On Thu, Apr 24, 2014 at 1:20 PM,  wrote:

>   Use a stainless steel plate or bolt as your anode. You can use most
> iron/steel, and the first article I read suggested iron rebar. Ferrous
> metals break down and make a nasty mess whereas with stainless I only end
> up with rust particles in my electrolyte.
>

 Using stainless steel for the anode will fill your water with hexavalent
chromium compounds which are both quite bad for you and persistent in the
environment.

While I support people being able to decided for themselves if the risk
outweighs the advantages of clean anodes I think people should be making
informed decisions when engaging in recreational electrochemistry.  It
seems simple and clean but you can cook up all kinds of nastys if you do
not know what you are doing.

For some light reading:
http://en.wikipedia.o
rg/wiki/Hexavalent_chromium

Growing up around buffalo we got to learn about a different popular
electrochemical reaction involving just saltwater.  You can make all kinds
of bad.
http://en.wikipedia.o
rg/wiki/Chloralkali_process

Bob