car anti-static strap

[dave]

Fed up with being electrocuted whenever I borrow wife's car (!) I thought to fit one of those anti-static straps. Do they work? :-)

[Adrian]

dave gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Grab a firm hold of the metal of the door BEFORE you step out of the car

- then the earthing's done through the larger contact area of your foot, rather than the small area of your finger. Seriously. It works.

[Steve Firth]

That's a good idea, I never thought of that to stop her borrowing mine (then returning it empty).

[EricP]

[Rod]

Does this happen to your wife when she uses her own car?

If so, then I guess it is likely something about the car.

But if not, I suggest that you consider the various possible reasons for you experiencing them and not her.

[EricP]

My wife gets it with our cars, I do not.

It is sometimes satisfying to hear her arrive home and hear the brief scream of rage before the clunk of the closing car door. :))

[Derek Geldard]

The difference will be degree of insulation of the clothing worn, and maybe it's dielectric contant. The effect is worse when the humidity is low, maybe SWMBO likes her car hot and dry.

Wearing insulated (synthetic) clothing the body aquires a charge shuffling around on the seat whilst driving. The seat covering aquires on opposite charge. When you stop and seperate yourself from the seat as you make to get out of the car work is done against the electrostatic attraction resulting in quite a high electrostatic potential. This is discharged when you touch the metal car body.

Grounding yourself using a coin onto bare metalwork after you've opened the door and before you've seperated from the seat works OK - this avoids getting zapped altogether, if you stand up and then ground yourself using a coin the coin will distribute the shock over a wider area, you will still feel it though.

Derek

[Rod]

The difference can also be due to thyroid hormone levels. I found this difficult to believe but having seen it happen/not happen and having read numerous similar reports, I accept that there must be something to it.

[Derek Geldard]

Sweating > salty damp skin?

DG

[Rod]

Maybe - but my experience is with hypos (who are more likely not to be sweating very much).

[dennis]

They work in the wet, but then you don't get static. They don't work in the dry as the road is an insulator.

[Thomas Prufer]

Spray the seat and floor with anti-static spray.

Either from an electronics shop as "anti-static spray", from a someplace in the clothes/laundry section as anti static cling spray, or d-i-y with dilute fabric softener in a spray bottle.

Thomas Prufer

[Mary Fisher]

I only get it in warm weather and then only when I get out and touch the door. My solution is to touch the door very lightly to discharge the static gently and painlessly.

Mary

>

[Andy Dingley]

Yes (literally), they discharge much of the static on a car chassis once it's parked for a moment.

Is this useful for stopping car sickness / petrol consumption / holes in the ozone layer. Is it hell.

Is it useful to you? Depends. If your car has the sort of soft- compound low-carbon tyres that build up a charge, then maybe. Or else you can paint a stripe of Aquadag paint on the back of the tyre. If you're charged (personally, relative to the chassis) because of the Dralon carpet and vinyl seats inside you Capri, probably not.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Mary Fisher" saying something like:

Wear cotton knickers.

[dennis]

Buy the ones marked placebo they are cheaper and work just as well.

[lemmy]

I am particularly prone to to static discharges when I get out of cars, to the extent that I (and, to their amusement, my family) have actually seen a small blue flash when I touch the car on exit. Nothing makes any difference. A static charge builds up and if you don't get the shock from the car you'll get it from the next metal thing you touch. I simply slap my hand quickly against the handle or whatever I touch....the sting of the slap masks the tingle of the static discharge. I've learnt to live with it - I'll never learn to like it.

[Bob Eager]

On Wed, 9 Jul 2008 22:20:01 UTC, lemmy top posted:

I lean against the door frame with my shoulder. The thickness of my shirt makes a slightly higher resistance path; it still discharges fast enough, but not fast enough to shock.

[lemmy]

Yes, I do that too, especially in shops. I must look like some kind of psycho turning sideways and pushing my shoulder against the glass instead of just grabbing the handle.

I once went to see someone on a business call who was on the phone when I arrived. He opened the door, then went to the other side of the large, carpeted room, to put down the phone, then walked back towards me to shake hands. We met half way across the room and as we touched to shake hands, there was a blue flash and a crackling noise. We both got a real jolt. Every time I shake hands with someone now, I do it sort of gingerly. I probably come across as decidedly limp wristed ....I'm not, just scared.

[jgharston]

Electrocution is a form of death. You can't get electrocuted more than once, and can't report it happening first-hand.

You're talking about receiving electric shocks.