On Jan 16, 7:23 pm, mm wrote:
On Wed, 16 Jan 2008 16:00:44 -0800 (PST), "

wrote:

?*** ?Its arrangement of parts, its owners manual, and its component
parts (heating elements and thermostats) was almost identical to the
house's original water heater that it replaced. That one was made by
A.O.Smith and was 65 gallons (for a 3-bedroom moderate-sized
townhouse.) ?In fact that is why I bought my WH from Sears. A.O.Smith
doesn't seem to sell one at a time, and Sears's was the only one I
could find which had the hot and cold water pipes at the same distance
from each other as the previous WH. (So I'm compulsive. ?Sue me.)

the sacrifical anode, or what remains of it is likely mixed in the
crud in the bottom of the tank

I don't know.

Where would it have been attached? There is no sign of an attachment
place in the top of the WH or the bottom. They are both smooth except
the top has a hole for the input and a hole for the output.

And there is definitely no hole in the top of the WH where one can
unscrew it from the outside and replace it.

I don't think there is any place on the sides either. Do they ever
put it threre?

With many Sears items, you can go to their website for parts ordering,
etc. Many times there is a drawing to identify parts. Perhaps, if
there was an anode, it will be identified and placed in the drawing.