I get shocked when i touch my amp??!?

[Race Car Driver]

Ok, so I moved my Aragon 4004 amp and Sunfire TGII to the opposite side of my room.
And ive noticed every time i get up to turn up the reciver volume, change input etc, touch the amp, i get shocked and i can see the "static electricity" or whatever at the tip of my finger...

Now this happens every 9/10 times i do this...

Have no idea why its doing this now.. it started after I moved the stuff..

Any ideas? Bad outlet?

[Lex]

Are you using a cheater plug? If so, get that off immediately and restore ground. It is possible your ground is bad on outlet, if this is consistent I would not mess around, I'd call an electrician immediately to have the outlet checked. 110 kills more people in this country than all other electrical accidents combined.

Lastly, a personal request, please add your first name to your signature in accordance with the rules seen in admin and current announcement.

Thanks
Doug

[Race Car Driver]

No cheater plugs here.

[csuzor]

Read http://www.htguide.com/forum/showthread.php4?t=16710

[Stoney]

If you are experiencing static discharge problems, you may need to run a humidifier in your home/room. Here in New Mexico, using an evaporative air cooler in the summer keeps the house humidity up. In the winter, the forced air heater sucks even more moisture out of the desert air. I use a whole house humidifier to try and keep the inside humidity between 25-38%. This eliminates the static problems and is still low enough that I don't get a lot of condensation buildup on the inside of the windows or frames on the really cold nights.

[Race Car Driver]

Thanks for the info, i moved outlets to see if that does anything.
My nice DMM is at work, ill test the outlet this weekend and see whats up.
Good link too!
Thanks

[Lex]

Stoney, that's good advice.

[greytop]

Hi all,

New to the forum, but I also agree with stoneys advice, IF it is static! I have the same problem during the first part of the winter heating season when I turn on/off my b&k amp. Try a simple test. Walk over to your amp like you normally do, then wait about 30 seconds before you touch it. This was a quik fix for me until I got the humidifier going. Although,If you have any electrician friends, I would seek there advice 1st!

-greytop-

[Burke Strickland]

Good advice to avoid "cheater plugs". Hope that your shocks are just from static electricity and not a more dangerous electrical situation.

Having lived in Arizona, I know how dry the desert air is and how shocking a trip across the carpet can be in that climate. However, we DEhumidify the indoor air in Houston to get it down to a comfortable 50%. :>)

Burke

[wildfire99]

If it's static, keep a coin or similar by the amp and hold it and touch the amp with the coin/metal thing first. The arc will jump across to the coin and pass less violently into your body.

[csuzor]

Static is bad for any circuit, and can instantly destroy the DAC and other processors in hifi. The single biggest problem for manufacturing these circuits is to integrate some form of ESD (electostatic discharge) protection that is sufficient... needless to say, it often isnt. Trust me on this.

So don't mess with static. If you have it, add a ground to the unit and get rid of static permanently. Making it easier for you to touch, doesn't make it any easier on your gear. And adding humidity into the house (or finding the right humidity level) to just the right level to avoid static, is both difficult to control year-round, and prone to other problems (condensation, bacteria, air-borne contaminants, etc).

[Tha Freak]

I get shocked when someone touch MY amps… :lol:

[whoaru99]

Yeah, if you see an arc, it's not an AC mains problem because if it was you probably wouldn't be here telling us about it.

I'd guess the reason it's happening now is because it's a longer walk to the gear and you have more time to build up static charge walking over there. Could also be just the change in seasons to a less humid condition.

Any difference in the carpets, etc. that you have to walk across now versus before? New clothes, a nice new house coat that you're wearing now?