Tarnished Fixtures
The many tarnished faucets and other fixtures that grace our bathrooms are sure sign of either age of the galvanic effect of different metals getting in touch together causing an electro-chemical reaction even when it shouldn’t. In layman’s terms, the fixture that was designed not to rust is rusting, resulting in that ugly orange stain that simply won’t go away.
Taking you back to your basic chemistry, we know that for the basic chemical battery to work, you need two different metals and an acid to initiate the reaction resulting in an electric charge. In the case of your bathroom, most fixtures are made of either brass or zinc, combined with the copper or galvanized steel pipes and there you have the beginnings of a chemical battery. To avoid the stains or rusting, try to use isolators that keeps similar metals together, separating them to ensure it doesn’t become a problem.