was outlined in the manual, which marred the otherwise fine product.

    10 of 13 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Buyer Beware! Does not properly fit 27" 2010 iMac

    • Written by from Glendale

    There are other posts that refer to this problem and it is quite frankly shocking that it has not been acknowledged by Apple. In order to attach the Vesa mount, I had to jam 2-3 plastic cards (credit card shaped) beneath the Vesa flange to bring it high enough to attach the two final screws. Ridiculous. I wasted an hour or two trying to solve this problem, but thanks to the other reviewers was able to follow their lead and solve it.

    Buyer beware!

    4 of 11 people found this useful

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  • 2.0 out of 5 stars

    Horrible to mount.

    • Written by from Malmö

    If you don't have a good torx screwdriver, you're up for a challenge.

    I had the same issue as some others here, I had a lot of problems to align the mount so that the two last screws would fit.

    I had to use two credit cards and the card that is included in the box for dismounting the foot of the iMac, to be able to get the last 2-3 millimeters that were needed to align it perfectly. I had to put these under the bracket that you mount in step 3 or 4. It takes some focus and patience but the cards will fit under the bracket. And when the two last screws are in place, you just remove the cards.

    5 of 15 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    Easy installation, high quality. Shouldnt Apple use industry standards tho?

    • Written by from San Francisco

    This was very easy to install. I had it done, super secure, and ready to mount on my new articulated arm in a matter of minutes.

    Over the years I've come to accept that Apple products come with a trade-off of [beautiful form+function] vs. [compatibility]. This monitor mounting problem is one, however, where I get more than a bit annoyed with the need to buy new hardware solely because Apple can't adhere to carefully developed industry standards. They should seriously pull their heads out of their butts and give people better products by making them more compatible.

    18 of 38 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Overtightened Screws and Toy Screwdriver

    • Written by from Pasadena

    You may want to start by getting your own decent #10 Torx screwdriver. A few of the screws on mine were so overtightened that the toy screwdriver that Apple includes with the kit was starting to twist like a pretzel. In fact on one that is particularly tight, it ended up munging the head so badly that I'm going to have to drill it out.

    73 of 78 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Great idea, but required a little more "credit".

    • Written by from MOUNT DORA

    I love Apple products and find their designs genius, beautiful and typically flawless. I never expected to run into such difficulty with installing the iMac 24" VESA Mount Adapter.

    This was my successful installation process and I hope it helps others who run into the same issue -- the holes at the end of the flange don't line up with the holes in the mount adapter.

    1. I removed the stand from my 24" iMac.
    2. I aligned the hole in the flange with the pin on the back of the iMac and attached it per the instructions.
    3. I placed the mount adapter on top of the flange and attempted to bolt the two pieces together. The bolts only spun. I then noticed the flange holes were too low and not aligned with the mount adapter holes.
    4. An Apple forum member suggested removing the rubberized strips from the mount adapter to lower it for better alignment. For protection, I placed a tissue under each "foot" and removed the excess afterwards.
    5. Removing the strips didn't lower the mount adapter enough. I discovered the iMac's locked assembly had some more play. I carefully held the iMac while pulling that assembly out of the back case as far as I could -- a distance that appeared to be just what I needed. Here's where the extra credit comes in.
    6. While holding the assembly in the extended position, I placed 3 credit cards underneath to keep it in that position.
    7. While pushing on the bolts with a little muscle, I was able to finally bolt the two pieces together and finish the installation. The credit went back in my wallet and the smile was back on my face. :-)

    70 of 81 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    Does the job

    • Written by from Anderson

    Installation wasn't as easy as I had hoped. It was not complicated, just a bit tricky to get the screws at just the right angle. Otherwise it works as advertised.

    62 of 64 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Elegant Solution

    • Written by from New York

    This product latched on perfectly and allowed me to hang my screen from the wall easily. It requires effort to get it to latch on exactly, but when it does the fit is excellent. My only complaint is that I would have liked screws to attach this to the wall mount as well.

    24 of 28 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Need a proper Torx screwdriver

    • Written by from Sammamish

    You need a proper Torx screwdriver for this thing to mount correctly.

    This Apple VESA mount is a finely designed product but the included fastener (which is a small torx allen key) is not good enough. The included fastener does not generate enough torque/drive to align the components to mount this thing correctly.

    36 of 42 people found this useful

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  • 2.0 out of 5 stars

    So-So

    • Written by from Bloomington

    I'd say that Apple dropped the engineering ball on this one. Working with a 27" Thunderbolt display was not so easy. Getting the stand off was fine. After that it got more difficult. Getting the bolts to line up to mount the flange was tricky, and then getting the bolts into the end for the actual mount adapter has so far proven to be impossible. One end will bolt in perfectly, but the other end will not. Once the mount adapter is removed, the bolts bolt in perfectly. Definitely not Apple's engineering finest.

    34 of 55 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    You really need a Torx-capable screwdriver

    • Written by from Seattle

    This adapter kit contains two pieces: a flange that attaches to a stub inside the monitor/iMac, and an adapter plate that attaches to that flange (the adapter plate is the only part pictured in the its description).

    A single Torx fastener driven through the adapter plate is actually responsible for aligning the whole assembly. It carries lots of strain and requires significant torque to install completely. If you try to torque the fastener by hand, you will strip the head. A high-torque screwdriver with Torx head is a requirement.

    137 of 177 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Great product

    • Written by from Riverside

    The adapter kit is great. Very easy to install, took about 20 to 25 minutes to have in place. Just follow the directions as indicated. All the holes lined up perfectly. Couldn't be happier.

    26 of 31 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Unsurprisingly excellent design

    • Written by from Oakland

    I used this to mount a Thunderbolt display to an ergonomic sit to stand arm and it worked great. It should be no surprise to anyone that follows Apple that this is a well designed product. While installing it I was struck at how much thought went into it and how well it was built.

    The installation was very smooth and painless. If you have trouble getting the holes on the sides of the flange to line up read the instructions, you have to tighten the center bolt on the adapter very tight in order to bring the plate down enough to line up the holes.

    120 of 141 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Great Product

    • Written by from Huber Heights

    Awesome adapter to wall mount an iMac. I mounted a 27inch with no problem. The kit include everything needed to attach the mac to your mount. MAKE SURE YOU READ THE DIRECTIONS to line up screws before trying to attach side screws. Took about 15 mins to install.

    26 of 33 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    It fits perfectly!

    • Written by from Beaverton

    I was a little worried about buying this mount due to the previous review saying that it didn't fit. But, I bought and created a little video showing how it's installed. It does fit just fine, but I can see why it might seem like it doesn't fit.

    Search for "Apple VESA Mount Adapter Unboxing and Install" on YouTube. I can't post the link here.

    160 of 180 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Works perfectly

    • Written by from Oakland

    I have 3 x 27" LED cin displays and using the VESA mounts I have moved them all to flexible arms. VESA mount is quite flush to the back of the monitor so does not strain the pivot of the arm more than needed with such heavy monitors

    Removing stand and adding mounts to all 3 monitors went smoothy, but does take about 15 minutes work per monitor.

    30 of 32 people found this useful

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