Options for ridding records of static electricity


I am getting back into vinyl, listening to “garage sale” finds and also new albums that I have been picking up. I have a nice old Linn Sondek LP12 with the felt mat. Every time I go to remove a record from the spindle or flip the record, static electricity grabs the felt mat and it sticks like a magnet. I have to very carefully flip the felt mat at the corner with my finger but one of these times I’m going to slip and smudge or scratch a record. 

I’ve seen the “Milty Zerostat” and seem to remember this product from back in the day. I see that it is still made and there is one eBay vendor that has them for $77. Is this my best bet? I thought Michael Fremor talked about these in one of his videos. 

Are there other products I should look at to reduce static electricity on my records? Thanks for any help you can give.
masi61
I think the kindest thing to say here is that in Mijo system to his ears he hears no degradation in SQ with the dustcover on and down.
And we certainly cannot gainsay that as we are not there.

However if you use a little bit of statistics you will see that vastly more members do hear degradation in SQ on their TT with the dustcover on and down.

Nuff said imho. 
I’m not a proponent of products like Groove Glide as the actual installation process involves static charge.

We take care and time and expense in cleaning our precious lps. Why in the _ell do we want to then add another product in these freshly cleaned grooves? Makes no sense.
@slaw  The actual installation process of Gruv Glide involves static charge, do explain? 
Most folks use Gruv Glide on noisy pressings to reduce back ground hash, it also secondarily helps in reducing static build up on the vinyl. Personally, i see little reason to use it on pristine vinyl, but it makes plenty of sense on less than pristine vinyl...if you ever used it that is..............
Mijo, We have the air and our own skin, both of which are high on the list of solids that like to give up electrons and take on positive charge. On the other hand, we have vinyl which likes to take on electrons and negative charge. When we play an LP, we touch the vinyl thereby transferring any electrons stored up in our bodies due to walking across carpet, etc, to the LP. Then too, the vinyl moves with respect to the static mass of air in the room which would create a frictional effect at the LP surface causing electrons to rub off on vinyl. And I haven’t mentioned the act of removing an LP from its sleeve, which if made of paper will also confer electrons on the LP. So we have two or maybe three sources of electrons available to the vinyl. Why then do we need the idea that the inert diamond stylus is the primary suspect in the process of building up charge on an LP???? Where does that idea come from?

Thank you for spurring me to consult the Triboelectric tables, available in abundance on the internet, from which I get the data to support my claim. One of us should get hold of a static charge meter. Then measure the charge on an LP surface prior to play, after play, and after letting it just rotate on the platter for 20 minutes or so, with the stylus at rest. Compare numbers. It’s a very tricky experiment to do correctly, though. The Shure Corporation paper on static charge talks about the problems of proper measurements.