The electrochemical reduction of CO2 provides a sustainable route to produce key building blocks in the petrochemical and manufacturing industries, thereby reducing carbon emissions and dependence on non-renewable sources. Zero gap electrolyzers are more energy efficient compared to traditional electrolyzers due to significant reduction in ohmic losses. However, the challenge of salting out limits the lifetimes of high performance zero gap electrolyzers to a few hours, hindering their adoption into industry.Pulsed currents have been shown to increase the electrochemical stability of copper-based electrodes during the electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR). High operating current provides favorable CO2RR product efficiencies, but also increases the salt crossover from the anolyte to the cathode where the salt precipitation may lead to blocking the CO2 flow fields causing the electrolyzer to fail. We demonstrate an operating protocol that incorporates a short period of lower current which reduces CO2 consumption and allows for dissolution of carbonate salt on the cathode surface by reducing cation crossover. This is followed by a higher current to maximize CO2RR products. Intermittent pulsing reverses some of the carbonate salt production at the cathode, which allows the electrolyzer cell to restore itself, thereby increasing lifetime. The method is demonstrated in a 5cm2 zero-gap cell, with KOH, CsOH and CsHCO3 to establish the extent of this method’s utility with different cations and the effect of solubility limits on this salting behavior. By employing this pulsing protocol, we observe significantly increased cell lifetimes at a high current density of 200mA/cm2.This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence LivermoreNational Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.LLNL-ABS-847304