Electric water heater??

[JeepGuy]

so i think i jkust found out our 160 has a electric water heater. i was winterizing the camper today and whil ei was removing the drain from the water heater tank i noticed a on/off switch and right next to it it says" dont not turn on electrode while tank is empty" so is this the switch for a electric water heater? my dealer didnt show us anything about the camper execpt how to put the awing up and where the heater switch is. and another question. when i pulled the drain plug on the hot water tank there was a big rod thing on it and i guess from what i can find out is it s a anode but im not sure for what and it was really pitted, is it supposed to be like that? sorry for the stupid questions but our dealer was not helpfull when we bought this and im kinda learning as i go

[Van]

IIRC, the water heater is both gas and electric. When you turn the water heater on inside the RV, it will use the electric coils to heat the tank when the demand for hot water is not immediate. When you are using a lot of hot water or boon docking, the water heater will use propane.

Make sure that switch is off when you drain the tank or you can burn up the electric coils. Which you realized.

[JeepGuy]

thanks for the info. i found if the switch is off the heater runs on propane if its on it runs on electric. i also found out that thew anode is suppoed to be pitted because it saves the lining of the water heater