We decided to go with gold over nickel. That will ensure no oxides. It seem to me that the chromium oxide on stainless pretty much guarantees there can’t be full contact. Now that I know about that, I am surprised you have done OK with unplated stainless. Maybe it is because you are running under 0.4 MA/cm^2 and we are running a bit above that–0.5 MA/cm^2. The gold should ensure we can go up to 1 MA/cm^2 at full power.
