If your electrodes are gold plated, then rubbing them with anything will take the gold right off. We recommend hot water, which washes the electrode paste right off withouth any rubbing. One clinician actually uses a coffee maker to make hot water, and just uses no filter or coffee. So if you don't have a hot water faucet right near by, the coffee maker idea is an easy way to have hot water right there at the ready, and even a little heater plate keeping it hot. It's like it was designed for cleaning electrodes. (Remember to put this out of grab range of any hyper active clients).

    As for non gold electrodes, those can survive some rubbing much better. The biggest issue is that the electrodes all need to be the same. Different electrodes with different metals, or even just different amounts of wear, will create galvanic voltages, like the old potato clocks, and voltages cause problems with the signal, especially at very low frequencies where we have been working lately.