What is this piece from hot water heater?

[Tree3]

I was removing the anode rod to drain the hot water tank. A
All of a sudden water came gushing out under pressure and sprayed everywhere. I don’t remember it coming out with such force in the past. Maybe I should have turned on the hot water spigot to drain the tank some before removing the rod. Anyway this bent plastic tube fell onto the ground, but I don’t know where it came from. Pic attached. Thanks for your help.

[Iowa Dave]

For those taking the anode out.
Make sure the heater is off both propane and electric if you have both
Make sure the pump is off
Open the faucet in the camper sink to relieve pressure
Then remove anode slowly. Don’t stand or sit in front of it.
when the water seems to be all out, put you little finger in the anode opening and check for sediment just behind the threads in the front bottom of the tank.
If you find sediment use the garden hose to flush the tank a few times till the sediment is gone
Leave the anode out for the winter so the tank can dry. You can insert a strip of toweling in the anode and leave some hanging out. The towel will wick moisture out of the tank
That’s how I do it.
Your method may vary, this works year after year for us.
Iowa Dave

[Tree3]

Thanks for the tips. I definitely left out the relieve pressure step. Luckily the heater had been off. Any idea what that plastic piece is? It might not have even come from the hot water heater, idk.

[Iowa Dave]

Sorry I didn’t answer your question. I don’t know what that piece of plastic is. I had to repair a stripped screw on the door hanger recently and so spent some time with the cover down and didn’t notice any plastic like that.
Iowa Dave

[Tree3]

No worries your reply contained a lot of helpful info!

[SageRpod]

+1 to Iowa Dave's hot water draining technique. I use a wand to flush the tank and replace the anode annually. In all of the times I have drained and flushed hit water tanks, I have never seen a plastic tube like that.

[Shiny]

I had an inexpensive flush wand break. I remember it had a similar-looking elbow... Perhaps this happened to someone flushing your tank in the past?

[Iowa Dave]

I used to put the anode in at the beginning of spring and take it out in late fall. It would show considerable deterioration. A when camping trips became fewer and sporadic during the pandemic, I started pulling the anode and using the garden hose to shoot a flushing stream into the tank after each outing. I’ve continued to pull the anode a couple times during the season for the last two years now and see a lot
Less deterioration. Maybe just setting in the water or leaving it in water that was not sources at my home was making a difference. I use a magnesium anode. I put three wraps of white Teflon pipe tape on the anode threads so they don’t rust up and it becomes hard to remove. “Cheap Insurance”.
When camped I run a filter at water source, a pressure regulator set at 40 PSI and an under the sink filter on the water line to the cold water tap. With all that we still drink bottled water on each trip Jake gets bottled water too. At home we drink water out of the tap. We’re on a well and get a county health sanitarian to send in a water sample to the University each spring. We do this to watch for nitrates that can be a problem in agricultural areas of Iowa.
Iowa Dave
Iowa Dave

[SageRpod]

Water in the desert southwest is notoriously alkaline and hard. I suspect that is what eats away at the anode rod. I just replaced the one that came with 5.0 last weekend and about a third of it was bare wire and I flushed lots of eaten anode rod debris out of the tank. The same was our experience with our previous trailer which had the exact same hot water heater as the Escape. Fortunate because I bought a box of anode rods a few years ago.