What HOMESOFT does
HOMESOFT is a free calculator for anyone who wants to hang something on a wall at home and know that it will hold. A TV, a cabinet, a shelf, a wall unit — you enter what you are hanging and what wall it is going on, and the calculator tells you which anchors are right for it.
What makes it different is that it does not only ask how much the thing weighs. It also asks how it hangs and what it hangs on — and those are exactly the two things that bring most fixings down. You do not need any engineering knowledge to use it.
Two calculation modes — static, or with dynamic load
There are two modes: "Homesoft — static" and "Homesoft — with dynamic load".
The static mode suits something that hangs and does not move — a wall cabinet, a shelf, a heavy picture. The mode with dynamic load suits anything that someone will touch, pull or move: a TV on a full-motion arm that gets swung round every evening, a shelf that children hang off, the door of a wall unit that opens and closes. Pulling or moving puts far more on the anchor than a weight that just sits there, so this is a choice worth stopping on for a moment.
What you are hanging — a TV or furniture
For a TV there is a ready list of sizes with typical weights, so you do not have to go looking in the spec sheet: 32" about 5 kg, 43" about 8 kg, 50" about 13 kg, 55" about 15 kg, 65" about 23 kg, 75" about 32 kg and 85" about 42 kg. Choose the size and carry on.
For furniture you enter width, height and depth, and shelves and dividers as well. One thing matters especially: the weight of the furniture itself is kept separate from the weight of what goes inside it. An empty wall cabinet that you have weighed is not the same thing as that same cabinet full of dishes or books — and the weight that ends up in it is what the anchor has to hold, not the weight printed on the box.
The type of mount — and this is the part that surprises people
Here you choose the type of mount: flat against the wall (Fixed), tilting (Tilt) or a full-motion arm (Full-motion). If you chose a full-motion arm, you also enter the extended length of the arm and the distance from the wall.
This is the part most people never think about, and it is the most important one. When the arm is folded in, the TV sits against the wall and the anchors are mainly carrying its weight. When you pull the arm out, the TV sits far from the wall — and its weight now acts at the end of a lever. That lever pulls the top anchors out of the wall with a force far greater than the weight of the TV itself. That is why a light TV on a long arm can need stronger anchors than a heavy TV sitting flat against the wall. HOMESOFT takes this into account instead of going by weight alone.
Child safety
The tool has a separate consideration for child safety. A child hanging off a shelf, or pulling on the arm of a TV, puts something completely different into the fixing than the furniture does in everyday use. If there are children in the home, it is worth ticking this — it is not a formality.
The backing material, the type of wall and the anchors that suit
The last step is the wall itself: the backing material and the type of wall. This is the question that decides more than anything else. The same TV on a concrete wall and on a plasterboard wall are not the same job, and an anchor that is excellent in one can be useless in the other. From everything you entered — what you are hanging, how much it weighs, how it hangs, and what it hangs on — HOMESOFT shows you the anchors that suit your case, so that you know what to buy before you start drilling.