Static electricity from vacuum cleaners

[Stephen Tashiro]

In using a shop vac to vacuum in the garage on a cold dry day, I sometimes shocks of static electricity when I touch something that is grounded, like a work light or exposed wiring in the attic. I've also gotten static shocks from using an ordinary vacuum cleaner on outdoor carpet in a carport. I associate this problem with the mostly plastic construction of modern vacuum cleaners. Is there a simple way to prevent it? - some sort of anti-static spray?

[Bruce King]

Replace the hose with a rubber one or put a copper wire inside the one you have.
https://www.dustlesstools.com/blog/how-to-fix-static-shock-on-your-vacuum-hose/

[Andrew Seemann]

It is the dust and air going through the plastic hose. I suppose you could run a ground wire along the hose to help dissipate it. For an upright one, I suppose it could be the beater brush on the carpet, or maybe air and dust through the body of the vac; not sure how you fix either of those.

One of the more annoying winter static rituals I have found is getting shocked every few minutes pushing the cart at the local grocery store. It doesn't always happen, but there is apparently some humidity level that allows the friction between the wheels and the carpet to build up a static charge that then zaps me through the cart handle.

[Rod Sheridan]

The issue is that the hose is non conductive.

I have a festool shop vacuum, the hose is conductive and is connected to ground by the vacuum, no static issues.

To do this you need a vacuum with a 3 conductor cord to provide the ground connection...............Regards, Rod.

[Doug Dawson]

It is the dust and air going through the plastic hose. I suppose you could run a ground wire along the hose to help dissipate it. For an upright one, I suppose it could be the beater brush on the carpet, or maybe air and dust through the body of the vac; not sure how you fix either of those.

One of the more annoying winter static rituals I have found is getting shocked every few minutes pushing the cart at the local grocery store. It doesn't always happen, but there is apparently some humidity level that allows the friction between the wheels and the carpet to build up a static charge that then zaps me through the cart handle.

You could put a chain around your leg and have it dragging on the ground, just like the trucks do. That might help the situation. Or at the very least it’s a good conversation starter with the women.

[Brian Tymchak]

One of the more annoying winter static rituals I have found is getting shocked every few minutes pushing the cart at the local grocery store. It doesn't always happen, but there is apparently some humidity level that allows the friction between the wheels and the carpet to build up a static charge that then zaps me through the cart handle.

Your grocery store has carpeting?? I can't imagine a worse floor covering for that env.

[Lee Schierer]

When I first installed my pvc pipe system for my dust collector it generated lots of static. After a short while airborne dust collected on the outside of the pipes and the static was gone and hasn't come back.

Try this with your shop vac & hose. Get a bucket of saw dust and rub the outside of your shop vac & hose with the saw dust.

[Bill Dufour]

At the lab the carts for liquid hydrogen had conductive rubber wheels and they had a soft wire cable dragging on the floor. Remember when police cars had that ground wire dragging under them. I always though it was to protect the radio.
Bil lD

[Kev Williams]

Worst static shocks I've ever gotten, and still get, are simply from pulling 2 sheets of plastic apart. The worst is when one or both of them have metallic surface like imitation brass or aluminum engraving stock. A spark between those can travel over 3", and the jolt is right up there with getting nailed by a spark plug wire! I have a 20x24" sticky-mat for holding parts for engraving, when pulling it off the hard anodized aluminum engraving table, simply pulling it off the table creates about a thousand static sparks between it and the table; if I pull too fast I'll get jolted pretty good.

Our malte-poo, she'll walk from the couch the wife's sitting on to my recliner, and before she'll walk onto ME, she'll dangle her paw about an inch from my belly for a couple of seconds, because she's afraid of the spark that almost always happens :)

Getting a static electricity making machine like a vacuum cleaner to NOT shock you-- I'd try rubber gloves ;)

[Lee Schierer]

At the lab the carts for liquid hydrogen had conductive rubber wheels and they had a soft wire cable dragging on the floor. Remember when police cars had that ground wire dragging under them. I always though it was to protect the radio.
Bil lD

Many of you are too young to remember vinyl seats in cars. Many people were routinely zapped as the would get in or out of the car due to the static created between their clothes and the plastic seats. Many cars would have conductive rubber strips hanging off the frame of the car to dissipate the charge on the car. My wife purchased a 53 olds with those seats before we weremarried and she was getting zapped until we installed a conductive rubber strip under the car.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Static electricity could rob me of my hearing via my cochlear implant by damaging it. Understand that static electricity in electronics doesn't have to be catastrophic but can also be additive to eventually render something damaged beyond use. Buffing on my lathe projects I have to wear a static discharge wristband that is grounded to the lathe by a springy cable. It's the same type device I wore when I was installing and servicing MR & CT scanners.

[Bill Dufour]

Thanks Lee. You are correct they were rubber not metal. Didn't they have something at a toll booth to ground the cars to prevent shocks as money was handed over.
Bil lD

[Lee Schierer]

Thanks Lee. You are correct they were rubber not metal. Didn't they have something at a toll booth to ground the cars o prevent shocks as money was handed over.
Bil lD

I remember seeing something sticking up in the middle so the lane at toll booths and it might have been for that purpose, but most likely wasn't effective due to the dirt/undercoating on the under carriage of most vehicles.

[Bill Dufour]

AFAIK they still say if you are in your car and a powerline falls onto it stay inside. the rubber tires insulate you from the ground so you are safe until you set foot on the ground.
Bill D

[Lee Schierer]

AFAIK they still say if you are in your car and a powerline falls onto it stay inside. the rubebr tires insulate you from the ground so you are safe until you set foot on the ground.
Bill D

The same is supposed to be true of a lightning strike on your car or airplane if you are inside. I don't want to try either.....

[Bill Dufour]

My wife and I werre driving on a county road on a nice clear summer day. We saw a power line? crossing the road about 1/4 mie ahead turn electric arc blue and vaporize in a wall of smoke. It took long enough for us to ask what is that then what was that. As we got closer I felt a little safer knowing the rubber tires should protect us.
We never saw anything on the road like ashes or metal. We did see a small fire at the base of a telephone pole. I would have made a u-turn if there was still a wire on the road.
Bill D.

[Dave Anderson NH]

I can testify to the fact that a lightning strike on a car won't get you. On 6/6/66 the day I graduated high school my Dad and I were driving home in his '65 Falcon in a huge rainy thunderstorm. As we topped a hill the car was struck by lightning. It was as if someone had poured a 50 gallon drum of orange Kool-Aid over the windshield. When we got in the garage and looked at the car there were half a dozen little scorch spots at the top of the front roof support on the passenger side which had burned right through the paint. Strangely enough neither of us had to change our underwear.

[Ronald Blue]

I can testify to the fact that a lightning strike on a car won't get you. On 6/6/66 the day I graduated high school my Dad and I were driving home in his '65 Falcon in a huge rainy thunderstorm. As we topped a hill the car was struck by lightning. It was as if someone had poured a 50 gallon drum of orange Kool-Aid over the windshield. When we got in the garage and looked at the car there were half a dozen little scorch spots at the top of the front roof support on the passenger side which had burned right through the paint. Strangely enough neither of us had to change our underwear.

Hopefully you have changed them since....:D.

On a more serious note if you should ever be in a situation where there is a high voltage line close to you on a vehicle or the ground they say to shuffle your feet as you move away. Lifting your feet can give a path for the current to flow but shuffling keeps both potential conductors (feet) in contact with the ground. Something they have started telling us the last few years in crane safety training in case it comes in contact with power lines or were to tear them down.

[Brian Deakin]

Many years ago I was in a department store with my wife and when I touched some of the items on display sparks came out of my fingertips
I thought this was fantastic and like the eternal school boy/child I proceeded to deliberately shuffle my feet across the carpet in the store and attempt to create as many sparks as possible
I tried to demonstrate my new skill to my recently acquired wife who told me off and made me leave the store
30 years later our children call me Fun dad and my wife the sensible parent Fun spoiler
If the children want a yes answer they come to dad if they want a sensible answer they go to mum
To this day I have not a clue why

[Doug Dawson]

In a vacuum cleaner, dust particles are drawn into the plastic tube and it is these particles that cause the build up of static elecrticity. In the case of a compressed-air source, only clean air should be moving against the nozzle. A typical domestic vacuum cleaner is a relatively clumsy device.

FWIW, that is also how it works with the you tubes.

[Tom M King]

We;ve noticed, when brushing horses, you have to wear all cotton. Synthetics can build a charge. I'm almost always wearing all cotton, and I don't remember ever being shocked by a shop vac. Don't know if that matters, or not, but it seems like it's worth considering.

[Andrew Seemann]

We;ve noticed, when brushing horses, you have to wear all cotton. Synthetics can build a charge. I'm almost always wearing all cotton, and I don't remember ever being shocked by a shop vac. Don't know if that matters, or not, but it seems like it's worth considering.

Well, this afternoon I was vacuuming router chips and dust off the floor wearing cotton jeans, a cotton shirt, and cotton underwear, and I definitely got zapped several times, even while on my hands and knees. The RH in the shop is somewhere around 25%; that may have had something to do with it.

[Rod Sheridan]

The same is supposed to be true of a lightning strike on your car or airplane if you are inside. I don't want to try either.....

Lee, if the electricity can jump a kilometre through the atmosphere, it won't have an issue jumping the 30cm from the car to the ground.

What the car provides as protection, is a Faraday cage, the metal enclosure being conductive, keeps everything at almost the same potential. The car may be hundreds of thousands of volts with respect to the earth, having the potential differences inside may be less than one hundred volts. This prevents current from travelling through your body.

regards, Rod.

[Lee Schierer]

Lee, if the electricity can jump a kilometre through the atmosphere, it won't have an issue jumping the 30cm from the car to the ground.

What the car provides as protection, is a Faraday cage, the metal enclosure being conductive, keeps everything at almost the same potential. The car may be hundreds of thousands of volts with respect to the earth, having the potential differences inside may be less than one hundred volts. This prevents current from travelling through your body.

regards, Rod.

Having been within 100 feet of a lightning strike I don't care to get any closer. I am well acquaited with faraday cages having been inside several secure communication spaces during my Naval career.