2. analog
  3. 159454-15626

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
antinn
407 posts
 
This post spurred me to do some further research and I came upon this paper that shows that a water:IPA solution up to 80% H20/20%IPA is capable of removing static charge from an insulator (teflon was tested).   https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c23f/122eb9436b52a28fc5455674d5a699116578.pdf .  
zavato's avatar
zavato
1,403 posts
 
What single stereo item have I owned The longest and will never part with? My 35 year old zerostat. 
By the way- zapping a record before play 95% of the time results in no lifting of my felt mat
antinn
407 posts
 
Just a quick follow-up to my post about 80% H20/20%IPA being capable of removing static charge from an insulator.  The reason this works and plain water does not has to do with 'wetting' - the difference between the fluid surface tension and the critical surface tension of the insulator.  The critical surface tension for Teflon is ~19 dynes/cm (~one half of PVC) and  80% H20/20%IPA surface tension is 30 dynes/cm - low enough to 'wet' the Teflon.  Given these results, a 90% H20/10%IPA with surface tension of 40 dynes/cm would be more than adequate to remove static from a PVC record that is ~38 dynes/cm.  Just remember that for water-IPA solutions with >2% IPA - the vapors are flammable.
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
Antinn, I prefer 100% IPA for cleaning records. That way the job never gets done.
The elusive disc arm is nicely made but has one fault and that is the brush is camel hair and not near as conductive as carbon bristles. I bought one and checked it with a meter. Carbon registers continuity camel hair does not. I sent it back.
Yes, you will short out one side of the record on a grounded bare metal platter but it does nothing for the side generating the charge and sucking in the dust. I also personally prefer a mat of the proper durometer. It does sound better to me as does either vacuum hold down or a reflex clamping system.
Give the darn $20.00 arm a spin. I'll buy it off ya if you don't like it:)
lewm
13,120 posts
 
Most mysteriously to me, UV light at the right wave length and intensity will also dissipate static electric charge. There's an expensive tweak product idea for someone.
More to discover