01-18-2012, 07:06 PM
deckeda wrote: Right, right. I wasn't going to mess with it myself until I was prepared for the worst, regardless of who did the work. But I have a question, if you yank the anode and it's say, partially eaten (which I would expect?) wouldn't you just replace it anyway?
Yes, you're going to replace the anode anyway. However, if the old anode is completely gone, then you know that corrosion will have started attacking the tank and may want to go ahead and replace the tank at that point. If there is still material left on the anode, then the tank won't have been corroded because corrosion eats up the anode before it starts on the tank. Looking at the anode is a diagnostic tool to tell you whether the tank is OK or not.