hey folks Randy with pizza another quick segment for you one of the question when I was in the service department was what's an animal rod or what's this thing that I've just pulled out of my water heater and do I need to change it what the anode rod is in the suburban water heaters it's a rod that we use as our plug as well and we draw it out of the tank and it's gonna look like this if it's a brand new if it's gonna be slightly used it's gonna look like this guy here and if it's completely gone it's gonna look like that right there what the anode rod is is a it's a sacrificial stick that keeps our tank from rusting when we screw this into the hot water heater we've actually put some minerals in there that will through a process of electrolysis will actually dissipate rather than having our steel tank rust so very important if you're an old rod looks like this or if it's starting to look like this grab yourself a new one maybe after you winterize so you start out with a new one in the spring another thing that you can do when you've got that in old rod out is go ahead and use one of these tank flushes which can be purchased at the Pete's RV online store this will get anything that's in that hot water heater out any discharge or any minerals left on the water through the heating process and good thing that once you've got that in order I'll throw this in there put it in the hole let the water run out and clean your tank so anyway there's our little quick ticket segment on the anode rod and a little history for you the anode rod has been used on steel battleships since the early 1800s to keep the hulls from rusting so technology has been out a long time we're now seeing it in an RV industry keep an eye on your anode rods make sure that they're fresh so that tank doesn't rust it's going to last you a long time all this stuff can be purchased at the Pete's RV store you can find us at WWDC recom or come visit us on our Facebook page thanks for watching our quick tech segment today and thanks for taking Pete's RV and happy camping