I've recently started getting shocked from the treadmills at the gym whenever I touched the buttons on their console. It's getting seriously hard to use them because the shock is not mild it's rather harsh. Now apart from talking to the manager and having them look at them is there something else I can do to avoid it?
I was thinking of taking a wooden stick like a wooden toy or whatever and touch the buttons using that stick. Will that still shock me?
Update 1:
So I tried using a wooden pencil that had a rubber eraser on one end. I was tapping the console buttons with the eraser and I could hear a 'zap' sound but I didn't feel the shock except once although not sure why. Maybe I should remove the lead from the pencil.
Update 2:
So what I ended up doing that seems to work is I got a pencil and wrapped it in electrical tape. I tap the buttons of the treadmill using the rubber end of the pencil and today at least I never got shocked. I am curious about wearing an antistatic wrist bracelet but it seems I have to order it online as I can't find one in a store here and then again I'm also kinda scared to use it to be honest 😀 Thank you all for your answers they were very helpful.
Best Answer
It's your shoes rubbing the surface of the treadmill that are the problem, try different ones. You could try putting cotton socks over them, or wearing leather soled shoes, rather than rubber soles. Then you won't need wooden sticks, although that is a solution, but you may still get a discharge shock later.
The best way is to avoid static buildup in the first place.