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Back To Static!

We had a long discussion on the possible causes of static electrical charges on records in another thread. We just had a real good cold snap in New England dropping the humidity to under 20% so I was able to run a set of qualitative experiments documenting some surprising results that I hope will clear up a lot of the mystery and help people contro static charge and the accumulation of dust on their record. 
Static field meters are expensive.  The cheapest one I could find cost $260. I had to find a more sensitive way to measure static as it became apparent that using your own hair is very insensitive. Studying the Triboelectric series I noted that polypropylene is at the opposite end to PVS.  I have polypropylene in the form of suture material, the blue thread that many of you have seen. I tied a length of 6-0 Prolene  to a wood dowel and it worked beautifully. The PVC attracts it like a magnet and the Label repels it. It will pick up very small charges that otherwise go undetected. I can now define four conditions; No charge, Light charge, Charged and Heavily charged. It turns out that completely discharging a record is not easy. The label will actually donate electrons to the vinyl over time reaching an equilibrium point. Totally discharging a record required using a Pro-Ject conductive record brush wired to ground. If I suspend a discharged record (no thread activity) by it's hole within 30 minutes it will develop a slight charge (vinyl attracts the thread, label repels it). This will appear to us as an uncharged record. 
Does playing a record increase the static charge?  Yes absolutely, and the charge is additive. Playing the record over and over again progressively increases the charge from slightly to heavily charged. 
Does how you store the record effect charge? Yes absolutely. Records stored in MoFi antistatic sleeves come out with the baseline small charge. Records stored in paper come out with a noticeably higher charge. These are records that have been totally discharged prior to storage. A record that is charged when you put it away will come out at least as charged even if you are using anti static sleeves. Do conductive sweep arms work? Sort of. If the sweep arm leads the stylus charge will still accumulate. The brush has to track with the stylus. 
Unfortunately, I could not get hold of a Zerostat to test it's effectiveness. Regardless, a charge will accumulate with play.
The single best way to totally discharge a record is a conductive brush wired to ground. Just holding it will not work as well. The impedance of your tissue is in the megaohms. You want a dead short. Even so, a small charge will accumulate over a short period of time. The safest assumption is that there is always a charge on the record attracting dust. So, don't leave records out for any period of time. In regards to the hot topic of dust covers, a properly designed Dust cover does not affect sound quality. If your dust cover does effect sound quality in a negative way then you have a choice between sound quality and dirtier records. Your records, your choice. 
I would love to be able to stage voltages. If in the future I manage to come up with a static field meter I will repeat all of this in a quantitative way. Humidity is a huge factor. Those living in more humid environments have less trouble with static accumulation. I suspect everything occurs in like fashion just the voltages are lower. Lower to the point that they do not need any device to lower the charge?  I don't know. 

128x128mijostyn
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn OP
8,570 posts
 
@antinn , Much appreciated. Even if you could even totally neutralize a record, it will develop a charge almost immediately especially if the humidity is less than 40 %. At 20% RH just playing the record will develop a small charge. I wish I could calibrate my wool thread with a meter to be able to estimate the voltage. Rough guess would be 1 kV which is barely enough to notice. At higher humidity I can not measure any additional charge by the crude method I am using.
The brush in this experiment was not touching the nonconductive film.
I would have loved to see the voltage drop with the brush touching the film. Not touching it dropped the voltage from 10 kV to 500 V. Touching one would have to assume it would be at least a little better. My take away is grounded brushes do work but Ionization and brushes together work best. Will devices like Zerostats and electronic candle lighters work well enough to neutralized a heavily charged record? I have a candle lighter to play with and will get back with my impression. 
I think the most important take away is nothing will entirely neutralize static electricity on records. They will always be charge if only slightly. Any charge is enough to attract dust and other contaminates. Records should never be left out and except for transfers should always be under cover. Using well grounded conductive brushes to minimize the charge and collect incidental dust are useful. Ionizers can also be useful for static control but do not remove any dust. Control of the environment with humidification in the Winter, use of high efficiency filters in air handlers year round and powerful exhaust fans in cooking areas will assist in keeping records clean. 
Antinn's paper is the most comprehensive review of record cleaning I have ever seen and should be on the reading list of every record collector. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/viewer.html?pdfurl=https%3A%2F%2Fthevinylpress.com%2Fapp%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F03%2FPAC-Vinyl-Records_2021-03-01_pdf.pdf&clen=5630483&chunk=true 
antinn
408 posts
 
@mijostyn,

I think you have typo, the report says the brush alone reduced voltage to at best 3380V.  

Regarding particles this is quite a statement from the report pageb16, "A Sealeze™ brush making minimal contact with a suitable substrate would be capable of physically dislodging particulates after the ionization neutralization process. Physical contact with the use of a brush or close proximity to the ionizer alone may not dislodge a charge particle. For instance, charging a 4” silicon wafer to 1000 volts attracts a one (1) micron size particle. Thus, the bonding force of charged microns is approximately 830,000 pounds per square inch."

And we wonder why its difficult to remove particles from a record.  For those with big static problems there is the  DS Audio ION-001 Ionizer | Products | Musical Surroundings but at $1800 is not cheap.  I am staying with my wet cleaning process, standard antistatic sleeves and DIY $50 ESD platter mat and grounded platter/spindle.

vortrex
273 posts
 
I recently got the CSPort IME1, which is similar to the DS Audio. This completely removes all voltage charge from the vinyl. Nothing comes close to this and I’ve tried everything over the years. There is a noticeable difference in sound quality with an LP that has no voltage charge and I’m not talking about the static pops. 
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn OP
8,570 posts
 
@antinn, for certain your cleaning process is the most comprehensive I have ever read about and for heavily contaminated records probably the only decent approach to the problem.

You are right about the voltage drops I miss-read the next table. It is ionization and the brush together. However, the article specifically says the brush "was placed in close proximity" to the substrate and 1/16th of an inch is mentioned twice. That voltage drop is not with the brush touching the substrate but a 16th off. There must have been a reason they did not want it touching the film. Perhaps there was a coating they did not want removed or maybe the brush would have damaged the film. A metal bar may have worked just as well in this application. If a brush touching the substrate drops the voltage enough it will remove particles.
I have been using a conductive sweep arm for decades and these are my observations limited as they are. The brush definitely drops the voltage to  low levels which are barely measurable by wool thread.  The brush definitely picks up visible dust because I always have to clean it off. I have no easy way of knowing what happens with smaller particulates.
Will ionization make a noticeable difference? I'm hoping to find out.  The candle lighter was only $12.00 and operates with considerably more gusto than the Zerostat or at least it looks like it does. It lights candles great. Try that with a Zerostat:-)   
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn OP
8,570 posts
 
I just took a look at DS Audio's Ionizer. The marketing is suspect.
It assumes the static is coming from the stylus rubbing the groove which as we know is not entirely correct. It generates both positive and negative ions? First of all, it only needs to generate positive ions to neutralize the negative electrons collected by the record. If it makes both charges they will simply neutralize each other and diminish any effect on the record. 
 
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