Anti static on vaccuum cleaner

[Brian Gaff]

Simple question. A Bosch cleaner, works fine has the usual convoluted plastic pipe and a metal telescopic pipeand a plastic brush on the end. Its most convenient way to be held is by the plastic at the end of the flexible tube, but on some surfaces, the touching of the metal pipe after a few seconds not doing so produces an audible crack and a nasty shock. I also have a Vax which uses the same arrangement, but does not have this added feature.. So, I know its not dangerous, and is purely static, but there hasto be a way to make the Bosh, which is lighter, work like the Vax which is big and cumbersome, and I do not really want it for spills of stuff like sawdust or whatever. And no I do not make a habit of taking up sawdust with it. I did wonder about an inward facing corona discharge pin, or perhaps a bare wire that pokes out by the brush but do not want to do something which is pointless. Brian

[spuorgelgoog]

A length of extra-flexible flex as used for test leads, attached to the metal tube, spiral-wrapped round the hose to allow for stretchiness, and taken to earth on the vacuum cleaner body?

Antistatic hoses can be bought, but might not be easily adapted to a domestic cleaner.

Owain

[meow2222]

A carbon loaded paint stripe would also work.

NT

[Mr Fuxit]

He who would stoop to pun would steal a purse.

[Graham.]

It can't be static electricity if it's jumping gaps and stimulating your nerves and muscles. I don't find the concept of static electricity as a separate entirety particularly helpful.

I blame the primary school teachers, the same ones who insist their are seven colours in the visible spectrum.

[harryagain]

It's called static electricty because it's generated on insulating materials and hence remains there until either it leaks away slowly or it is provided with a low resistance path. In this case, Mr Gaff.

Important in capacitors where the energy is stored in the insulating material between the plates.

[Tim Streater]

Yes, insulating materials are where you notice it. If you have a buildup of charge, then that creates a voltage, and an electric field. This is true whether the buildup is on your hair or in the clouds. If you are under a cloud where a large charge has built up, then the field will induce a charge in you and your hair stands on end. If the voltage difference gets large enough then the insulator may break down and you get a spark or lightning.

You won't notice the same with a conductor as the charge can leak away immediately.

[Thomas Prufer]

Spray with an antistatic spray.

Either one for the purpose, as used in electronics etc. Or similar stuff, sold in the laundry dept as "anti-cling" (or even "anti-static") spray. Failing that, diluted fabric softener, wiped on, also may be enough.

None of this will be as good as a wire, but may be enough.

Thomas Prufer

[Davey]

OT: In the northern US, where winters are cold and houses very dry, we used to have a dog who would come up behind us and touch her nose to the back of one of our knees, and appeared to delight in the reaction as the static charge caused the victim to involuntarily dance as the knee collapsed in reaction. Who says dogs don't have a sense of humour? She did.

[Brian Gaff]

Hmm, well, trying to find an earth on the cleaner. Modern cleaners seem to be made of plastic, at least externally. What I don't get really is why one cleaner should be worse than another. I think its get out the rubber gloves time again. it was suggested that it was me not the cleaner, but if that were the case it would affect me on the other cleaner as well. Certainly I have had issues, changing the bed then walking over to a large filing cabinet is not to be recommended. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Well, if we are being pedantic then, there is an imbalance of potentials between myself and an insulated piece of metal on the cleaner.

One can easily make this occur in other ways merely with friction and even with the friction of air itself if its dry enough, so maybe the real answer is to turn my house into a rain forest humidity wise where there will not be the ability for large potentials to develop. Damn those electrons. With regard to the visible spectrum, which I myself cannot see, that is a whole other story of course. I used to wind them up asking so how do you make silver and gold colours then. Brian

[Andy Burns]

Brentford Nylons went out with the 70's ...

[Brian Gaff]

The thing is of course that is it me which is storing it, or the vacuum. Maybe its a naturist vacuum, and it would not happen if you do the cleaning naked? I'll suggest that to my female cleaner shall I? She gets the shocks as well! I have been reading up on this subject and its actually quite common. Of course today for some reason its not doing it, so its hard to tell if any system works. The idea of conductive paint is interesting but not very practical, it will wear off or break. The idea of a wire round the tube would not work as its no a spiral tube its a sereies ofconcerteena constructions. My feelings are perhaps a resistor on the person, and trying to remember to touch this on things before more sensitive parts!

What is needed is a person with a high impedance meter. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Goodness me, the pedants are out today. Must be all that static electricity and non white light from the sun that does it..grin

Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Yes as do horses of course. Fun is felt by other animals. Near me some years ago there was a field with horses in it. Most of the time they would be well behaved, but one in particular had a way to wind up dogs. It would wait till the dog laid down, then sneak up behind it and poke it up its bottom with its nose. When the dog got up and looked around for anyone, it would obviously puzzled as the horse was busy eating grass, so it would move a few feet and lay down again, and so it went on until eventually the dog got fed up and wandered off and laid on the other side of a fence.

Very strange. Brian

[Davey]

The same dog of ours would be tormented by squirrels when we lived at a place where she had to be kept on a lead outside the property, as it was open-plan gardens, the ghastly 'Rolling Meadow' communal lawn system. The squirrels soon learned exactly how long her lead was, and would sit there just outside the range. We often thought about extending the lead one day, but never did.

Funny, after that, she would kill any squirrel she could catch.

[Gazz]

And i bet the nurses at the local A&E have heard the 'naturist vacuuming' thing plenty of times whilst extracting knobs from hoover hoses :)

[Andrew Gabriel]

You probably won't find one - they're all double insulated nowadays.

If you did find one, you want to put something like a 1Mohm resistor in series, so that whilst it can bleed away static, it can't pass enough current to act as a path for an electric shock.

It will depend what materials are used. The friction between fast moving air and some plastics will generate static, as will running some plastics on various carpet materials.