Salmon Egg wrote:

Anyone that has ever pulled anything out of anything old and untouched has
risked or done damage and has a surprise or two. Broken bolts, stripped
thread, twisted connections valves that leak by, and on and on.

Example: I helped my maintenance guys today. Last Thursday the were going
to pull a basin pan out of a water cooling tower and replace it with the new
one. Figured they would do one side in a day, the second side in less time.
They are on day 5 and were fabricating more parts this morning. Side two
will go easier since we know what parts will fall apart.

I've been working around mechanical things for the past 50+ years. ****
happens.

It is experiences like these that make me wary of inspecting and
replacing the anode. I am pretty sure I will get another few years out
of the heater. In the back of my mind is the thought of the effort of
taking out the anode only to find out everything was ok until I screwed
things up.

But wouldn't removal be more difficult the longer it is left? I need to
check, but I'm almost sure that the instructions for the water heater I
installed earlier this year say to check the anode every six months.

Perce