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Registered Member #61695
Joined: Sun Jul 16 2017, 11:22PM
Location:
Posts: 31
Recently I put a polyester fleece furry blanket in the tumble dryer. When I opened the dryer there was an intense force field of static around the blanket and the plastic inside of the dryer door. It was literally possible to feel the electric field, like near a good Van de Graaff generator.
My question is, why does the charge not discharge to the metal drum? It discharged from the blanket to my hand from several centimetres away. How does it build up so much when it could arc to the metal? Is the metal too smooth? Is the drum not earthed?
Registered Member #27
Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 02:20AM
Location: Hyperborea
Posts: 2058
I did a survey of two tumble driers today and one had 30 Ohm to ground and the other had no connection to ground.
Conundrum is probably on to something in that some parts of the blanket will be isolated from the drum by itself. When you separate two oppositely charged items you must apply a force and the energy you use to separate them goes into increased voltage to account for the energy you use. So when the blanket fall from the top of the drum to the bottom the voltage can increase a lot in just a single fall. So it can be pretty complicated to figure out exactly what part is charged and why.
Did you touch the drum to see if that was charged too?
Registered Member #61695
Joined: Sun Jul 16 2017, 11:22PM
Location:
Posts: 31
I didn't notice if the drum was charged. It seemed to be mostly the blanket and the door.
I guess I will have to do it again and investigate exactly what is charged, and whether the drum is earthed. I could use my static detector to find out where the positive and negative charges are.
Registered Member #62109
Joined: Sun Jan 28 2018, 10:00PM
Location: Porto Alegre
Posts: 56
I think I only saw something like that one or two times. There is a lot of humidity in air around here. And we don't use much carpet here. If I put one probe of my multimeter on the 127V from wall and the other probe on the floor of my garage and just touch the "basalt" rock, I get 80V.
Registered Member #61695
Joined: Sun Jul 16 2017, 11:22PM
Location:
Posts: 31
I measured the resistance from the tumble drier drum to ground and it was only a few Ohms. Maybe the ground connection is acting as a source of charge, as with a Van de Graaff generator? Maybe the friction between the blanket and the plastic door generates opposite charges on them, then the blanket loses some of its charge to the earthed drum, so it can charge the door even more. Both were charged, but the door seemed even more charged than the blanket.
Registered Member #96
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4059
yes that makes sense. I wouldn't worry about it as long as grounding is OK and you aren't operating it in a flammable atmosphere all should be fine. -A
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Question about static electricity in tumble dryer
