The desk mat earths you during the hours you are sitting at your desk anyway. It lies in front of your keyboard or under your feet, and that is all it takes. Below you will find how to connect it, how to clean it, and what to do if you have no earthed socket.
Connected in five steps
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Take the mat out of the packaging. The earthing cable with plug is packed loose alongside it.
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Put the mat where you want to use it: on your desk in front of the keyboard, or on the floor under your desk chair.
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Click the earthing cable onto the press stud on the mat. You will feel it lock into place.
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Put the plug into an earthed socket. Only the earth contact is used, never the live wire. This works on earthed sockets across Europe.
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Rest your wrists or your bare feet on it. The contact runs through your skin, so shoes and socks break it.
Thirty to forty minutes a day is enough. An ordinary morning at your desk goes well past that, and more does no harm.
Good to know
Above or below the desk, both work. On the desk the contact comes through your wrists while you type. On the floor through the soles of your feet, shoes off. Move it around as you like: it is the same mat.
Socket not next to your desk? The cable is 4.6 metres, so usually you will reach. If it is further away, the fifteen metre extension cable covers the rest.
Building up slowly is fine. If you are sensitive, you may feel a light tingling in your hands or feet the first few times. Start with half an hour a day and build it up. There is more about this in what you can feel and expect and in earthing for beginners.
Cleaning
The mat is vegan faux leather and rubber and cannot go in the washing machine. Clean it with a mild, natural soap well diluted with water. Wipe the mat with a damp cloth or a soft sponge.
Use no scouring agent and no aggressive cleaner. Those attack the top layer, and it is that layer which conducts.
No earthed socket?
An earthed socket has metal pins at the top and bottom as well as the two holes. If you cannot see those, the socket is not earthed.
If there is none in the house, there are two other ways. With the earthing pin you push the earth point into the ground outside and bring it in on fifteen metres of cable. With the alligator clip you clamp it onto an unpainted heating pipe or radiator. Both are explained in earthing without an earthed socket.
