I had my Aplenlite 5er for almost 10 years and it had a Suburban W/H in it and I changed the rod every year and when I pulled it out about half of it was gone. Not thinking I went to CW and got a new rod for my coach (Atwood) and installed a new rod lot shorter than the one for the Suburban and after reading all this I went out and pulled the rod and about 10% of it was gone, so if they don't need one what happened to the rod:h
This is the one I installed and removed after reading this, only in for about 4mo and it looked about the same as in the Youtube.
http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/anode-rod-with-drain-for-atwood-water-heaters-4-12-/37395
JR